photo by: Kansas Athletics

Kansas right fielder Jackson Hauge rounds the bases after a home run during the game against North Dakota State on Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Fayetteville, Ark.

Fayetteville, Ark. — When Jackson Hauge entered the portal following a severe concussion, not everyone believed he could help a team the way he ultimately did the 2025 Kansas Jayhawks.

“I had one guy telling me to come help his team out,” Hauge said, “and I had another guy on the other side telling me I was going to be a .200 hitter at the next level. Really thankful for the chance that I got, and wouldn’t change it for the world.”

The native of Ramsey, Minnesota, a fifth-year senior who played four seasons at the Division II level at Minnesota State Mankato, came out of his concussion-imposed yearlong hiatus, part of a journey filled with “a lot of hard times,” to serve as one of the emotional leaders and public faces of a memorable KU baseball team.

The power-hitting right fielder, a second-team all-conference selection, led the Jayhawks with 70 RBIs and fell just short of matching a program record with his 20 homers over the course of the season.

The 20th and final, a game-tying two-run shot in Saturday’s season-ending loss to North Dakota State, wasn’t quite enough to spark another Jayhawk rally as KU fell 4-3 to the Bison at Baum-Walker Stadium.

“Obviously we’re all disappointed in the outcome, but really thankful for this group of guys, (head coach Dan Fitzgerald), the coaching staff, to give me a chance coming in here,” he said. “I wouldn’t change it — unless we made it to Omaha. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Hauge was a Big 12 player of the week and newcomer of the week at separate points throughout the season. He had double-digit homers by mid-March and was involved in one of the defining moments of KU’s campaign, a go-ahead three-run shot that rescued the Jayhawks on April 18 in their series opener against rival Kansas State, precipitating an eventual series sweep.

All the while, he played an off-field role in attempting to spur comeback wins — of which KU ended up tallying 26 on the season.

“He’s the best,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s got a couple speeches memorized, movie speeches that he’ll bust out in quite possibly the most stressful times in a baseball game, and it just has a way of bringing people together.”

Beyond the dugout, the transfer was one of quite a few fan favorites to come out of a season in which KU effectively fielded a brand-new roster — and over the course of the season cultivated a growing fan base, setting attendance records at Hoglund Ballpark.

Hauge said he would remember the moments spent off the field with his teammates, but also the feeling of playing before those avid fans.

“The fan experience this year, that was super special, especially to start the year, where we’re going up there, and you hit a home run and you look up and you got a thousand students just raining it down from the student section,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. I hope that that can continue for years to come. I think we got the right people in place to put in accommodations, so that we keep having a unique fan experience at Kansas.”

One of his final remarks as a Jayhawk in the postgame press conference on Saturday was to share “a message to anybody out there: ‘Know your worth.'”

“When I hit the portal, it was a super scary time in my life, coming off of a concussion at my old school, coming off of a lot of people telling me what I was,” Hauge said. “I came here and I don’t regret a single thing.”

Fitzgerald believes his now-former player is destined for great things, at least once his baseball career is done.

“He’s been really bold and outspoken about some things that we haven’t talked about for a really long time as coaches and players … with his concussion and some mental health stuff,” Fitzgerald said. “I’m proud of all of them — I’m incredibly proud of him.”