University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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Jay hawker Rock Chalk, Jay Hawk, K. U. Season of Rock Chalk Proper ANNUAL FOOTBALL PARADE 1917 C —11—

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Jayhawker Rock Chalk, Jay Hawk, K. U. Ufow an6 XiT en ocK (T alK (Tame Into elng In the started [E must go back more than thirty years to learn about the beginnings of our famous yell, the Rock Chalk of which we are so proud. year 1883- ' 4 a Science club was by some of the older men of the University, including Dr. E. L. Nichols, now head of the Physics department of Cornell University; Doctor Snow, the late chan- cellor; Professor Marvin, the late dean of the School of Engineering; E. Miller, of California, emeritus professor of Mathe- matics and Astronomy; and the writer, who was professor of Chemistry. None of the above departments were at that time strong enough to support a seminar or department club, as there were only three hundred students in the Uni- versity proper. Consequently the Science Club was started as a clearing house for scientific information, and also to keep the students of the sciences together. At its weekly meetings papers were read and the social side of the club was not neglected. There was an annual Science Club day, with a social gathering in the evening, and the scientific work of the year was re- viewed by professors and advanced students; there were excursions to Blue Mound, Leavenworth or Kansas City. As the ladies were always in the company, these trips were very popular. j y Perhaps the most famous of the doings of the Science Club was the unique annual banquet, known as the It, a name proposed by Professor Martin, after we had sought in vain for an appropriate name for such a feast of jollity and wit. This was attended by members only and held in the basement of the Chemistry building, now Medical Hall. The It recalls many pleasant memories to the students of the Nineties. Usually after an oyster supper prepared by the expert cooks of the club, a program was put on. The speakers told of their own dis- coveries (?) and burlesqued those of their colleagues. I This may seem a long introduction to the history of Rock Chalk but as it was originally designed for the sole use and profit of the Science Club, this seems proper. It was at one of our meetings in 1887 or ' 88, over our doughnuts and cider, that someone suggested that we adopt a yell. Several were presented to the club, tried and found unsatisfactory. Shortly after this meeting, early one morning, I was thinking of the matter of these words occurred to me: Rah, Rah, Jay Hawk, K. U. three times repeated, with staccato emphasis. I proposed this yell at the next meeting of the club and it was adopted. We used it with such success on our picnics and excursions that it was soon taken up by the student body at large and made the regular yell of the University. Shortly after this, by some process of evolution, and I think at the suggestion of some of the Snow Hall men, the Rah, Rah was changed to Rock Chalk, and finally in the en- thusiasm of the early football days, the long roll twice repeated was substituted for the first part of the slogan. And so the yell that sounds o ' er land and sea was introduced into K. U. — Prof. E. H. S. Bailey. ■ t917 4 —10—

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if tMW tHiwMib-ai niMnMiMt .1 ayhavvker - Rock Chalk, Jay Hawk, K. U. I I ' The Grand Old Man of Football ' UNCLE JIMMY GREEN :» 1917 c —12—