Kansas State band halts song after vulgar chant breaks out

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) - Kansas State marching band members were forced to stop playing the "Wabash Cannonball" before the Wildcats took on Baylor because the pregame tradition had become the background music to an obscene chant.

The Kansas State Collegian reports that some student fans started chanting an expletive Saturday and the initials of another rival, the University of Kansas.

After Band director Frank Tracz cut the song short, the school played a pre-recorded message on the video board of head football coach Bill Snyder. He asked students to not disrespect the Wabash tradition with a "vulgar chant."

Tracz blamed "immature and irresponsible" youths, saying they were ruining "what so many people have spent so many years building." The song became a tradition when a 1968 fire destroyed the rest of the sheet music.