Do you think the KU Jayhawk mascot needs to look meaner? / LJWorld.com

Asked at Checkers Food Store, 23rd and Louisiana streets. on September 1, 2009

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“I just don’t see how a Jayhawk could look mean.”

— Richard Boldridge, retired electrician, Lawrence

“No, I like it just the way it is.”

— Katie Schaefer, illustration major, Chicago

“Absolutely, you got to have a little intimidation in there and he’s just a little too cute and fuzzy.”

— Brad Schelbar, accounting major, Shawnee

“Not at all, he looks just great how he is.”

— Lesley Moss, stay-at-home mom, Topeka

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hail2oldku 3 years, 9 months ago

Yes, go back to the 1941 Jayhawk http://www.ku.edu/about/traditions/jayhawk.shtml

snap_pop_no_crackle 3 years, 9 months ago

Xtreme Jayhawkz!

snap_pop_no_crackle 3 years, 9 months ago

More like the TMNT, but not so green.

hitme 3 years, 9 months ago

No, We already have Lew Perkins, if we need to scare anyone.

tvf2k 3 years, 9 months ago

Thanks, hitme. That made me spit my coffee all over the keyboard.

Ralph Reed 3 years, 9 months ago

I prefer either the one from 1929 or 1941.

http://www.ku.edu/about/traditions/jayhawk.shtml

rooster 3 years, 9 months ago

Pretty sure the Jayhawk Kicked opponents butts far the last 50 years with a smile on.

labmonkey 3 years, 9 months ago

Agreed Ralphreed.

hawkergirl 3 years, 9 months ago

The Mascot doesn't win our games, our team do. The children LOVE the jayhawk. Let's keep winning games and that will scare the competition! Rock Chalk!

hujiko 3 years, 9 months ago

It's fine as is, eventually it may be updated, but for now it still holds up amongst other mascots.

trinity 3 years, 9 months ago

leave the Jays alone!!!! they're just fine as they are!

mjwgoku 3 years, 9 months ago

Leave the Jayhawk as is and put them back on the helmets.

jayhawkerjoel 3 years, 9 months ago

Yes - we should abandon our traditional mascot and adopt a Power Hawk logo, just as KSU did with the Power Cat. This would show everyone that we too are new and improved.

(take a deep breath... it's called sarcasm)

cthulhu_4_president 3 years, 9 months ago

I always thought that winning with a smile was more psychologically effective than with a frown.

After all, when the Jayhawks have just mopped the floor with you, which would you be more frustrated to see: A mean Jayhawk who looks like he wants to fight you as bad as you do him, or a smiling, care-free Jayhawk who is just going about his business (and the business happens to be kicking a$$)?

ksarmychick 3 years, 9 months ago

With the budget "crisis" at KU and the amount of money the university paid just to get the new KU letters I just don't think they can afford to change the jayhawk...

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 3 years, 9 months ago

I like the cute wittle fuzzy mascot.

The only way to make the image meaner is to put it on a horse with guns, and depict it murdering, raping, pillaging, looting, and burning Missouri. Damn abolitionists.

consumer1 3 years, 9 months ago

I think if he represents KU he should look like a thug and beat little people up and take their money. Truley represent KU.

Pywacket 3 years, 9 months ago

I'd go back to the original Jayhawk. Dig those long, wild gams!

pissedinlawrence 3 years, 9 months ago

Have him drinking a bud light and smoking a doobie.

Calliope877 3 years, 9 months ago

I think the "reinvention" of the Jayhawk is long overdue.

cthulhu_4_president 3 years, 9 months ago

"The 2009 Jayhawk should reflect the times as well"

You got that right. For example, he could walk around with a laptop posting inflammatory paritsan garbage on non-political threads.

jonas_opines 3 years, 9 months ago

I don't know Ralph, the one from '29 looks to me like he lost all his money in the stock market crash.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 3 years, 9 months ago

Everbody read for a cold and wet samich? http://media.lawrence.com/img/photos/2009/09/01/Farmers-Almanac_t640.jpg?a6ea3ebd4438a44b86d2e9c39ecf7613005fe067

jonas_opines 3 years, 9 months ago

Not to feed the troll, but I wonder if BuenaVista could even provide us with one thing (other than perhaps marginally higher taxes) in which his life is any different at all.

(No need to answer, though. I think we all know it already)

sgtwolverine 3 years, 9 months ago

I think this is thoroughly irrelevant to the outcome of any sporting event. Don't waste the money, and don't ruin a classic mascot with this misguided effort to look stupid.

consumer1 3 years, 9 months ago

How about a Homer Simpson head on the body of the Jayhawk? Actually Joe College if you are reading this, patent your colors and print types. KU is on the path again.

beatrice 3 years, 9 months ago

Mean? - No. Snide? - Yes! Maybe add a touch of nonchalance combined with a bit of condescension. That would work.

Of course, it can never be as mean as the Fighting Artichoke of Scottsdale Community! http://plone.scottsdalecc.edu/athletics/fighting-artichoke-store

Pywacket 3 years, 9 months ago

Sgt~ But.... the latest incarnation of the Jayhawk is NOT the classic mascot. Return to the original, I say...

Pywacket 3 years, 9 months ago

The banana slug is the best mascot ever.

http://www.goslugs.com/graphics/Mascot/banana_slug_mascot_1.jpg

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 3 years, 9 months ago

Jonas, Just wait for the Swine Flu FEMA internment camps, the food riots, and the spliting of the nation into 6 regional power centers.

Just look at the prices of ammo and canned cheese...

puddleglum 3 years, 9 months ago

blue harley:“I just don’t see how a Jayhawk could look mean.”

The Wildcats agree

yeah, the mildcat logo strikes fear into my heart everytime I see it.

(raucous laughter)

other than the women's basketball team, ya got nothin'.

I do like the nachos in allen fieldhouse west. Willy wildcat, ahearn fieldhouse-how did you ever agree to lose these things?

Practicality 3 years, 9 months ago

Maybe KU could make the mascot look mean and drunk while holding a KU (unofficial) budlight can?

ferrislives 3 years, 9 months ago

cthulhu_4_president said:

I always thought that winning with a smile was more psychologically effective than with a frown.

Right on cthulhu_4_president!!!

sfjayhawk 3 years, 9 months ago

Yes, it is time to change the mascot.

sgtwolverine 3 years, 9 months ago

Py: perhaps, but the current version of the classic mascot is considerably better than any "mean" version would be.

Regardless, I'm happy that Michigan doesn't have a mascot to screw up: the wolverine name isn't personified in an illustration or sideline character -- they let the block M stand on its own. I'm especially happy there's no goofy cartoon character roaming the sidelines making a fool of himself during games. I know there are a lot of people who like mascots, but I'm not one of those people.

RKLOG 3 years, 9 months ago

I do agree that our Jayhawk is a little bit too happy-go-lucky. Kind of looks like a freshman the first day of classes with that vacant stare and drooley, open-gap maw. You can almost hear it say "Ohhh, what a big place this campus is....I wonder where my classes are? Ohhh, look at all th' girls! Ohhh, I'm hungry! I need a crunchy chicken cheddar wrap!"

jayhawkerjoel 3 years, 9 months ago

Yes sgtwolverine – I am horrified when I look at pictures of my children when they were between 2 – 6 years old and hugging Baby Jay and Big Jay. What an awful memory. If only we just had a block letter K... they could have used it for spelling practice during the games we attended. What fun. ; )

denak 3 years, 9 months ago

Sun Tzu, the military genius, once said that "All warfare is based on deception."

Let our enemies underestimate us because our mascot is cute and cuddly, it will be their mistake when we take them out!

Mel Briscoe 3 years, 9 months ago

i like jay and baby jay just the way they are.

sgtwolverine 3 years, 9 months ago

TOB, after his recent press conference and the fuss that caused it, I'm not inclined to make fun of him at this point. He's had a rough few days thanks to an article that never should have been published in the first place.

Joel: I don't know how you all do it in Kansas, but here in Michigan we teach our kids how to spell before they reach college age! (Except in Detroit, where we only teach our kids how to destroy an entire school system. The really gifted students get to learn how to destroy an entire city!)

jonas_opines 3 years, 9 months ago

“I'm especially happy there's no goofy cartoon character roaming the sidelines making a fool of himself during games,”

At least it's better than that rabid zombie tree that Stanford has. Or, (snrk) . . . . Scrotie, the, errr, unofficial mascot of the Rhode Island School of Design

http://www.footballbabble.com/football/college/mascots/

towards bottom

Phogfan86 3 years, 9 months ago

God, do I hate Baby Jay. With every fiber of my being, I wish Baby Jay was eliminated from the face of the earth, never to be seen again skipping and dancing and mincing around Memorial Stadium. If little kids are too scared of Big Jay to say hi or get a picture taken with him, leave them at home. And tell them to take Baby Jay with them, too. Then they can go home and do bead work and hold hands and sing Kumbaya and go to their happy places. If I ever see Baby Jay on the street, I will fight her. I hope Al Qaida and JR Giddens find Baby Jay in a dark parking lot. I want Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney to waterboard Baby Jay. SWEET JEEBUS, I HATE BABY JAY!