The sports teams at the University of Kansas are known as the Jayhawks. They participate in the NCAA's Division I and in the Big 12 Conference. University of Kansas athletic teams have won ten total NCAA Division I championships, including three in men's basketball, one in men's cross country, three in men's indoor track and field, and three in men's outdoor track and field.
The Jayhawk is a mythical cross between two common birds -- the noisy blue jay and the quiet sparrow hawk. The term came to prominence just before the Civil War, in Bleeding Kansas, where it was adopted by militant abolitionist groups known as Jayhawkers. With the admission of Kansas as a free state in 1861, Jayhawker became synonymous with the people of Kansas. The Jayhawk appears in several Kansas cheers, most notably, the "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" chant in unison before and during games.
The program has enjoyed considerable national success, having been selected Helms Foundation National Champions in 1922 and 1923, winning NCAA national championships in 1952, 1988, and 2008, playing in 13 Final Fours, and being regularly ranked in the AP Top 25 college basketball poll. Kansas ranks third all-time in NCAA Division I (behind Kentucky and North Carolina) with 1,943 wins (as of April 7, 2008), against only 785 losses (.712 winning %, 4th all-time). This record includes a 616-106 (.853) mark at historic Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks are also second in NCAA history with eighty-nine winning seasons and have reached the Final Four under more head coaches (six) than any other program in the nation. A perennial conference powerhouse, Kansas leads all universities with 51 regular-season conference titles in 100 years of conference play (Program has played 110 years, however, the first ten years of the program were before the existence of conferences) through the 2007-2008 regular season, two more than the second place Kentucky Wildcats.
WEBSITE: http://kuathletics.cstv.com/sports/
