Monday, August 31, 2009
The Kansas Jayhawk is too nice.
Seriously. Look at him (her?). Tell me he’s (she’s?) not going to wink at me any second now. And winking in sports (and in general really) is rarely as effective as Moonlight Graham would lead you to believe in “Field of Dreams.” (If you haven’t seen it, rent it, watch it and thank me later.)
But aside from my personal beliefs about winking and my fondness for ’80s sports movies, my argument is lacking in explanation.
The University of Kansas is a school that prides itself on tradition. Just watch the pregame video for men’s basketball. It starts with a classic picture of James Naismith looking at a basketball that must be nearing a hundred years old. The Rock Chalk chant is one of the most enduring in sports. During the intermission, the former logos of the school rotate overhead on the video board.
And it was during one of those intermissions that this idea crept into my head. Adopted by the school in 1941, the Warbird has a cocky stance, an angry slant above its eye and a menacing, scowling beak. It was implemented, not coincidentally, along with the United States’ involvement in World War II.
The current Jayhawk, adopted in 1946 because apparently this argument was not raised — the story goes that KU student Hal Sandy drew a friendlier Jayhawk as World War II drew to a close — is exactly what Sandy intended. He’s friendly, inviting and by no means intimidating.
That’s great for stationery, welcome mats, official documents and the like. But on a jersey, in competition, I want something that’s a little menacing.
This isn’t without precedence. Five years ago, the Arizona Cardinals were one of the worst teams in the NFL. Four years ago, they took a cute, friendly cardinal logo and turned him into an angry and as-menacing-as-a-cardinal-can-be logo that owner Bill Bidwill called “a tough bird.” Last season, the Cardinals went to the Super Bowl.
Coincidence? Probably. Their Super Bowl had more to do with the emergence of Larry Fitzgerald as the best receiver on the planet and Kurt Warner’s rebirth from the ashes in, appropriately, Phoenix. Either way, though, the birth of a new, menacing logo coincided with the emergence as a legitimate football team.
But at the moment, Kansas hardly needs help emerging on the national scene in athletics. They’re no pre-logo change Arizona Cardinals. So why change up the logo?
Because look at the Warbird. He’s just so damn cool. And he’s not about to wink at me.
Monday YouTube Sesh
At the time you’ll be reading this, I’ll be teeing up at Western Gailes Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland. It’s the first course my dad and grandfather played together on their first trip to Scotland, and so it will be with my brother and I and my dad. Call it a family tradition.
Nostalgia aside, I wanted some type of golf clip for the weekly YouTube Sesh. I was tempted to introduce you to the horridness that is Charles Barkley’s swing — seriously, it’s atrocious — but wound up coming across this clip of the most ridiculous hole-in-one I’ve ever seen. The ball bounces off another ball before going in. It’s crazy.
Type “Leif Olson Hole in One” into your YouTube search and enjoy.
— — Edited by Betsy Cutcliff
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