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University Daily Kansan, November 18, 1983
Page 5
Baby Jay's birth brings memories to originator
By THERESA QUENSTEDT Staff Reporter
Homecoming marks the time of year when friends and alumni of the University of Kansas gather to celebrate school spirit. It is a time for parades, floats, football and memories of time spent on the hill.
KU mascot Boby Jay, seen here at a recent football game, celebrates a birthday this week. The mascot, 'hotchot' during the 1971 homecoming football game with Kansas State University, was created by Amy Hurst Jones, then a Cleveland sophomore.
But Homecoming also marks another special event — the anniversary of the death of Diana.
Twelve years ago, Baby Jay stepped out of a blue egg onto the field during halftime at KU's homecoming game. The college has since become a KU tradition.
"WHAT THE BIRD BIRD always needed was a baby Jayhawk," said Amy Just est students, a 1974 graduate who created the mascot by day after creating the mascot in 1971.
Jones said that she had got the idea for Baby Jay from Jayhawk decals that had several small Jayhawks following a large one. After her freshman year, parents built the costume for Baby Jay in the garage of their Cleveland home.
Baby Jay was a top secret before matching so that even Jones' roommate would never see her.
Once the costume was finished, Jones packed it up and presented it to Dick Wintermute, special projects director for the Alumni Association, who was the homecoming chairman at the time. Wintermute approved the mascot, and it was decided that Baby Jay would be hatched on Homecoming Dav 1971.
On Oct. 9, 1971, Baby Jay was hatched from a blue egg before a record crowd of 000 fans home for Kansas against Kansas University. KU won the game 39-13.
forget the day she had stepped out of the egg.
"WHEN I STEPED out, you could hear the entire stadium gasping. It was great — quite a thrill," she said.
Jones said that she would never
Jones said that there was no deep meaning behind the mascot.
"We were out there to have a good time, be school-spirited and have a super-high energy level to reflect the team," she said.
The mascot, she said, merely serves a public-relations role, because it tries to attract customers.
Jones was Baby Jay during her sophomore year, but as a junior she transferred to the University of Kansas Center to study physical therapy.
Another student was chosen as a back-up mascot in case Jones could not return from Kansas City, Kan., to the football games, she said. But Jones remained the Baby Jay mascot until her graduation in 1974.
In 1978, a supposed knee turned out to be serious matter when the Baby Jay became insoluble.
The costume was stolen Sept. 9, that year from a local canvas awning and canvas company, where it was being re-covered.
BABY JAY'S DISAPPEARANCE prompted searches by several university organizations, even though athletic officials had hoped that the costume's theft was only a prank and that it would show up at a football game.
"We are certainly not going to let Baby Jay die," Don Baker, sports information director, said at the time. "It is our opinion that Baby Jay has become a big tradition at the University."
Messages from the athletic department asking that the costume be returned were flashed on the Memorial
Stadium scoreboard at about three home football games. The messages said that no legal action would be taken against anyone who returned the costume.
ATHLETIC OFFICIALS considered replacing the costume after waiting almost a month for its return. But about two weeks later, the University Daily photographed the photographs and a note that confirmed the costume was being held captive.
The note was not signed and did not ask for a ransom.
The fiberglass costume, then valued at $600, finally was found Oct. 26 by a Kansan reporter and photographer working from an anonymous tin.
Jones said that she was amazed by the whole thing.
"I reacted like others, that it was a practical joke," she said. I didn't want them to hurt or destroy it.
Decade continued from p. 3
In response to a Newsweek article that reported on this influx of women on campuses all over the nation, Kansan editor Larry Bost wrote, "Now if it's efficient or economically rewarding to wide-skirted little dolles around, we are all for it. Whether the rewards will be academic 'is another question.'"
Nobody joked about the edge women had in their grade point averages, but women still were excluded from KU's marching band in 1958.
OVERCROWDING WAS A problem not unique to KU at that time, and Phillip Ward Burton, professor of journalism at Syracuse University, suggested restricting enrollments of women so there would be more room for the nation's campuses. Emily Taylor, a student at Resource Center and then dean of women, opposed his idea in a Kansan editorial.
In 1958, James E. Seaver, now director of the Western Civilization Department, said that it would be more rewarding for students to study ideas through history, and not just historical fact. Several new author were also added to the Western Civilization readings, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, Isaac Newton, Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin.
ALSO IN 1958, the Lawrence City Commission allowed students to drink beer and dance in the same establishment. A 13-year-old ban had prohibited participating in both "activities," but the commission allowed Louisiana's Mile restaurant, 29rd and Louisiana stalls, to offer beer and dancing.
Famous speakers in 1958 included Walter Van Tilberk Clark, author of the "Ox-Bow Incident." Another distinguished speaker was Thurgood Marriott. The book was also recommended for the Advancement of Colored People and a future Supreme Court justice.
The most distinguished speaker.
though, was the Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, who spoke to a full house at Hoch Auditorium about "Politics — Curse or Careur?" A KU student commenting on the speech said it was a "typical college speech, where politics is defended and nothing special or of current interest, is discussed."
PIZZA, AS USUAL, was a delicacy for students, and a large 'Around the World' pizza could be purchased at the Campus Hideaway Pizzeria for $1.95
But haircut prices were raised, much to students' chagrin. A Kansan editorial said, "If Joe College becomes a basked-hairy individual with long sideburns, instead of the clean shaven man, it could be no great cause for alarm. It's the haircut prices which are to blame, not the Elvis Presley craze."
But some things haven't changed at KU in the past 25 years. In 1958 students were faced with threats of stricter fines. One student who for two weeks left his 1931 Buck stranded on campus ran up an unprepared $200 fine.
ABOUT 100 STUDENTS were caught forging documents to beat the enrollment process. Their punishment: They were suspended and enrolled during the next two semesters.
A proposed tuition increase that year brought many debates, and students also complained that the 10-minute break between classes was too short
Some original pranksters also roamed the campus, the most famous being 'Mr. X' who, in a letter to the Kansan, claimed responsibility for a shuttle bomb at the Kansas Union station, where people were evacuated in the incident.
The rivalry with Kansas State University, then Kansas State College, also was strong. Controversy about the school's proposed name change arose when the state legislature pollster that "it should be changed to Kansas University of Agriculture."
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