Uh, for the record, the 5 claps thing wasn't "stolen" by Cyclone Alley from anyone. The only other school I've ever seen do that is Iowa, and they started doing that LONG after the ISU students did. It's only been around for 4 or 5 years there.
burn587 said:
The "you suck" chant has been around for years and honestly I think the band started it in the first place.
Though I don't have any empirical evidence, I can basically guarantee that this is wrong. I don't know of a single collegiate band program who encourages- or ever has- its students to shout even mildly offensive things. Marching and pep bands usually get in big trouble pretty quickly if they are shouting anything even as mild as "you suck", because they are funded by the university and are therefore official representatives of the school and its administration.
Finally, I know for a fact that this letter was not inspired primarily by the "you suck" tag. It is directed at a group of only 12 or so Cyclone Alley members who... do their research, shall we say. They are known to find out incriminating/embarrassing incidents from a player's or coach's past, and heckle or create signs referencing that. I know a good number of them (two are music majors with me) and they are never vulgar or offensive (in the traditional sense), but I think they do cross the line into needless insults sometimes. Since there was obviously no way to address them privately, the problem was "solved" by sending out an email to all of CA, and bringing up another peripheral "problem" that would justify a mass mailing to the whole group.