Dallas ? Jayhawk fans awakening this morning in Dallas can sample a brand-new taste of KU tradition.

Special-issue Wheaties cereal boxes, emblazoned with a giant Jayhawk and lyrics to the fan-favorite Wheaties jingle, will be sold outside the KU Pavilion in Dallas’ West End, in time to satisfy fans hungry for good karma before tonight’s game against arch-rival Missouri in the Big 12 Tournament.

A few boxes — stuffed with commemorative “Wave the Wheat” T-shirts instead of high-energy cereal flakes — already have hit the streets but weren’t expected to last long.

“They’re going like gangbusters,” said Kirk Cerny, a vice president for the KU Alumni Association, which produced 2,500 boxes under an agreement with General Mills Co. “People are eating them up. It’s becoming a pop-culture collectors item.”

The boxes honor a tradition that had been killed by the KU athletic department just before the season started, only to be restored in time for the postseason: The KU Pep Band’s familiar rendition of the “Wheaties jingle,” played after an opposing player fouls out.

The song — accompanied by fans’ spirited waving of the wheat — had been an Allen Fieldhouse fixture since 1971, when the band adapted the jingle from a Wheaties commercial. In the cereal spot, NBA hall-of-famer Willis Reed had lamented that he’d missed a dunk because he hadn’t eaten his Wheaties.

KU fans soon learned the words and gleefully serenaded their disqualified foes: “So long, you didn’t have your Wheaties/So long, we hate to see you go/So long, you didn’t have your Wheaties/So sad, you didn’t win the game.”

But as this season dawned, KU officials learned of an NCAA rule that prohibits bands from playing during any dead-ball situations other than timeouts or halftime.

Tom Stidham’s band was told to stay silent. Fans appeared stumped during early-season games against Michigan State, Fort Hays State and Villanova, worried that another tradition — what, no more Rock Chalk Chant? — might be next.

Kansas University sophomore Kellie Robertson, from Hugoton, shows off a commemorative Wheaties box decorated with a Jayhawk. The KU Alumni Association and General Foods have teamed in a promotion to sell 2,500 of the boxes, which contain a 0Wave

Finally, KU officials gave in.

“We looked at it again and again and again, and decided it didn’t violate the spirit of the NCAA rule book,” said Jim Marchiony, an associate athletic director.

The song returned in February for Baylor’s visit to the fieldhouse, and fans have been smiling ever since.

“Anything that adds to the game and reflects on the tradition of KU basketball is very exciting,” Marchiony said. “We’re all looking forward to the KU fans’ reactions to the boxes and T-shirts.”

The Alumni Association is producing the boxes under a one-time agreement with General Mills. Wichita-based Love Box Co. already has run 2,500 copies of the 18-ounce box, Cerny said, with the capability to make more if necessary.

Each $20 package contains a T-shirt and a blinking Jayhawk. Proceeds will be used to finance KU alumni celebrations like those being conducted in Dallas this weekend, and in the week or weeks ahead during the NCAA Tournament.

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“It’s the icon for this run in the tournament,” said Cerny, adding to a list that includes spitting in the river and Stank ‘Em the monkey. “We’re just doing it for this tournament season.”

Commemorative Wheaties packages are available for sale:

• from Alumni Association officials in Dallas, beginning at 8 a.m. outside the KU Pavilion at the corner of Market and Corbin streets in the West End.
• at the Adams Alumni Center, 1266 Oread Ave. in Lawrence.
• through the Internet at www.kualumni.org.