Speaking of Jayhawks, after she finished singing her song I asked Mom to explain the origin of that term. Teams representing the University of Kansas are known as the Jayhawks.
A jayhawk, I’m told, is a cross between two hunting birds — the blue jay and the sparrow hawk. It seems that militant Kansas abolitionists in the 1850s and 1860s were referred to as Jayhawkers.
That discussion led naturally to an examination of other intriguing university mascots and nicknames, like: the Ohio State Buckeyes (an inedible nutlike seed that grows on trees in Ohio and, presumably, elsewhere); the Iowa Hawkeyes (Hawkeye was a character in James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans”); the Virginia Tech Hokies (a mythical turkey-like bird); and the Purdue Boilermakers (dubbed that by a sportswriter in 1891 because it sounded better than other contending names like the Haymakers, the Railsplitters and the Cornfield Sailors).
Because I’m a big college sports enthusiast, family members began to pepper me with names of schools, demanding that I supply their mascots.
“I’m from Minnesota,” my brother-in-law said. “You’re a Golden Gopher,” I shot back. “Indiana?” chimed another. “Hoosiers” I replied. “How about that other Kansas school?” an in-law probed. “That’d be the K-State Wildcats,” I responded.
Tennessee? The Vols — short for Volunteers.
Because we spend time in North Carolina with our daughter and four grandchildren, my sister-in-law wanted to know the derivation of “Tar Heels.”
The name was first applied to a group of North Carolina soldiers fighting in Virginia during the Civil War.
The North Carolina boys remained to fight in a particularly ferocious battle when other Confederate units ran.
