4
Friday, October 24, 1975
University Daily Kansan
Jayhawk lives in reality and myth
Scanning the newspaper on a Sunday morning, sports fans can find numerous clubs and teams, and Trojans. And Noah would have needed a fleet of arks to save all of the Tigers, Wildcats, Lions and Bears. But the only thing he could do one dealing with the University of Kansas.
The Jayhawk is a mythical bird. With a hazy post. One legend says the Jayhawk was once a fox that roamed through the woods.
other birds. But whatever its origin, the now-famous mascot of the University had a long history before anyone even knew what it looked like.
A wagon rain formed in Galesburg, Ill., in 1848 was beading for the gold fields of California with very few supplies. When asked how they expected to make the long journey, a man said, "We are going to Jayhawk our way." The members of the wagon train became
known as the Jayhawkers. This is the first use of the word that has been definitely
KU Alma Mater started as glee and mandolin song
Professor George Barlow Penny's Glee and Mandolin Club planned to make a tour through Kansas to Denver and back in 1891. Barlow asked for someone to compose a school song that the club could sing on the tour. No one responded.
Just before he left for the tour, Barlow thought of the Cornell song "Far Above Cayuga's Waters," which had come from an American band called The Sings. The song was meant to serve only for the purposes of the trip, asBarlow hastily changed the words to fit KU. But the song survived and continues to survive, as the University Kansas alma matter, "Crimson and Blue."
Far above the golden valley Glorious to view, Stands our noble Alma Mater toward the blue. Chorus:
Lift the chorus ever onwar Crimson and the blue, Hail to thee, our Alma Mater, Hail to old KU.
Far above the distant humming of
Of the busy town,
Reared at the dome of heaven,
Looks she proudly down. (Repent Chor
Greet we then our foster mot Noble friend so true. We will ever sing her praises, Hall to old KU.
KU jilted Michigan colors in favor of Harvard, Yale
If the University of Kanaa's founders had been their high school Jawahawk would have been a stellar player.
The regents who helped establish the University in the 1860s had used the University of Michigan charter as a model. They thought it only fitting that they also adopt the Michigan colors of maize and sky blue.
These colors were used by the debate team and may have been used by the Kansas roaring teams in the 1880s. But when KU fielded a football team in 1890, the
student body called for a change. They wanted to use Harvard crimson in honor of Col. John J. McCook, a Harvard alumni who had given money for an athletic field at KU.
As pre-Civil War clashes increased, with Lawrence the target of many raids, the term Jayhawkers was applied more and more often to Kansers. The term Jayhawker was well known by those associated with the University in its early years. When the new famous "Rock Chalk" chant was introduced in 1886 the Jayhawker "rock chalk" was used before the words "rock chalk" replaced "rail ral" in the chant. When the University's first football team took the field in 1890, they were called the Jayhawks.
There were some Yale men on the KU faculty at the time and they naturally demanded that Yale blue be included. There was very little opposition to the change, and when the Jayhawks took the field in 1800 they wore crimson and blue.
In May of 1963 the athletic board solidified the change by making crimson and blue the colors of the team.
For some reason, no one tried to draw the KU mascot until 1921. Henry Maloy, of the class of 1914, was an aspiring young cartoonist who was trying to get his work published in the Kansan. Maloy said that when he came to KU a bulldog was being used as an emblem. A popular song among Missouri hound dogs out of town. So Maloy designed the Jayhawk to boot the dog out of Lawrence.
His Jayhawk, which appeared in the Oct. 28, 1912 edition of the Kansan, was a skimmy, big beaked creature with his legs crossed. He could climb up walls because that was the way the cartoon characters Mutt and Jeff always stood. The most significant characteristic of the original Jayhawk was that he wore shoes needed to kick that hurd dog out of town.
Through the years, the shoes have remained, but the Jayhawk's physical features and temperament have changed considerably. In 1920 a somber-raven-like Jayhawk, perched on a KU monogram, came into use.
That was replaced in 1923 when Jimmy O'Bryon and George Hollingsby designed a Jawhawk that resembled a duck. This popular version of the KU mascot was the first to show the basic traits that now characterize the Jawhawk.
The Alumun Club of Kansas City changed its name to the Jayhawk Club in 1929. The club hired an artist to produce a Jayhawk that displayed the fighting spirit which the group thought characterized Jayhawks. This caricature was followed by a more accurate painting, which he completed in 1941. Dr. Gene "Yog" Williams created this proud, scowling bird.
The most recent change in KU's mascot was made by KU student Harold Sandy in 1946. Sandy kept the basic form that Williams had created but he made the Jayhawk a friendly, smiling creature that has become most popular among KU students. He also helped the Kansas Bookstore copyrighted Sandy's Jayhawk, and this is the version that has been reprinted on KU paraphernula since that time.
KW's instability replaced
It's difficult to notice change unless one steps back or out of life for a time.
So it is with life at the University of Kansas. College life, for students at least, is a time of isolation and shelter from the outside world. It's a time of reflection and learning, in and out of the classroom.
That's the ideal. Of course, the life of college students is rarely that simple. Many students have other responsibilities. Some
Ward Harkavy Contributing Writer
Still, for many students, college life is a melange of places, people and events. There is much to react to in a university community, especially if that community is as big and diverse as KU.
work; some have families; some have both. Other students are
thanks to easy access courses and other Outreach
courses.
Once, back then, students tried to take over an anthropology class. Many professors were caught up in a "re-examination" of their values; these professors catered to the mostly childish and hands of their students. Some professors, however, stood firm.
It seems incredible now that once there were thousands of students participating in marches and protests. And it's even more staggering to think there was once a curfew in Lawrence, where Guardsmen patrolling the streets. And that people were killed.
What were some of the places, people and events that KU were involved in the late 1960's? Some are unfamiliar to much of today's students.
*saml Salisch, Earl's Pizzierer, Presidio 27. Carol's Patio. The Union fire, Nick Rice. These are some of the words that elicited a response from us.*
The spring of 1970 culminated in the suspension of classes and, more importantly for the students, grades. Most people were interested in their own welfare, whether they were radical mobilizers or grade-conscious students.
The war was responsible for much of that period's instability. Draft dodging was practically an art form, especially for attentive college students. The evil of an idiotic war certainly affected many students, and it caused the loss of the war removed from many students their raison d'etre.
The physical appearance of the campus and surrounding area has changed drastically since the 1604. Gone are the Gaillight and the Rock Chalk. Gone are the Abington and Tansy bookshops. Gone is the Call Cafe. Gone is the old Alphia Chi School. Gone is the Old City Museum. Gone are the rickety houses on that block, especially the infamous "White House," which was set ablaze numerous times.
SDS and SPU are gone. Perhaps replacing them are TM, JEms, the Unification Church and other activities. Politics for politics.
Many former radical leaders at KU are now working in Kansas City, teaching and studying. Some have remained in Lawrence, doing things unrelated to the playing of political games. The games became deadly.
Spiritually, the KU student of 1978 is not grasping at manic political ideas and programs; it is not pursuing on pursuing his own ambitions.
The Union fire mystery still is not solved. But the scars of that fire have faded; most of today's students don't even know what they are.
Academic freedom is no longer threatened by radical students; it's threatened by bureaucracies running amuck. The Buckley Amendment and Affirmative Action excesses may be more harmful in the long run than were angry students.
nor substantive change . . . there hasn't been much. The campus is more crowded; the students seem more passive; good teachers are still good; poor teachers are still bad. KU is still an oasis of culture in otherwise arid Kansas.
The official seal of the University of Kansas features a picture of Moses kneeling before a burning bush. The story is taken from the biblical account in the third book, *Exodus*, when tending his sheep, Moses saw a bush that was burning, but not being consumed.
He said, "I shall turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burned."
Story of burning bush on seal
God then told him to go to Egypt and deliver his people from bondage.
The University Seal includes the Latin inscription of Moses' words "Videobion visemon hagm magam quare non combatur rubus." The symbolism reflected in them that students come to the University of Kansas and "receive great messages."