Kansas State University Marching Band
Encyclopedia
Kansas State University
Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...
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History
In 1887 Professor Alexander Brown organized fifteen student-musicians into the first band at the Kansas State Agricultural College. The first involvement with athletics came when the band accompanied the baseball team to a game in 1899. Since then, the Kansas State Marching Band, also known as the "Pride of Wildcat Land", has grown to more than 350 members. The University band represents the school, the city and community of Manhattan, and the state of Kansas each year at home and across the country at home games, NFL exhibition, bowl games, parades and festivals, and alumni, charity, and community events.The "Pride" has been invited to many out-of-town venues, appearing before huge audiences, both live and on television. Occasionally the band travels to perform at a Kansas City Chiefs' home game. They have also performed on three occasions at Texas Stadium for Dallas Cowboys home games and twice at Denver Broncos home games. The K-State band performed at the 1974 NFL ProBowl and in the 1977 Texas State Fair. In May 1980, the K-State band performed at Wembley Stadium and Hyde Park in London, England. In more recent years, the "Pride of Wildcat Land" has accompanied the K-State football team to thirteen bowl appearances in the last fourteen years, including:
- Independence BowlIndependence BowlThe Independence Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I college football bowl game that is played annually at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, so named because it was inaugurated in the United States bicentennial year, 1976....
- Copper Bowl
- Holiday BowlHoliday BowlThe Holiday Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I-A college football bowl game that has been played annually at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California, since 1978. Beginning with the 2010 playing the bowl will officially be known as the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl after...
(thrice) - Cotton Bowl Classic (twice)
- Fiesta BowlFiesta BowlThe Fiesta Bowl, now sponsored by Frito-Lay and named with their Tostitos brand, is a United States college football bowl game played annually at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Between its origination in 1971 and 2006, the game was hosted in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil...
(twice) - Alamo BowlAlamo BowlThe Alamo Bowl is a major American college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the 65,000-seat Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. It matches the second choice team from the Pacific-12 Conference and the third choice team from the Big 12 Conference.Traditionally, the Alamo Bowl has been...
- Insight.com Bowl
- Texas BowlTexas BowlThe Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, formerly known as the Texas Bowl, is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game that was held for the first time in 2006 in Houston, Texas. The bowl replaced the now-defunct Houston Bowl, which was played annually from 2000 to 2005...
- Pinstripe Bowl
A memorable performance venue every year for many decades is known as K-State Band Day. Now attracting approximately 2000 high school and middle school students converging each year on Manhattan, the day-long event includes a morning parade through the center of town, and a massed band performance at half time of that afternoon's home football game at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. On September 15, 1984 the K-State Band Day was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records. In conjunction with that year's Band Day, sixty-seven school bands joined the K-State Band on the field, creating a 3,144 piece marching band, which put them in the book as the world's largest marching band.
Membership
Membership in the "Pride of Wildcat Land" is open to all Kansas State students, regardless of major. Some members receive scholarship aid for their participation in the band. Band members come from schools throughout the state and across the nation, and their educational goals are as diverse as their backgrounds. Students representing every college on campus, and nearly every curriculum, work many hours a week in rehearsal during the marching season.The marching band does not only consist of the musicians holding the instruments. Also part of the band are the Wildcat Twirlers, flag line, and Classy Cats dance team. These positions are audition only on a yearly basis. The members of these three groups practice with the marching band and are just as much part of the band as the musicians.
The Songs of Kansas State University
Wildcat VictoryWildcat Victory
Wildcat Victory is a fight song written in 1927 by Harry E. Erickson for Kansas State Agricultural College . Aside from this song, the school also commonly uses the song Wabash Cannonball as an alternate fight song....
is the official fight song of Kansas State University. It was originally written, verse and chorus, by music department student Harry Erickson in 1927, but over time became known to K-State fans with the chorus section on its own. The band presents Wildcat Victory in various forms throughout athletic events, from a short excerpt of the introduction to a full version, complete with singing.
For Alma Mater fight-fight-fight!
Glory in the combat
For the purple and the white.
Faithful to our colors
We will ever be,
Fighting ever fighting for a
Wildcat victory!
Go State!
The KSU Alma Mater was officially selected as the result of a campus-wide competition in 1888. The original work, composed by H.W. Jones ('88), was four stanzas long, including the chorus. Following a school name change, the song was altered by removing the letters KSAC (Kansas State Agricultural College), replacing them with KSU. The length of the piece was also shortened to two stanzas.
I know a spot that I love full well,
Tis not in forest nor yet in dell;
Ever it holds me with magic spell,
I think of thee, Alma Mater.
KSU, we'll carry thy banner high.
KSU, long, long may thy colors fly.
Loyal to thee, thy children will swell the cry.
Hail, hail, hail, Alma Mater.
Wildcat March: In October, 1928, John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
was to make an appearance at K-State. A petition, signed by most of the student body, was presented to Sousa on October 10, requesting that he compose a Kansas State Agricultural College march. The piano arrangement of Kansas Wildcat March arrived at the Music Department in the spring of 1931 and is now an integral part of the pre-game show at every football game and is normally one of the selections you will hear the "Pride" playing in each of the parades they march in each year.
The Wabash Cannonball
Wabash Cannonball
"The Wabash Cannonball" is an American folk song about a fictional train, thought to have originated in the late nineteenth century. Its first documented appearance was on sheet music published in 1882, titled "" and credited to J. A. Roff...
(arranged by Joel Leach) may be known as a second fight song to the K-State contingent. Composed in 1933 as a folk ballad saluting the nation's rail-riding hobos, Wabash Cannonball was first performed for an athletic event at K-State on December 16, 1968. Wabash was the only selection in the band's repertoire that evening for a home basketball game at Ahearn Fieldhouse. Just three nights prior, arsonists had set fire to Nichols Hall
Nichols Hall
Nichols Hall is a building on the campus of Kansas State University. This building was originally built in 1911 and appears as a castle from the exterior. It burned down in 1968 and was rebuilt again in 1985...
, at that time the home of the Music Department, destroying all of the departments assets, including the sheet music. The band director at that time, Phil Hewett, just happened to have taken this one piece home from the library that very night to do some work on the arrangement, thus making it the only selection to survive the fire. Since then, the Wabash Cannonball has come to represent the survival of the underdog in the hearts and minds of all true K-State fans, and has earned a secure place in the KSUMB's history and traditions.