Martin asks KSU students to stop profanity

Say what?

In a letter sent to Kansas State students, basketball head coach Frank Martin urged the student body to stop profane chants during games, saying he would continue to work on his own language usage as well. The irony is obvious, of course. That aside, however, the message validated a concern that had been little more than message board fodder for much of this season. When the “Sandstorm” song blared over Bramlage Coliseum speakers, making it hard to hear much of anything, the story was that many students had veered off path from saying “K-S-U,” instead replacing it with “**** KU.”

The topic had been debated for several weeks, with people swearing they had heard the profane chant, while others were equally adamant they had yet to hear anything of that nature. Martin’s letter acknowledged those with complaints apparently had reason.

The letter was sent out on Thursday, and can be read in its entirety below.

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Dear K-State Students,

I reach out to you asking for your help. Five years ago I was afforded the incredible opportunity of becoming the head basketball coach at our great University. This was a lifelong dream of mine. I have worked as hard as I can to bring back the greatness of K-State Basketball.

None of us are perfect. I continue to work at correcting the mistakes I have made. Moreover, I have done things I wish I could take back. However, in life you can’t go backwards but you can always get better from the lessons. One thing that I have worked hard at improving is the language that I use at games and eliminating these moments. I cannot allow my competitiveness to blind me from the fact that I represent you, the great students of a university of higher education. As a father, and an educator, there is no place for this at any event in which I am representing K-State.

This is why I am reaching out to you. I have become aware that recently we have had some fan chants at Bramlage that use profanity. We ARE better than that. We have more class than that. As I work at completely eliminating profanity from my actions, I ask you to help me by not using chants that contain profanity. There is no place in education, or representing K-State, for any of us to use profanity.

As we head into the stretch run of the season, I ask the greatest fan base in college basketball to please help me. I need your help to bring K-State Basketball back to championships, and I also need your help as we represent K-State with the class this University deserves.

Love you all,

Coach Martin