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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2012
FINAL BORDER SHOWDOWN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Jayhawks have the last laugh with the fans
Dressed as Civil War figure John B Tigers fan passes by during Saturn
Jayhawk fans hold up many different tip off.
ORIGINAL JAYHAWKERS
WORDS BY KELSEY CIPOLLA
T the present-day Jayhawk looks friendly and happy, but its ancestors, the Jayhawkers of Kansas in the 1850s and 1860s.
became famous for their less-thanfriendly behavior during one of the greatest periods of unrest in American history: the Civil War.
The conflict between freedom and slavery began in Kansas with the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
"It started a tremendous controversy because the message was that Kansas would be free for settlement and would become a free state or a slave state according to the vote." savs Frank
H. Lane, one of the most prominent leaders in the movement to make Kansas a free state, addressed his soldiers as "Kansas Jayhawkers."
The term "Jayhawk" was most likely introduced to Kansas by an Irishman named Patrick Devlin, who was with another prominent free state leader, Doc. Jennison. Devlin went off on his own one day and returned with a bounty of food. When asked where it all came from, Devlin said he had been "Jayhawking." In Ireland, he claimed, there
" They were the more aggressive radicals.
"My thought is that when there is such a conflict, then there is a kind of a vicious circle of attacks," Baron says. "It is a bit too late to start blaming one side or the other. It is hard to know who's really guilty."
It seems the bad reputation faded
- Frank Baron, German professor  $ \textcircled{1} $
and his soldiers were said to have stolen items before burning the city to the ground. Some viewed Quantrill's raid of Lawrence as retaliation for the actions of the Jayhawkers, but Baron says those claims are difficult to prove.
Baron, a professor of German and the director of the Max Kade Center for German-American studies at the University. Baron researched the origins of the Jayhawk.
The proposal, supported by the South, gave Missouri and slavery a tremendous advantage.
"There was an integration movement from the North, especially Massachusetts, to make sure that didn't happen," Baron says. "Lawrence was the free state bastion that was established by people from Massachusetts with the idea of a free state."
The Jayhawk's first documented history began in 1848, when James
was a bird called a Jayhawk that took delight in its kills and foraged off its enemy.
"They were the more aggressive radicals," Baron says. "Their idea was that when there is a kind of underground movement, those types of things have to find some research. They had the idea of 'We need to live off of these pro-slavery people.'"
At times, the Jayhawkers were considered ruthless, sometimes called thieves and even assassins. In a raid of one Missouri town, Lane
and the end result of the Jayhawkers' actions stood the test of time. Rather than men who stole, the Jayhawkers were remembered as brave men who fought against
The term grew popular until it essentially became the identifier of Kansas' anti-slavery movement.
and helped end slavery.
"Lane, like John Brown, had a vision for freeing the slaves," Baron says. "Whatever you think about how he behaved, at least in retrospect, today it is thought to be a good thing."
The term "Jayhawk" remained well known in Kansas, with KU students calling the yearbook "The Jayhawker" since 1901. Eventually the mythical bird Patrick Devlin invented became the KU mascot, and synonymous with the University.
Charles W. Quantrill
J. F. Griswold
H. W. Baker
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the mean difference
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