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Kansas Jayhawks School History

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Kansas Jayhawks




  • 1958
  • 2008
  • 2022
  • Kansas Jayhawks Wilt Chamberlain

    Jayhawks First Superstar – Wilt Chamberlain

    On December 3, 1956, Chamberlain made his varsity debut as a center. In his first game, he scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds, breaking both all-time Kansas records in an 87–69 win against Northwestern, who had Chamberlain’s future NBA teammate Joe Ruklick. Teammate Monte Johnson testified to his athleticism: “Wilt … had unbelievable endurance and speed … and was ...
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  • KU Championship 2008

    Kansas NCAA Basketball Champs 2008

    The 2007–08 Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team represented the University of Kansas for the NCAA Division I men’s intercollegiate basketball season of 2007–08, which was the Jayhawks’ 110th Season. The team was led by Bill Self in his fifth season as head coach. The team played its home games in Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. The Jayhawks finished the season ...
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  • Kansas Jayhawks NCAA Champs 2021

    Jayhawks Incredible Comeback Win for the 2022 Basketball Season

    The 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s college basketball national champion for the 2021–22 season. The 83rd annual edition of the tournament began on March 15, 2022, and concluded with the championship game on April 4 at the Caesars Superdome ...
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History of the Jayhawks

The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, are the athletic teams that represent 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. KU athletic teams have won twelve NCAA Division I championships: four 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.

From 1932 until 1956, the university belonged to the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Texas Tech was admitted to the Southwest Conference on May 12, 1956. When the Southwest Conference disbanded in 1995, Texas Tech, along with the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and Baylor University, joined with all eight former members of the Big Eight Conference to form the Big 12 Conference.

The university's athletic director is College Football Playoff committee representative Kirby Hocutt. Bob Knight, the most victorious coach in men's Division I basketball history, coached the Red Raiders men's basketball team from 2001 to 2008. Following Bob Knight's retirement in 2008, his son Pat Knight assumed head coaching duties. The Red Raiders football team, which has been coached by Mike Leach from 2000 to 2009, is a member of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and has appeared in the 19th-most bowl games of any team. Tommy Tuberville was named head coach in 2010 following the firing of Mike Leach and remained in the position until 2012 before resigning. He was replaced by former Texas Tech quarterback Kliff Kingsbury in 2013. In 1993, led by coach Marsha Sharp, the Lady Raiders basketball team won the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship. Following Sharp's retirement in 2006, Kristy Curry was named Lady Raiders head coach. Red Raiders baseball coach Larry Hays, who is one of only four coaches in NCAA baseball history to win 1,500 career games, retired in 2008.





College Sports Established
1865

Location
Lawrence, Kansas

College Name
University of Kansas

Collegiate History
1973 - Present / NCAA Division 1
1921 - 1973 / University Division of the NCAA
1907 - 1921 / Athletic Association of the United States

Conference History
1996 - Present / Big 12 Conference
1964 – 1996 / Big Eight Conference
1947 – 1964 / Big Seven Conference
1928 – 1947 / Big Six Conference
1907 – 1928 / Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association

Nickname
Jayhawks - The origin of the term "Jayhawk" (short for "Jayhawker") is uncertain. 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.

Over time, proud of their state's contributions to the end of slavery and the preservation of the Union, Kansans embraced the "Jayhawker" term. The term came to be applied to people or items related to Kansas. When the University of Kansas fielded its first football team in 1890, like many universities at that time, it had no official mascot. They used many different independent mascots, including a pig. Eventually, sometime during the 1890s, the team was referred to as the Jayhawkers by the student body. Over time, the name was gradually supplanted by its shorter variant, and KU's sports teams are now almost exclusively known as the Jayhawks. The Jayhawk appears in several Kansas cheers, most notably, the "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" chant in unison before and during games. In the traditions promoted by KU, the Jayhawk is said to be a combination of two birds, "the blue jay, a noisy, quarrelsome thing known to rob other nests, and the sparrow hawk, a stealthy hunter."

The link between the term "Jayhawkers" and any specific kind of mythical bird, if it ever existed, had been lost or at least obscured by the time KU's bird mascot was invented in 1912. The originator of the bird mascot, Henry Maloy, struggled for over two years to create a pictorial symbol for the team, until hitting upon the bird idea. As explained by Mr. Maloy, "the term ‘Jayhawk’ in the school yell was a verb and the term ‘jayhawkers’ was the noun." KU's current Jayhawk tradition largely springs from Frank W. Blackmar, a KU professor. In his 1926 address on the origin of the Jayhawk, Blackmar specifically referenced the blue jay and sparrow hawk. Blackmar's address served to soften the link between KU's athletic team moniker and the Jayhawkers of the Kansas territorial period and helped explain the relatively recently invented Jayhawk pictorial symbol with a myth that appears to have been of even more recent fabrication.

NCAA Championships
Baseball 0

Men's Basketball 6
2022, 2008, 1988, 1952, 1923, 1922

Women's Basketball 0

Football 0

Soccer 0

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