OPINION
7A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY OCTOBER 23.2008
Ranting about the football chant
Newspaper shouldn't back the University's demands
I've never been this ashamed of the publication I've worked for before.
Every day I walk into Stauffer-Flint, the journalism building on campus, and see the First Amendment on the wall. My education in this field has explicitly covered my rights as a journalist. The government has no right to meddle in my affairs as a journalist and cannot influence or censor my work.
With that in mind, understand my feelings about The University Daily Kansan teaming up with Student Senate and University Relations, the University's PR department, on changing the vulgar and tasteless chant that is yelled during the football games.
I couldn't care less about the chant itself. What I care about is what is supposed to be the independent student voice on campus, The Kansan, folding over for the administration.
We receive no direct funding from the state, and in doing so, the administration forfeits all power over the editorial content.
So the voice of the students is signing on with the voice of the University. I want to make it clear that those are not the same thing. This is a public, state-funded university, and the University does not own the paper. Nor do they have the same agenda. One seeks money while the other seeks the truth.
This started out in a normal and what should be permissible fashion. All students received an e-mail from football coach Mark Mangino. While looking like a deer in headlights, he asked students to get loud and abandon the chant.
No complaints about this.
And then came something that in the newspaper world should not be permissible: a blatant PR piece ran as a front-page article in an independent newspaper.
The Kansan ran several articles that plainly stated that
it was tearing up with Student Senate and University Relations to change the chant. New chants have been voted on at kansan.com, where readers were given five new chants to choose from — note how voting to keep the chant was not an option.
The real focus of this change is ticket sales, TV time and money, even though it has been made to look noble for a common student or ticket buyer. It's not about the students, what we want to say or what we think is permissible.
We are being astray. And The Kansan is leading you there.
You know what this means? We are no longer allowed to make our own traditions unless they are approved by University Relations. The trend has just started.
And the worst part about it is the credibility of our newspaper is at stake.
This is no longer about a silly kickoff chant. It's about a free and credible press.
As a newspaper, we are supposed to seek truth. Not once did I see an article that had data to show that this chant was found to be unacceptable by the majority of the student body. Not once did I see an article that even touched on this idea of collecting information.
We did what the University wanted us to do, which was to preach its moral guidelines.
This has no place in a news section. This is what opinion pages, pages like this, are for. If the University felt this way, it could've had a representative write us a letter, and we could've run it on this page.
Then a discussion could've commenced. And we could've seen what the student body really wanted.
There's been debate as to what our university stands for, whether this chant is trashy and what our morals are.
But my question is, who defines what this university is all about?
Evidently University Relations, and you know who isn't going to be doing a damn thing about it — The Kansan.
Stewart is a Wichita senior in journalism.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Why Kansas should keep the current kickoff chant
I, like most students, enjoy our vulgar kickoff chant. I am not going to defend our chant as creative or intelligent, but it is a tradition.
This letter to the editor will probably not make The University Daily Kansan because its content is contrary to the opinions of the editors at The Kansan. Nevertheless, it is my belief that The Kansan and the student government are in cahoots with the Athletics Department to further regulate our traditions as fans.
pect them to remain. As Kansas fans, we are better than that. Look at K-State and its pathetic "new" traditions like the really intimidating power towels. Furthermore, one obscenity does not make us white trash like Missouri — I really fail to see any proof in that argument.
Students go to football games to relax and have fun for a few hours after an intense week of class and work. We do not want to be "creative" or "cute" at football games. We're there to see Kansas dominate. The whole idea of creating new traditions is stupid and unnatural.
Ben Terwilliger is a junior from Olathe.
Our kickoff chant evolved naturally. You cannot simply create new traditions and ex-
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Matt Erickson, editor
864-4810 or merickson@kansan.com
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Dani Hurst, managing editor 864-4810 or dhurst@kansan.com
Mark Dent, managing editor
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"Missourians probably look at that and the publicity that it's gotten." Ashel said, "and they probably look at it as, 'See, Kansans aren't as holier-than-thou and respectful as they think they are.'"
Toni Bergquist, sales manager
864-4477 or tbergquist@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson, general manager and adviser
Kansans, and KU supporters, have always tended to see themselves as moral and just, Ashel said. Missourians, and MU supporters, resent them for what they'd call an elitist attitude.
When I'm in the student section at Memorial Stadium and students let the F-bombs fly in unison, I hear them screaming one of those two mottoes loud and clear. If it weren't for the blue shirts and the Jayhawk at midfield, I might well forget which state this is and which university I attend.
for self-determination, the right to decide for themselves what to do.
Jon Schitt, sales and marketing adviser
864-7666 or schitt@kansan.com
And those Missourians could hardly find better evidence of hypocrisy than a defiantly obscene student section.
Kansans have always said,"Take the high road," and Missouri's rallying cry is more along the lines of "Don't tell me what to do."
Patrick De Oliveira, associate opinion editor 864-4924 or pdeoliveira@kansan.com
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editor Board are Alex Doherty, Jenny Harter, Lauren Kittle, Patrick O'Deevra. Olive Ray Seabeecht and Ian Stanford.
"That'swhatmakesMissourians the maddest." Ashel said.
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
864-4477 or tbergquist@kansan.com
Malcolm Gibson. general manager and news
Erickson is an Olathe senior in journalism and political science. He is Kansan editor.
Since The University Daily Kansan began its campaign against the kickoff chant two weeks ago, I've seen passion bordering on nastiness from both supporters and defenders of the "Waterboy"-inspired yell. Some on the front lines of this fight, such as one Free for All commenter Tuesday, have grown so bitter that they're thrown out the lowest of insults for a KU student or football fan: You're acting like a Missouri fan
"It's funny," the commenter said. And then came that mother of all put-downs: "Go back to Missouri if you don't like it."
Remind me: Which state are we in again?
Ouch. This chant defender rocked my world, and it wasn't just because he or she used the word "funny" in connection with the chant inspired by Rob Schneider, the comic genius behind such riots as "The Animal" and "The Hot Chick."
No, more unsettling than that is the suggestion that those who oppose the chant are acting like our rivals to the east.
When Ashel, a KU alumnus, came to Lawrence to interview history experts and others, he heard stories of Jayhawkers, the anti-slavery militants who clashed with pro-slavery Missourians and burned down the town of Osceola, Mo., in the name of freedom. The Jayhawkers gave KU its mascot, and their anti-slavery furor helped give Kansans a passion for taking the moral high ground.
acting like they're wearing black and gold instead of crimson and blue, it's not the chant's foes.
Ashel went to Osceola, where "Jayhawk" might as well be a swear word. He learned about how Missouri's backlash against the Jayhawkers, including William Quantrills massacre of Lawrence, helped give Missourians a passion
I'm sorry to break it to the commenter, but if anyone here is
For some historical perspective on this issue, I consulted Erik Ashel of the Kansas City cable station Metro Sports. Ashel has produced a documentary called "Border War" about the Kansas-Missouri rivalry, which premieres next month.
Ashel traced the rivalry back to its Civil War roots, when free-state Kansas clashed with slave-state Missouri, Kansas, of course, picked the right side of that fight. Since then, that fight has colored how Kansans, as well as KU students and fans, have seen themselves and Missourians.
Let's leave the chant behind with the losing
One of the strangest moments of the Mark Mangino era came on a Tuesday in September two years ago.
A little perspective first. Mangino is anything but a poet and definitely not a Poet Laureate. He answers most questions with short statements, doesn't "deal with hypotheticals" and times his weekly press conferences so he arrives at noon sharp and escapes exactly 20 minutes later.
But on that Tuesday, he turned into a regular Alfred Lord Tennyson. Mangino talked about KU fans, souls who had toiled and wrought through the worst, and how they filled the stadium, when four years earlier so few of them came that assistant coaches joked that they couldn't tell if a game was going on. He talked about the team bus rides to the stadium and how it now took a long time to make the half-mile drive from the practice facility because the town bloomed with life on game day.
who tailgate for hours beforehand and then show up on time to games. One with players who might not have the same talent as the boys from Texas or Oklahoma but fight harder to gain an edge.
Unfortunately, as the fans piled into the stadium to watch good football, a certain obnoxious kickoff chant caught on and became part of that tradition.
For Mangino, it was beautiful,
like he was announcing the arrival
of Kansas football. He might've
been a year ahead of schedule, but
he was right.
It's a shame. Real football schools don't resort to shouting lines from "The Waterboy" at every kickoff.
If fans want to be taken seriously, they need to stop worshipping Rob Schneider. Good football schools don't need gimmicks.
Kansas is building a legitimate football tradition, one with fans
Of course, Kansas hasn't always been good.
In 2001, the Terry Allen era was at its worst. Kansas gave up 244 points in five losses to K-State, produced one more NFL player than you or I did and let renegade players like Mario Kinsey run wild.
To top it off, Al Bohl, the man who would later sell Jayhawk merchandise at a personal garage sale and claim Roy Williams held him like a dove in his hand before crushing him, was overseeing the mess as the athletic director.
I would've wanted to rip someone's head off, too. So students did. Sort of.
The trashiest chant in the history of this school started with a murmur that year. From the band. At least, that's the legend according to students at the time.
Kellis Robinett, a KU graduate and former Kansan sports editor, was a freshman during the 2001 season. One game, he's not sure which one it was, he heard an almost whisper-like sound coming from the band. He asked other fans about it and found out what they were saying.
Soon, the chant caught on among the hard-core fans in the student section, and a few started shouting it late in games. By then, Kansas was usually down 63-0, and you had few options. You could go home. You could stay bored. Or you could say the chant.
It was about entertainment, forgetting the inferior product on the field and about sticking it to Allen, Kinsey and the dove. Students needed it. Now they don't.
KU football matters. There are no more blowouts. The team has lost at Memorial Stadium just twice since 2005.
If the Jayhawks come close to the Big 12 North title the next couple of years, Kansas can stake a claim to be part of at least the B-list of college football powers. And college football powers don't associate with F-list actors.
Notre Dame fans scream "Go Irish." Alabama has "Roll Tide Roll." Michigan yells "Let's Go Blue." The Rob Schneider special wouldn't fit.
So why should it fit here?
Dent is a Overland Park senior in journalism. He is a Kansan managing editor.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Other places on campus that are vulgar as well
People like Brother Jed and his followers shout profane terms, such as whore, slut or "the damned" at everyone, and yet we tolerate it, and even enjoy it (otherwise no one would listen).
Shock politics of 15-foot displays showing aborted fetuses in front of Strong Hall are clearly controversial, even emotionally trying to some, yet we tolerate it.
I don't know whether to defend or condemn the chant. I know the chant is no more offensive than many of the numerous comments that come from elsewhere on campus.
ESPN highlights of bones broken by helmets, and ankles, elbows and knees contorted in unnatural ways are more uncomfortable than this chant.
I applaud them even though I do not agree with them. I do not approve of the chant's vulgar word choice and violence. But I do applaud the unity with which the student section presents it. This is football. Football is violent. Football is vulgar.
With the constant bombardment of music,pop culture and the Internet,parents have more important issues to be fearful of.
Sports aren't always family-friendly environments. To expect anything different beyond the level of peewee football is foolish
R. W. Smith is a senior from Pleasanton, Calif.
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But some of the players said they liked the chant
Swearing, like drinking, is part of football. For less vulgar chants, watch other sports.
Many students who take the time, money and emotional involvement to attend the games love the chant.
According to an article in The University Daily Kansan from Sept. 9, coach Mark Mangino can't even hear it. The article also identified some players who like the chant.
This is the best chant, and it's certainly better than anything proposed. The chant is the only football-only chant we have.
It's just plain fun to scream at the top of your lungs "Pir his fucking head off!" To do it in public with other people while cheering on your favorite team is a unique experience.
The student section wants this chant after they work so much in and out of the classroom, take time to support the football team and pay a lot for it.
Emily Herold is a Junior from Kansas City, Mo.
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As a KU grad, I am very sensitive to looking, acting, sounding or even smelling like Mizzou. KU is known for its great teams, great athletes and, yes, classy fans.
Football games aren't the place to cuss like a sailor
Certainly, someone can come up with a better chant that our future Jayhawks may hear without earmuffs.
If not, can I suggest an alternative word like "freaking"? A minor change would make a big difference in the eyes of the media, our alumni and all those haters out there who look for a reason to dislike us.
There is a time and a place to cuss like a sailor. A sports game that is being broadcast on national television and where children are in attendance does not seem like one of them. If you continue to disrespect our coach and pleas from the community, you risk going from "Water Boy" to "Dumb and Dumber"
So, please, give us a fucking break and stop the chant.
Carrie Mandigo is a 1989 graduate who is a season ticket holder and lives in Lawrence.