Tuesday, November 20, 2007
A controversial rivalry shirt referring to Quantrill’s Raid was made for protest, not for mass production.
The yellow T-shirts depicting Lawrence on fire with the word “scoreboard” and the Missouri Tiger logo beneath it were not produced by the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Nathan Fowler, who could not be reached for comment, posted a photo of the shirt on an AOL blog last week. On the back was Quantrill’s slogan, “Raise the black flag and ride hard, boys. Our cause is just and our enemies many.”
Misty Nolke, manager at the Team Store, the official apparel store for the Missouri Tigers, said she had not heard of the shirt. She said only three official rivalry shirts were available, none of which refer to the civil war nor to Quantrill’s raid.
Jeff James, 32, St. Charles, Mo., resident and Missouri alumnus, said he produced the shirts in a silent protest against the continued use of the Jayhawk mascot by the University of Kansas. He said that at the time of the AOL blog post, only four shirts had been produced. He said he made the shirt for himself and three of his friends for personal use only.
“I was not aware that the photo was going to be taken or posted to an Internet message board,” James said. “Nor did I realize the immediate stir and reaction or demand for the shirts. I have decided personally not to move forward with any sort of sales or spreading of shirts of this or similar nature.”
James said he had seen several shirts with civil war references made after he produced the “scoreboard” shirt. James cited the Wikipedia.com page on jayhawking to explain that the University of Kansas made reference to civil war atrocities each time it used the Jayhawk logo.
Mark Hersey, interim project director for the Kansas Union-sponsored Web site “This Week in KU History,” said mascots took on lives of their own. He said that the exact origin of the term Jayhawk was disputed among historians but that it did become synonymous with Kansas and Freestaters in the mid-19th century.
“Wikipedia is not the most reliable source; anyone can put anything on there,” Hersey said. “There is a gap between the historical origins of something and what it means conventionally.”
Hersey said he acknowledged that atrocities were committed on both sides of the rivalry, but that it was tough to find sympathy for the Missouri side because it was a slave state.
James said he recognized that slavery was an issue at the time of Quantrill’s raid but that it was not his intention to support prejudice or injustice toward blacks.
“If the University of Kansas acknowledges these points and agrees that its mascot can be seen as offensive and an inappropriate symbol to use, I will then do what I am sure many Kansans would like to see happen to the shirts I made; I will burn them,” James said.
Hersey said the Jayhawk mascot was not offensive to any particular group, and that it would be ridiculous to expect the University of Kansas to change its mascot at this point.
— Edited by Amelia Freidline
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Comments
Raid rivalry shirt made for personal use
Pretty evident jeff James didn't even look on the KU website. He only used wikipedia - what a joke!
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