Jayhawk

I am a mythical bird, a cross between two hunting birds--the noisy quarrelsome blue jay and the cunning sparrow hawk. I came to prominence just before the Civil War, in Bleeding Kansas, where it was adopted by militant abolitionist groups known as jayhawkers. With the admission of Kansas as a free state in 1861, Jayhawker became synonymous with the people of Kansas. I appear in several Kansas cheers, most notably, the "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" chant. A couple of other mascots preceded me, a bulldog and a live pig.The first time the term Jayhawk was used came in 1849, when someone on their way to the California gold fields said he was just going to jayhawk his way across the country. Jayhawking means take what you want. In Kansas' territorial days, the word "jayhawk" was used to describe the Freestaters' robbing, looting and lawlessness across the Missouri borders. The name "jayhawks" was adopted by a band of pro-Unionist, who called themselves "Jennison's Jayhawks." They were the people who got Quantrill so mad that he came in and burned Lawrence. During the Civil War, a regiment raised by Gov. Charles Robinson called themselves the "Independent Mounted Kansas Jayhawks." By the time the war was over, the term had changed meaning slightly to be associated more with the friendship and camaraderie of freestaters. By the time KU was founded, there had been a long tradition of calling Kansans "Jayhawks." So it seemed appropriate for the school to take me as its mascot. By 1886, KU had adopted the jayhawk as part of the KU rallying yell - "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, KU!" And when the first football team took to the field in 1890, they were known as the Jayhawkers. But I wasn't actually drawn until 1912. Henry Maloy is given credit for drawing the first modern version of me. Maloy entered KU and began drawing his conception of me for the student newspaper and for other publications about 1910. He gets credit for putting shoes on me, so I could kick around the Missouri Hound Dog.By 1920, I looked a little more like a bird. I lost the long legs and boots and sat perched on the letters KU. In the next version, in 1923, I got my red head. And the KU monogram was added to my blue body. Credit for me went to Jimmy O'Bryon and George Hollingberry. The end of the Roaring '20s brought Forrest O. Calvin to KU as a student. Calvin, at the request of Fred Ellsworth of the KU Alumni Association, drew a new 1929 version that put a little school fighting spirit into me. The next version of me came about in 1941. I was created by Dr. Gene "Yogi" Williams. He gave me an eagle-like scowl that has led many people to call my look the Fighting Jayhawk. But that wasn't the final word on me. Harold D. "Hal" Sandy came along in the late '40s and gave me a million dollar smile. At the end of World War II, Sandy entered KU to study journalism. A friend of his, Fred Browne, convinced Sandy to draw a friendlier version of me. In 1946, Sandy drew what became known as the Smiling or the "Sandy" Jayhawk. When Sandy drew the famous me, he wanted to place the official “KU” lettering on my chest. But there was no official KU lettering then.That finally changed in 2005, when the University unveiled a new “KU” logo to serve as KU's institutional symbol alongside me, the mascot and the formal University seal. It replaces sans serif “KU” letters. Sandy took a job with an Independence, Mo., advertisting agency and gave up the rights to me to the KU Bookstore. In 1978, KU acquired my design from the bookstore and obtained a federal trademark on my image. After my drawings became popular, I began roaming the sidelines. In 1971, during homecoming halftime, a huge egg was hauled out to the 50-yard line, and my fans witnessed the hatch of my companion -- "Baby Jay. There is also a doctor in my family, a mascot from the Kansas University School of Medicine. Baby Doc has a white coat and a stethoscope. Rock Chalk Bull Dog? Steve Jansen, historian for the Watkins Community Museum in Lawrence, said that before KU adopted the costumed 3-D Jayhawk, it had another on-field mascot. "One of the pictures shows that the bulldog was KU's original mascot he said, referring to a drawing of a black and white bulldog holding a red college pennant with a blue "K." "We don't know that much about it. But at one time, they were known as the Kansas University Bulldogs," he said. Rock Chalk Pork Chop Then there was the pig mascot of 1909. You'll find a mention of the pig in Larry L. Campbell's 1966 master's thesis titled, "A History of Football at the University of Kansas 1889-1920." Campbell's research quoted a story that appeared on the front page of the Sept. 28, 1909, edition of The Kansan. "According to The Kansan, Assistant Coach Arthur St. Leger Mosse who owned a farm near Leavenworth, presented a thoroughbred Ohio Chesterfield Swine to the 1909 team for its mascot," Campbell wrote. "The team named its mascot, Don Carlos. Each of the men who reported for the team were assessed 10 cents for the purchase of 'shorts, oatmeal and other delicacies' for the mascot. It was arranged for Don Carlos to appear for all the games on McCook Field during the 1909 season." There was no mention of why the pig was named Don Carlos.

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