+
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2014
PAGE 3
+
PAIGE STINGLEY/KANSAN
Left: The earliest photograph of the Jayhawk mascot in 1917. Right: The Jayhawk featured on this small metal tin is not a copyrighted Jayhawk.
Jayhawk artifacts travel to Los Angeles for nationwide tour
PAIGE STINGLEY
@paigestingley
A collection of roughly 30 historical KU artifacts will travel to Los Angeles today for its next stop on the Evolution of the Jayhawk tour, a nationwide series that started Sept.22.
The University of Kansas Libraries partnered with the Alumni Association to bring the show to alumni gatherings in 12 cities. Rebecca Smith, KU Libraries director of communication and advancement, said the purpose of the tour is to engage alumni and increase awareness of the roles libraries play on campus.
"We want to grow our donor base and show people what the libraries do for the campus and for continuing education," Smith said.
This particular series features historical Jayhawk artifacts, dating back to the 1850s and 1860s. Among the objects on display are videos of when Baby Jay hatched during the 1971 Homecoming football game and the 1950 Glee Club singing KU songs.
University Archivist Becky Shulte said she has been researching the history of the Jayhawk for years. She's found Jayhawk artifacts not only at KU, but in newspaper clippings and yearbooks from Kansas State University, University of Missouri and University of Nebraska.
"The history of the Jayhawk doesn't just start in 1912," Shulte said. "It began way
before that, when Kansas was deciding whether to join the union as a free state or a slavery state, and even before that."
TWO MASCOTS
Some of the most interesting artifacts on display include:
A picture dated 1917 features both the Jayhawk mascot and the bulldog. The bulldog was the original mascot of KU for decades. It wasn't until 1912 that the University copyrighted the first Jayhawk. Even after that, the University took several years to fully transition its mascot from the bulldog to the Jayhawk. This image is the only image found that shows both mascots.
METAL PLATE MYSTERY
BABY JAY SHOES AND HANDS
This small metal tin with the KU logo has been found but provides no answers to KU's history; instead, it raises more questions. The Jayhawk featured on the tin is not one of the copyrighted Jayhawks, and no other record of this Jayhawk exists. It possesses some similar characteristics as earlier Jayhawks, such as the buckles on the shoes, but the tin has no date written on it.
The Big Jay mascot has been around since roughly 1917, but it wasn't until much later that Baby Jay was born. The idea for Baby Jay came about in spring 1971, when a friend of the Big Jay thought it would be fun to be another mascot. She proposed the idea to the administration, which told her to create and present the costume before the University would decide. Over the summer, the student and her parents designed and created the original Baby Jay costume. She brought it back in the fall and the administration fell in love with the idea immediately. The original costume is on display in the Kansas Union, but the shoes and hands travel with the tour.
"I honestly don't know what this artifact means, what it is, or what it's from," Shulte said. "I put this one on display in case there are older alumni who may have seen it before or have more information on the Jayhawk used. I tell them, 'If you meet anyone who knows anything about this one, tell them the archivist really wants to know.'"
VIDEO OF BABY JAY BEING HATCHED DURING THE 1971 HOMECOMING VICTORY AGAINST KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
After the administration had approved the idea of Baby Jay, it had to figure out a way to reveal her to the public. For a week before the 1971 Homecoming game, both the administration and The University Daily Kansan advertised to students not to miss the big surprised planned for the game. During halftime, a large egg was rolled out onto the field on a trailer. From it emerged Baby Jay, appearing as if she had just "hatched" from the egg.
Edited by Yu Kyung Lee
Berlin citizens honor wall's fall
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERLIN — The citizens of Berlin on Sunday released almost 7,000 balloons into the night sky, many carrying messages of hope to mark the 25th anniversary since the fall of the wall that once divided their city.
The symbolic act recalled the giddy night of Nov. 9, 1989, when thousands of people from the communist East streamed through the Berlin Wall to celebrate freedom with their brethren in the West.
"For peace and freedom," Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit told a crowd of ten thousands that had gathered at the city's iconic Brandenburg Gate as he gave the signal to release the balloons, which has been placed, illuminated, along a 15-kilometer (9-mile) stretch of the former border.
Earlier he thanked the former leaders of Poland, Hungary and the Soviet Union — Lech Walesa, Miklos Nemeth and Mikhail Gorbachev — for having helped set the stage for Germany's peaceful revolution.
Gorbachev — who is still a popular figure in Germany — was greeted with affectionate shouts of "Gorbi, Gorbi" by the crowds.
Hours earlier German Chancellor Angela Merkel had honored the memory of the 138 people who died along the Berlin Wall, and the countless others who suffered during its 28-year existence.
The latter included Dorothea Ebert, a violinist who was imprisoned in East Germany after a failed attempt
to escape. On Sunday, Ebert played a piece by Bach that she had practiced over and over during her imprisonment — on an imaginary violin, because the communist authorities refused to let her have a real one.
Merkel also paid tribute to those who helped bring down the wall, calling its collapse an example of the human yearning for freedom.
"It was about reclaiming freedom, about being citizens, not subjects," Merkel said at the main memorial site for the wall on Bernauer Strasse.
The protests that forced East German authorities to relax travel restrictions for their citizens were spurred by changes that had already taken place elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Merkel said thewall's collapse should be regarded as a sign of hope for people suffering in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq.
"The fall of the wall has shown us that dreams can come true," said Merkel, who grew up in East Germany. "Nothing has to stay the way it is, however big the hurdles are."
Merkel noted that Nov. 9 is a significant date in German history also for being the day when, in 1938, Nazi paramilitaries launched a pogrom against the country's Jewish population in what became known as Kristallnacht — the "Night of Broken Glass."
"That was the opening note for the murder of millions," said Merkel, adding that on Nov. 9 each year "I feel not just joy, but the responsibility that German history burdens us with."
+