MANHATTAN — Pulling into the Bill Snyder Family Stadium parking lot on a cold morning in a recent year, Dr. Frank Tracz was getting ready to direct another performance that makes attending a Kansas State football game so special.

The K-State band director, who didn't anticipate living in Manhattan for more than a couple of years when he moved to the college town off of Exit 313 in 1993, had all of the electronic equipment in his car. He watched the snow fall as the thermostat in his car read it was 19 degrees.

Just a few hours earlier, he had gotten home after The Pride of Wildcat Land made its traditional tour around Manhattan, playing at the different restaurants and in the produce aisles at the two Dillons supermarkets, preparing the purple-bleeding community for the next day's game

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