Kansas Jayhawks
| Kansas Jayhawks | |
|---|---|
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| University | University of Kansas |
| Conference | Big 12 Conference |
| NCAA | Division I |
| Athletic director | Sheahon Zenger |
| Location | Lawrence, Kansas |
| Varsity teams | 16 |
| Football stadium | Memorial Stadium |
| Basketball arena | Allen Fieldhouse |
| Baseball stadium | Hoglund Ballpark |
| Mascot | Big Jay, Baby Jay |
| Nickname | Jayhawks |
| Fight song | I'm a Jayhawk |
| Cheer | Rock Chalk, Jayhawk |
| Colors | Crimson and Blue |
| Website | www |
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The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as KU, are the teams of the athletic department at the University of Kansas. KU is one of three schools in the state of Kansas that participate in NCAA Division I. The Jayhawks are also a member of the Big 12 Conference. University of Kansas athletic teams have won eleven NCAA Division I championships: three in men's basketball, one in men's cross country, three in men's indoor track and field, three in men's outdoor track and field, and one in women's outdoor track and field.
The name "Jayhawks" comes from the Kansas Jayhawker freedom fighter and anti-slavery movement during the Bleeding Kansas era of the American Civil War.
Men's sports
Women's sports
The origin of the term "Jayhawk" (short for "Jayhawker") is uncertain. The term was adopted as a nickname by a group of emigrants traveling to California in 1849. The origin of the term may go back as far as the Revolutionary War, when it was reportedly used to describe a group associated with American patriot John Jay.
The term became part of the lexicon of the Missouri-Kansas border in about 1858, during the Kansas territorial period. The term was used to describe militant bands nominally associated with the free-state cause. One early Kansas history contained this succinct characterization of the jayhawkers:
Confederated at first for defense against pro-slavery outrages, but ultimately falling more or less completely into the vocation of robbers and assassins, they have received the name – whatever its origin may be – of jayhawkers.
Another historian of the territorial period described the jayhawkers as bands of men that were willing to fight, kill, and rob for a variety of motives that included defense against pro-slavery "Border Ruffians", abolition, driving pro-slavery settlers from their claims of land, revenge, and/or plunder and personal profit.
In September 1861, the town of Osceola, Missouri was burned to the ground by Jayhawkers during the Sacking of Osceola. On the 150th anniversary of that event in 2011, the town asked the University of Kansas to remove the Jayhawk as its mascot.
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Wikipedia