From the Kansas University Athletics website:
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"Mascots are believed to bring good luck, especially to athletic teams. Just about every college and university claims a mascot. The University of Kansas is home to the Jayhawk, a mythical bird with a fascinating history.
The origin of the Jayhawk is rooted in the historic struggles of Kansas settlers. The term "Jayhawk" was probably coined around 1848. Accounts of its use appeared from Illinois to Texas and in that year, a party of pioneers crossing what is now Nebraska, called themselves "The Jayhawkers of '49". The name combines two birds--the blue jay, a noisy, quarrelsome thing known to rob other nests, and the sparrow hawk, a quiet, stealthy hunter. The message here: Don't turn your back on this bird.
During the 1850's, the Kansas Territory was filled with such Jayhawks. The area was a battleground between those wanting a state in which slavery would be legal and abolitionists committed to a free state. The opposing factions looted, sacked, rustled cattle, stole horses, and otherwise attacked each other's settlements. For a time, ruffians on both sides were called Jayhawkers. But the name stuck to the 'free staters' when Kansas was admitted as a free state in 1861. Lawrence, where KU would be founded, was a free state stronghold.
During the Civil War, the Jayhawk's ruffian image gave way to patriotic symbol. Kansas Governor Charles Robinson raised a regiment called the Independent Mounted Kansas Jayhawks. By war's end, Jayhawks were synonymous with the impassioned people who made Kansas a Free State. In 1886, the Jayhawk appeared in a cheer--the famous Rock Chalk Chant. And when KU football players first took the field in 1890, it seemed only natural to call them Jayhawkers.
How do you draw a Jayhawk? For years, that question stumped fans. Henry Maloy, a cartoonist for the student newspaper, drew a memorable version of the Jayhawk in 1912. He gave it shoes. Why? For kicking opponents, of course.
In 1920, a more somber bird, perched on a KU monogram, came into use. In 1923, Jimmy O'Bryon and George Hollingbery designed a duck-like Jayhawk. Around 1929, Forrest O. Calvin drew a grim-faced bird sporting talons that could maim. In 1941, Gene "Yogi" Williams opened the Jayhawk's eyes and beak, giving it a contentious appearance. It is Harold D. Sandy's 1946 design of a smiling Jayhawk that survives. The design was copyrighted in 1947. In 2005 the Jayhawk was reintroduced with the new KU Trajan font.
In the 1960s, the Jayhawk went 3-D when the KU Alumni Association provided a mascot costume. Welcome, Big Jay. In 1971, during half-time of Homecoming, a huge egg was hauled out to the 50-yard line, and fans witnessed the hatching of Big Jay's companion, Baby Jay.
Today you'll find several Jayhawks on the Lawrence campus. A piece of birdlike iconography on Dyche Hall, erected in 1901, looks suspiciously like a Jayhawk. In front of Strong Hall perches a large Jayhawk, a statue with sleek, modern lines, gift of the Class of 1956. Another, a striding, feathered bronze bird, greets visitors to the Adams Alumni Center."
From the Smithsonian website:
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"Artist: Tefft, Elden, 1919- , sculptor. Williams, Winthrop, assistant.
Dates: 1958. Cast Oct. 1958. Dedicated ca. 1959. Relocated 1975.
Medium: Hawk: cast bronze; Base: granite and cement with pebbled surface.
Dimensions: Hawk: approx. 4 ft. 2 in. x 3 ft. 9 in. x 2 ft. 5 in.; Base: approx. H. 6 ft. 2 in. x W. 6 ft. x Diam. 12 ft.
Inscription: (Back:) Elden Tefft 1958/Assisted by/Winthrop Williams Jr./University of Kansas Sculpture Foundry (Back of hawk's foot:) ECT (Front of base, incised:) GIFT OF/THE CLASS OF/1956 signed
Description: A perched hawk with its wings spread.
Remarks: Donated by the Class of 1956. Originally placed inside Kansas Union, but later moved to a garden area west of the Union. Relocated to current site in 1975. The jayhawk is the mascot of the University of Kansas. IAS files contain a related article from The Oread, Aug. 21, 1981, pg. 4-5. For related articles see: University Daily Kansan (Lawrence, KS), Oct. 24, 1958, pg. 1; Oct. 29, 1958, pg. 2."
From the University of Kansas Sculptures website:
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"This distinctive Jayhawk was commissioned by the Class of 1956 and designed and cast by Elden C. Tefft, professor of sculpture. He has said he was inspired by the sharp-beaked “fighting Jayhawks” that were mascots from 1929 to 1946, but the statue also has been called “the Pterodactyl.”
The bronze is 4 feet 2 inches tall and weighs more than 600 pounds; it was cast at the KU foundry established by Tefft, a faculty member from 1950 to 1990. After its completion in 1958, it was sited on the west side of the Kansas Union and moved to Baumgartner Drive in the early 1960s. In April 1975, at the suggestion of Chancellor Archie Dykes, it was moved from this obscure site to the front of Strong Hall on Jayhawk Boulevard. It is mounted on a granite base 4 feet 5 inches tall that is in turn mounted on an octagonal concrete base 12 feet in diameter.
In late 1996, vandals knocked the Jayhawk off its pedestal, damaging its head and wings. Tefft and his son, Kim Tefft, repaired and remounted it in February 1997. In September 2005 the Teffts made a mold so they could reproduce the statue for placement in front of Regnier Hall on the Edwards Campus in Overland Park.
Another version of this Jayhawk is on display on the third floor of Kansas Union. Called “Jayhawk II Kansas Sarimanok,” it is a copy of a 26-inch model Tefft created at the request of KU alumni in the Philippines because it resembles the sarimanok, a bird in Filipino mythology. The original was destroyed in university student riots in 1984, but the Philippine chapter could not afford to buy a replacement."