![]() One traditions tale that remained elusive was the history of the hand clap that punctuates the fight song, composed by KU graduate George “Dumpy” Bowles. Some of them we were able to come up with, and others we weren’t.” “People wanted to know the origin stories of these traditions. “We were constantly getting questions about KU traditions,” he says. Before joining Endowment’s staff, he led a troupe of students entrusted with answering all questions about KU, especially queries about quirky customs. Marsh’s curiosity about the hand-clapping habit stems from his nearly 15 years as director of KU Info, the “front desk of the University,” as he affectionately calls it. As he told his tale, Marsh realized that Guenther was untangling the origins of one of KU’s most mystifying traditions: the famously complicated hand clap that accompanies “I’m a Jayhawk.” Even better, Guenther was equally amazed to learn that his version of the song-which he presumed was long forgotten-endures to this day, accompanied by the maddening, manic hand-clapping tradition that even the most astute Jayhawks struggle to master. Guenther, d’66, f ’68, who has rarely returned to Lawrence, was simply eager to hear news from the Hill, delivered by Marsh, j’92, KU Endowment’s associate development director for the School of Music.īut as the two former Marching Jayhawks compared notes and memories, Guenther, who played trombone in the band, recalled the time in 1966 when a professor asked him to create a special arrangement of KU’s beloved fight song, “I’m a Jayhawk,” for the University’s 100th birthday. When Roy Guenther and Curtis Marsh, Jayhawk musicians of different generations, sat down to coffee near Guenther’s home in Vienna, Virginia, less than a year ago, the two never expected their conversation would yield surprising revelations.
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