A.
8|MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008
AROUND CAMPUS
TRADITION (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6)
when the classes graduating were much smaller. He said the' students used to walk through campus.
The walk through the Campanile started a little later. The Campanile was dedicated as a war memorial in 1951. Marsh said it was very likely that soon after the campanile was built, the tradition of walking through started. It's been a unique tradition for KU students since. KU Info does say that for College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and graduate students, it takes about 300 steps to make it from the entrance of Campanile to the bottom of the
hill where the two trails combine to enter the stadium.
Graduates from the professional schools have 28 stairs at the beginning of their walk making about 330 steps total for them. Rumor has it that if you walk through the Campanile before your commencement, you won't make it to graduation. So undergraduates, steer clear.
Jackson Sanner of the KU alumni association said that walking through the campanile at Commencement was KU's most cherished tradition, because KU grads for generations
Alma Mater, 'Crimson and the Blue'
Far above the golden valley Glorious to view, Stands our noble Alma Mater, Towering toward the blue. CHORUS: Lift the chorus ever onward, Crimson and the blue Hail to thee, our Alma Mater Hail to old KU.
Far above the distant humming Of the busy town, Reared against the dome of heaven. Looks she proudly down.
Greet we then our foster mother, Noble friend so true, We will ever sing her praises, Hail to old KU.
(REPEAT CHORUS)
(REPEAT CHORUS)
have looked forward to this rite of passage and no other school boasts such an unusual ceremony. Walking down the Hill connects us all.
"At KU, people don't ask whether you've graduated, but whether
(Follow with Rock Chalk Chant)
you've walked down the Hill," said Stefani Gerson, coordinator of student programs for KU Alumni Association and a two-time KU graduate. "The phrase is part of our Jayhawk language."
ALMA MATER AND ROCK CHALK CHANT
KU Info said Professor George Barlow Penny wanted the Glee and Mandolin Club to sing a school song in 1891. He didn't find a song that pleased him until right before leaving on tour, when he thought of Cornell's "Far Above Cayuga's Waters." Barlow Penny changed some of the words to fit the University, taught it to the glee club and the campus has been singing our alma mater, "Crimson and the Blue," ever since.
Following singing of the alma mater at games is the Rock Chalk Chant, the chant that President Teddy Roosevelt called the greatest college chant he had ever heard.
Although it's now gained in popularity, the chant started in 1886 when the KU science club officially adopted it. As the story goes, chemistry professor E.H.S. Bailey and some of his colleagues were on a train back to Lawrence returning from a conference. They were
discussing the need for a "good, rousing yell," and the train wheels suggested a nice rhythm.
The first version of the chant was yelling "Rah, Rah, Jayhawk KU," three times. An English professor later suggested "Rock Chalk" in honor of the limestone found on Mount Oread. The rest is history.
"We're lucky to have game day traditions that provide an adrenaline rush many times throughout the year," Sanner said. "The Rock Chalk Chant can give you goose bumps no matter what the season."
WAVING THE WHEAT
Marsh said KU Info had done a lot of digging and couldn't find the date that this tradition began, but there was evidence that it had been happening since the late 1920s.
Regardless of the original date, students "wave the wheat," or wave their arms over their heads, when scores are made during football games, when an opponent's player fouls out during a basketball game, and at the end of victories in both football or basketball. The sea of students and alumni waving with their arms in the air look like a field of wheat waving in the wind.
— Edited by Sachiko Miyakawa
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
A KU band leader pumps up the KU band and students during a football game. The band plays the KU fight song to invigorate the crowd and keep up Javhawk spirit.
THE UNIVERSITY MARY KANSAN | WWW.KANSAN.COM