Learning about the Jayhawks at KU

Our camping spot at Clinton Lake State Park is just a few miles from the city of Lawrence, Kansas. We did our shopping there, and went to church in town. Because this city is home to the University of Kansas, we also took a hike on campus.

We got our exercise, walking up and down the rolling hills on this campus. We noticed that you don't see many bike racks here, because riding up those hills would be tough. The picture above is the Bell Tower, situated on the top of one of those hills. If you look to the left, you can see the football stadium far below.

We like to visit the football stadiums of the Division I universities that we tour. In comparison to some we have seen, the KU stadium is underwhelming. But the gates were open and we could enter easily for a field view.

The sport that the University of Kansas is best known for is housed across campus at the legendary Allen Fieldhouse. Called the "Cathedral of Basketball," this landmark was built in 1955, shortly after the team won the NCAA national championship in 1952. The fieldhouse has hosted two national championship teams since then.

If we look across those old-school seats to the end of this old gym, we see a curious sign in the upper right hand of the picture below.

The original sign is proudly displayed in the athletic museum we also visited. We didn't know the story behind "Pay Heed, All Who enter! Beware of "The Phog." From a film at the museum we learned that a group of students in 1988 stole ten shower curtains from various boys' dorms to form this rallying banner that they secretly hung in Allen Fieldhouse before a home game.

"The Phog" is the legendary KU coach--Phog Allen--the namesake of the fieldhouse. He coached here from 1920 until he retired in 1956, and his statue greets all at this entrance of Allen Fieldhouse. KU went on to win the national championship the year that the banner was hung, and a more permanent form of the shower curtain banner has been displayed at Allen Fieldhouse ever since.

From that athletic museum, we also learned about another legendary KU basketball player. Wilt Chamberlain was so tall, that they literally rewrote the rules of college basketball because of him. For example, now the lane under the goal is wider and offensive goaltending has been banned. New rules also eliminated running steps at free throws and barred offensive players from the first two spots along the lane.

Basketball roots run deep at KU. We noticed the name "Naismith" showed up on a street and a building on campus. At the museum we learned that he is the man that invented the game of basketball. Back in 1891, he hung a peach basket at each end of a large indoor room. Then he made up the original 13 rules of the game of basketball for the guys that needed some exercise during the cold winter months. The "Father of Basketball" would finish his career at the University of Kansas, working here from 1898 to 1937, so this basketball-loving-college has totally embraced him.

We are familiar with the present-day Kansas Jayhawk--a mythical bird that is part noisy blue jay and part stealthy sparrow hawk. The museum also showed the evolution of this bird from its earliest version of 1912 to the present.

Most of the students were gone, as the spring semester is over. So it was easy to find a parking spot, and fun to experience the rolling hills at the University of Kansas. Besides that, we got some good exercise as we walked five miles over this sprawling campus learning some of the academic and athletic history of Kansas.