Rock Chalk.....Ugggggh!

[SLCyclone]

I am sure it has been discussed here before, but what does Rock Chalk, JayHawk mean?

I was in KC and near the end of the Friday night game, the several thousand JayHawk fans in the Light and Power District started this aweful chant. That was when we decided to leave.

[ISUKyro]

I think rock is crack. Then they grind it down to a chalk that they can snort...... a bunch a dopers if you ask me.

[Angie]

I don't know if it's true, but a friend told me that it's because the ground is limestone (chalky) around Lawrence. Hence - rock chalk.

Edit: looks like it's true. LINK

[Flag Guy]

I don't know if it's true, but a friend told me that it's because the ground is limestone (chalky) around Lawrence. Hence - rock chalk.

Edit: looks like it's true. LINK

Ok that answers half of the question... now the logical 2nd half: WTF is a Jayhawk?

[Angie]

Ok that answers half of the question... now the logical 2nd half: WTF is a Jayhawk?

Ha - I found this article from 1944. I like the phrase "quarrelsome egg sucker":

The Mythical Jayhawk by Kirke Mechem, February 1944

[jumbopackage]

It's actually a permutation of "rah rah jayhawk". It means absolutely nothing.

[bleedcardinalandgold]

A "jay-hawker" is actually a slang term for anti slavery guerillas following the civil war.

[Flag Guy]

Heh heh ok that is good stuff

Investigation will disclose the Jay (Cyanurus cristatus), and the hawk (accipeter fuscus): the former a quarrelsome egg sucker, the latter an assassin of the atmosphere. Were it not that nature forbids adulterous confusion of her types, he might surmise that the Jayhawk is a mule among birds, the illicit offspring of some aerial intrigue, endowed with the most malign attributes of its progenitors.

Quarrelsome egg sucker is good, but I had to laugh at the mule among birds, illict off spring part

[Flag Guy]

A "jay-hawker" is actually a slang term for anti slavery guerillas following the civil war.

Thats interesting, and thanks for sharing, though that begs the question how did those people come to becalled "Jay-Hawkers" (why the term?) and darn it you're killing the fun with thinking it's a mule of the bird world

[cmoneyr]

It's actually a permutation of "rah rah jayhawk". It means absolutely nothing.

Should probably read the link Angie posted.

[jumbopackage]

Should probably read the link Angie posted.

Which says it's a permutation of "rah rah jayhawk" and means absolutely nothing. It just rhymes.

[Flag Guy]

That one about Jayhawks is pretty good too... though long, so I didn't read most of it. To go with what bleedcardinalandgold said though

This last statement might well serve as a warning to all Jayhawk hunters. It is a bird that cannot be caught. Even the names, Jayhawk and Jayhawker, are elusive. They are like the chicken and the egg, nobody knows which came first. The earliest use of either word seems to have been in 1849 when a party of adventurers from Illinois, who called themselves Jayhawkers, made the nickname famous in the California desert known as Death Valley. There are references to Jayhawkers in Texas history, which may be of an earlier date, but are not authenticated. The name became common during the territorial troubles and was at first applied to both sides. Jennison's regiment of Free-state men, as well as Quantrill's raiders, were at one time called Jayhawkers. The name finally stuck to the anti-slavery side and eventually to all the people of Kansas.


Thought this story was pretty funny though (Gotta love the hatred for Missouri, even back then!)

As to the word Jayhawk, it has now sent several generations of Kansans to the ornithologies. Probably the belief that somewhere the bird had a real prototype will never die. The story of Pat Devlin has always encouraged this hope. Devlin was a native of Ireland, an early immigrant to Kansas. One day in 1856 he was returning home after some private plundering across the Missouri border. When asked what he had been up to, he replied, "You know, in Ireland we have a bird we call the Jayhawk, which makes its living off of other birds. I guess you might say I've been Jayhawking!"

[Erik4Cy]

I actually believe it's the name of an old wooden ship used in the Civil War era...

[bleedcardinalandgold]

Yes, I think it was an old, old, wooden ship . . .

[CycloneErik]

That one about Jayhawks is pretty good too... though long, so I didn't read most of it. To go with what bleedcardinalandgold said though

This last statement might well serve as a warning to all Jayhawk hunters. It is a bird that cannot be caught. Even the names, Jayhawk and Jayhawker, are elusive. They are like the chicken and the egg, nobody knows which came first. The earliest use of either word seems to have been in 1849 when a party of adventurers from Illinois, who called themselves Jayhawkers, made the nickname famous in the California desert known as Death Valley. There are references to Jayhawkers in Texas history, which may be of an earlier date, but are not authenticated. The name became common during the territorial troubles and was at first applied to both sides. Jennison's regiment of Free-state men, as well as Quantrill's raiders, were at one time called Jayhawkers. The name finally stuck to the anti-slavery side and eventually to all the people of Kansas.


Thought this story was pretty funny though (Gotta love the hatred for Missouri, even back then!)

As to the word Jayhawk, it has now sent several generations of Kansans to the ornithologies. Probably the belief that somewhere the bird had a real prototype will never die. The story of Pat Devlin has always encouraged this hope. Devlin was a native of Ireland, an early immigrant to Kansas. One day in 1856 he was returning home after some private plundering across the Missouri border. When asked what he had been up to, he replied, "You know, in Ireland we have a bird we call the Jayhawk, which makes its living off of other birds. I guess you might say I've been Jayhawking!"

So, a Jayhawk is like a midwestern Bigfoot?