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November 10, 2005

PreGame Summary - Kansas

Presenting this week's PreGame Summary for the Novices. Texas plays Kansas at home in Austin, TX.

Mascot: Jayhawks - "During the Civil War, the word Jayhawk became associated with the spirit of comradeship and the courageous fighting qualities associated with the efforts to keep Kansas a free state. Following the war, most Kansans were proud to be called Jayhawkers." Full history here.

Colors: Blue and Red: "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 Kansas 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 that Yale blue be included. The rooters rallied forth to follow 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. "

Location: Lawrence, Kansas.

Main Rival: Missouri. They are even keeping track.

Unique Tradions/Misc: Rock Chalk Chant - "The Rock Chalk Chant has been the battle cry of KU fans for over 100 years. This strange, traditional chant, which is among the most famous of all college cheers, was started by E.H.S. Bailey, a professor of chemistry.

Bailey wanted a cheer for his Science Club. Returning from a convention in Wichita, Bailey and some associates patterned the yell after the rhythmic cadence of their train rolling along the tracks. On May 21, 1886, Bailey submitted the cheer to his club. Originally, the chant was "Ray, Rah, Jay Hawk, K.U." repeating the words three times. This yell was used by the science club the next year and there were frequent allusions to "The Science Club Yell" in the student newspapers

An English professor suggested that "Rock Chalk" be substituted for "Rah, Rah" because it rhymed with Jayhawk and because it would be symbolic of the chalky limestone formations found on Mount Oread.

The chant was adopted as the college yell after the state oratorical contest in Topeka in 1886 because KU student yells for the their winners were enthusiatic, but unorganized. By the Fall of 1887 the yell was know as the offical yell of the school as the student newspaper reported on November 4, 1887,

"Every college of importance in this country has a college cry. In every town in which a college is situated, the midnight air resounds with the hideous yells of the student, symbolic of victory, defeat, or devilment. The students of the University of Kansas use their yell but little and it is only admidst great victory that "Rock-chalk-Jay-Hawk, K-U-U-U floats throught the midnight air reminding one of a band of Apache Indians."

By 1889 the form of the cheer had changed to the drawn-out cadence repeated twice, followed by three staccato repetitions. "

Misc: Kanas is way more into basketball.

Famous Players: Nick Reid: Senior Linebacker, as a junior he: "Earned first-team All-Big 12 honors by the Associated Press, Kansas City Star, Dallas Morning News and Austin American-Statesman ... Received second-team All-Big 12 honors from the league's coaches ... Received the Willie Pless Award for most tackles in a season at the team's annual awards banquet ... Named the team's defensive player of the week after the games against Toledo and Northwestern ... Played in all 11 games and made 10 starts ... Led the team with 109 total tackles, including 52 solo stops ... Was one of just three Big 12 players to finish the season with more than 100 tackles ... Was the team leader and finished fifth in the Big 12 with 15 tackles behind the line of scrimmage ... Tied for third on the team with three quarterback sacks ... Had one interception and forced a fumble ... Collected 10 or more tackles in six different contests ... Had a season-high 15 tackles in KU's win over Kansas State ... Posted a season-best three tackles behind the line of scrimmage vs. No. 6 Texas ... Had 10 tackles, forced a fumble and picked off a pass against Toledo."

Click on his name above to see his accomplishements in previous years.

Spread:-33.5 (If you bet with a spread on Texas, they have beat Kansas by 33.5 points for you to win.)

How they have been playing: Decent defense. Offense sucks. Kansas has won 5 games and lost 4.

What we have to watch for: Be patient, wear out their defense, don't give them a short field. (Short field means we want them to start as far away from the goal line as possible. If they start out closer, it will be harder to stop them. But you could say this is a goal for every game, not just Kansas.)

Note: Just like Baylor's University website, Kansas also has pop up ads. Mucho cheesy!

Posted by on November 10, 2005 09:19 PM | Permalink

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