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10 University of Kansas

THE GREATEST COLLEGE YELL IN AMERICA

What justly may be termed the most famous college yell
in America is the Rock Chalk, Jayhawk yell of the University
of Kansas. The agitating call of the Rock Chalk has encircled
the globe, and has been answered in all parts of the world,
wherever Kansans meet.

In the spring of 1898, Company H of the Twentieth Kansas
Infantry, composed largely of former students and graduates
of the University of Kansas, introduced the Rock Chalk yell
to the United States Volunteers who were stationed at San
Francisco. At this particular time the
yell was used at football games between
the team of the Twenties Kansas and the
teams of the University of California and
Leland Stanford.

Later in the Philippines the stirring
tones of “Rock-Chalf-Jayhawk-K. U.”
became the battle cry of the soldiers in
the trenches.

During the World War the Jayhawk cheer was heard on
the battle fields of France as well as at various athletic con-
tests and gatherings of American soldiers in Europe. Al-
thought six thousand miles from home, the men of the 137th
Infantry of the Thirty-fifth Division observed Kansas Day
on Jan. 29, 1919. As reported by the “Jayhawk News,” un-
official organ of the 137th Infantry, a large meeting was held
at Sampigny, France, at which W. Y. Morgan, former lieu-
tenant-governor of Kansas, presided. The Rock Chalk yell
opened and closed the meeting.

    

B.. Fighting
Jayhaw

During athletic meets both at Commercy Field, Com-
mercy, France, and the Inter-Allied Games at Paris, par-
ticipants representing the United States and Kansas were
cheered to victory by the immortal “Rock-Chalk-Jayhawk-
K. U.” During the Olympics at Antwerp, the nobility as-
sembled there requested that a typical American college yell
be given. This group of athletes gathered from every quarter

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Basketball Records 11

of the United States decided that the honor should go to the
University of Kansas with its Rock Chalk, Jayhawk yell.

Strangely enough, the inspiring cry, which now kindles
fire in the hearts of Kansas athletes, originally was in no
way associated with athletics. In fact, athletic teams were
not organized at Kansas until 1890, four years after the ad-
vent of the Rock Chalk yell. On May 21, 1886, E. H. S. Bailey,
professor of chemistry, submitted the yell to the Science Club,
which immediately adopted it.

As yelled by the Science Club, before being taken over
for general university use in 1887, the “Rock Chalk,” was
“Rah, Rah! Jayhawk, K.U.!” given three times with a quick
staccato accent. But soon it was suggested that “Rock Chalk
might well be substituted for “Rah, Rah.” Rock Chalk, it
was observed, rhymed with Jayhawk and was also symbolic
of the chalk strata of the Cretaceous geological period which
covers much of Kansas and of which thére are several out-
croppings on Mount Oread, the campus of the University of
Kansas.

By 1899 constant usage of the yell had developed a new
technique. In lieu of the staccato accent, the first three lines
(which then had been changed to two) were given more
slowly and drawn out into the present day “Rock-Chalk-
Jayhawk-K.U.”

But even then the “K.U.” at the end was given quickly.
It was not until about 1905 that the students and fans began
elongating the “K” and the “U,” adding the intonation of
three steps down the scale on the “U.” To the two elongated
lines were added three short staccato lines, thus putting the
final touches to what today is the most famous yell in Amer-
ica.

Thus we have:

ROCK CHALE, JAYHAWK, K.U.

ROCK CHALE, JAV AA W.EK, &K.U.
ROCK CHALK! JAYHAWK! K.U:!
ROCK CHALK! JAYHAWK! K.U:!
ROCK CHALK! JAYHAWE! K.U.!