The Nickname During the Civil War a regiment raised by Kansas Governor Charles Robinson called itself the “Independent Mounted Jayhawks” (later officially the First Kansas Cavalry and then the Seventh Kansas Regiment). By the end of the Civil War the word Jayhawk was associated with the spirit of camaraderie and the courageous fighting qualities that characterized efforts to keep Kansas a free state. By 1886, the University of Kansas had adopted the mythical bird as part of the KU yell. When the university’s football team first took the field in 1890, it seemed only natural that they should be called Jayhawkers. Few colleges and universities have such a meaningful symbol, one so deeply associated with the struggles of the people who founded them.
The Fight Song George “Dumpy” Bowles, a student with the class of 1912, longed to make a great contribution to KU spirit, but wasn’t athletic enough to do historic deeds on the a thletic field. He turned to music and produced some outstanding student musical shows. A song in one of these shows was “I’m a Jayhawk.” Written in 1912, it was dormant until 1920 when a growth in school spirit brought out “I’m a Jayhawk” once more. The song contributed to the raising of funds to build both the stadium and union as World War I memorials. The 1926 glee club made it known nationally.
The School Colors The University of Kansas colors, crimson and blue, used since the early 1890s, are not the colors originally adopted by the university Board of Regents in the 1860s. The Regents had decided to adopt the Michigan colors, maize and sky blue. Maize and blue were used at early oratorical meets, and they may have been used when Kansas competed in rowing in the middle 1880s. However, when football came upon the scene in 1890, the student backers wanted to use Harvard crimson as the athletic color in honor of Col. John J. McCook, a Harvard man, who had given money for an athletic field at KU. That field ran east and west in the proximity of where the north bowl of Memorial Stadium stands on the KU campus today. Until that time, Kansas football games were played at Central Park on Massachusetts Street in downtown Lawrence. Some Yale men were on the faculty, and they demanded Yale blue be included. The rooters rallied forth to allow crimson and blue on their team. No one fought to retain the original colors, and the vivid deeper tone crimson and blue became generally used. Finally, in May 1896, the KU Athletic Board adopted crimson and blue as the official team colors for the university.
The Alma Mater In 1891, professor George Barlow Penny searched for a school song for the Glee and Mandolin Club to sing on its tour through Kansas to Denver and back. No one responded with an original song in answer to his appeals. Just before departure, he thought of the Cornell song “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters.” Hastily changing a few words, he gave it to the glee club men to sing on the trip. He did not expect the song to be used after their return, but “Crimson and the Blue” still goes on. The music is not Cornell’s but an old English folk tune, “Annie Lisle.”
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