What’s up with this Rock Chalk Jayhawk stuff?

If you watched the Jayhawks beat Memphis tonight you might have wondered where did they come up with this “Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk” cheer.

The answer goes back to 1866…the KU Science Club was returning to campus at Lawrence after a trip to Wichita. To pass the time, the advisor suggested they devise a cheer. Now this is 4 years before there was a Jayhawks football team and basketball hadn’t been invented yet, so what they were going to cheer, I’m not sure. But they came up with “Rah, Rah, Jayhawk KU” repeated three times. It caught on and later the English professor suggested they replace “Rah, Rah” with “Rock Chalk” because it rhymed with Jayhawk and it brought up images of the limestone bluffs the school was built on that were called “Chalk Rock”.

That’s the short version, there’s a little more to the story if you click on the link above. It will open another window to a website maintained by some big time KU Jayhawks fans.

Tags: college hoops, Kansas, Kansas Jayhawks, Rock Chalk Jayhawk