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KANSAN.COM
RULES OF BASKETBALL
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KU Archives/Spencer Research Library
1970s Javhawk
KU Archives/ Spencer Research Library
1996 Jayhawk
Looking at the Jayhawk's creation in the 1850s and role as a symbol since 1912
▶ CONNER MITCHELL
@ConnerMitchell0
Before the Jayhawk:
While the term
While the term "Jayhawker" has been around since Civil War times, the Jayhawk as it is known today was not associated with the University or its athletic teams until the early 1900s said Mike Reid, director of public affairs and the KU History Proiect.
In that time, Reid said it was common for football teams to have bulldogs as mascots, and said the 1909 football team even had a pig for a mascot.
"The early football teams had mascots on the sideline. For a while, it was not uncommon to see the bulldog used to represent the athletic teams," he said. "There is one old photo in 1917 which shows a Jayhawk mascot uniform and a bulldog going behind it. So that is kind of how the transition was going from the early 1900s to 1920, and we kind of got rid of the bulldog and the bird really took off and got accepted."
1912:
Reid said Henry Maloy, a student at the University who worked as a cartoonist on the University Daily Kansan, is credited with drawing the first Jayhawk in 1912.
The bird is the tallest of all designs of the Jayhawk, with crossed, human-like
yellow legs and blue shoes. Reid said Maloy had very specific intentions for his creation of the original Jayhawk.
"He made a point of putting shoes on the bird, and it wasn't just to make him look more humanlike," he said. "[Maloy] said it was so the bird could walk across the border and kick the Missouri Hounddog. At the time, there was a big song called the 'Missouri Hounddog', and that's why he used the term hounddog."
1920:
The 1920 Jayhawk is the only adaptation of Maloy's original drawing without shoes, Reid said. He said for that reason, the 1920 Jayhawk is likely the least popular mascot the University has had.
In the 1920 version of the Jayhawk, the blue, yellow-beaked bird is shown perched on top of KU lettering. Reid said the demeanor of the bird, along with its lack of shoes, made it very unpopular, and said it can only be found on very select items today.
"It didn't have that characteristic, and didn't have the colorful demeanor either," he said.
A University student, George Hollingbery, was responsible for creating the 1923 adaptation of the Jayhawk, which returned the bird's shoes, and featured a more rounded beak. Reid said this version launched a more extensive use of the Jayhawk trademark.
1923:
"I think that's really when the widespread use of the trademark took off," he said. "Then you started seeing people use that bird for other things like a hotel in Topeka, the Jayhawk Oil Company, and things like that."
1941:
As the United States entered World War II, the Jayhawk took on a more serious demeanor until the conclusion of the war in 1945. According to the KU History website, University student Eugene "Yogi" Williams redrew the Jayhawk with an opened beak, lowered eyebrows and more open eyes to give it a more aggressive look.
Nicknamed the "fighting Jayhawk", Williams' version of the Jayhawk stuck around until a graduating senior, Harod "Hal" Sandy, redrew the Jayhawk with a gentler appearance that is still used today.
Reid said Sandy was preparing to graduate from the University, so he sold the rights to his artwork and various Jayhawk decals he had made to the newly-opened University Bookstore for $250.
1946:
The University now brings in over $2 million in marketing and licensing
revenue every year, Reid said.
After the scowling grimace of Williams' "fighting Jayhawk," Sandy's Jayhawk featured a bird with an open, smiling beak and happier eyebrows. University licensing director Vander Tuig said the appearance of the Jayhawk can vary greatly based on how the eyebrows are pointed.
"If you just tilt the eyebrows a different way, it brings out a whole different personality of the Jayhawk," he said. "That's a lot of what happened in '41 going into World War II, and then coming out of the war in '46, Hal Sandy just turned the beak up to create a little bit of a smile, and changed the tilt on the eyebrows, which makes it much more amicable of a character."
2005:
As part of a University-wide rebranding effort in 2005, Tuig said the block Helvetica letters on Sandy's 1946 Jayhawk were replaced with the Trajan font that is currently used on all University licensing products today.
The bird was also rotated so its beak opened to the right, instead of to the left, but no other significant design changes were made.
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Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said
Future Changes and Licensing Challenges:
while changes to the Jayhawk logo are unlikely in the near future, if someone wanted to redesign the Jayhawk, they would submit their drawings to the Office of Public Affairs, and the process would continue from there if the designs were approved.
Tuig said he thinks the University is unique from other schools, because while mascots change over time, the Jayhawk has undergone six distinguishable redesigns.
"There's really been these six distinct logos that have held: the '12, the '20, the '23, the '41, the '46 and the current version," he said. "It's been kind of interesting, and if I look it now, the 1912 version, everybody loves that. Outside of the current mascot, I would say it goes the 1912 is the next favorite, and then the '41 would be the favorite after that."
Tuig said the biggest issue the University encounters with licensing challenges is the growth of technology and the ability of almost any citizen to take the Jayhawk logo, attach it to merchandise and sell it on the Internet.
"For the most part, those kind of people don't get in and get out and nobody gets hurt," he said. "They try to sustain it, so the fact that it is easier for them to sell it, it is also easier for us to find them."
Edited by Deanna Ambrose
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1912
Illustration by Gracie Williams