Don't think for a second that Osceola's leaders aren't petty people who would refer to KU as an institution of "higher learning" (their quotes, not mine) or request that "no citizen of the City of Osceola or the alumni of the University of Missouri shall ever capitalize the 'k' in 'kansas' or 'ku,' as neither is a proper name or a proper place." Not petty at all.
Rick Reed, the man who brought the resolution to the aldermen and "a one-time Civil War re-enactor and member of the John T. Coffee Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans," said he doesn't anticipate KU will change a thing.
“They are so arrogant and uppity," Reed told the Daily Tribune.
KU News Service Director Jill Jess did respond in an e-mail to the Daily Tribune: “A Jayhawk is a blue bird with a red head and a big yellow beak that wears boots. It would be hard to confuse it with anyone with terrorist intent, though we admit we have been terrorizing the Tigers on the basketball court for some time. Tigers have been known to kill people. Bears, too.”
Osceola's people also want the full story of the Border War told, not just Quantrill’s raid. Here's the story, according to the Daily Tribune's report:
On Sept. 22, 1861, Osceola was a prosperous city of 2,500. The town lived on Osage River commerce and was split between Unionists and secessionists. U.S. Sen. Jim Lane led his band of about 2,000 “jayhawkers” in the Kansas Brigade to the city for a two-day orgy of looting, arson, drunkenness and murder. A dozen men were executed on the town square. When the attackers left — taking away all the property and livestock they could move — the town was a smoking ruin, and fewer than 200 people remained.The town has never again had as many people as it did before the raid.
Who knew Missourians' sensibilities were so delicate.
H/t: Deadspin.
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Jayhawkers, were guerrilla fighters who often clashed with pro-slavery ingrates from Missouri.
I like milk with my Oreos....what does any of this have to do with Milk and Cookies?
Who cares? The team nicknames are supposed to be representative of someone or something that can fight effectively and, if possible, representative of the area the team is located in. Many teams used to use Indian tribal names until that became politically incorrect. Now mostly animal names. At any rate, the Civil War is over and nobody cares where the name came from for the team.
My how fuzzy the facts seem to have gotten. This all happened at the begining of the civil war. The alledged 2000 men, this seems a little high, that burned Osceola were wearing blue uniforms of the union army, whom were attacking stongholds of pro-confederates. Thier were many cities that this group burned down that supported the CSA and supported the dispossition of the pro-union state government. Osceola was just one such place, nothing more. For the record 9 men were killed, the city looted and pillaged, and then burned to the grouond. This was a comman tactic of partisans fighting behind enemy lines, which at that time they were.
More than likely this is all a ploy to gain some publicity for Osceola since it's main income revenue is from tourism.
Lets just look at the black and white of it.. Missouri was on the losing side of the civil war and there are still some there who are sore losers over the whole affair. Both sides suffered atrocities but Missouri lost. No amount of petty and childish insults (or an absurd resolution from some little village no one has heard of) will ever change that fact.
They do realize that Lawrence was burned and looted many times during that period, yet it still gained many people. Few people who don't go to KU or live in Lawrence even know that the Jayhawk got its name from the Jayhawkers, they just associate it with sports.
Just a thought. But if you want to be taken seriously maybe start your article with something a little better than the term "butt hurt"
At least Joplin appreciates KU and overcoming age old rilvaries that can lead to a more deeper understanding of what it means to be a neighbor. http://www.kmbc.com/news/29211651/detail.html
You Jayhawk fans still sound like a bunch of terrorists. Actually, jayhawker as defined as someone who steals from others is very fitting for a university that has been on NCAA probation numerous times. You come by the cheating naturally.
As a kansan who also knows about the henous crimes that no particular group from missouri commited in kansas in that same time my response is, tough!! You people are the most one sided group of weak thinking sons of scoundrels that I have personally ever heard of. My view of it is that if your fore fathers were of the same mind to come to our state throw elections, burn, rape and pillage, deal with it! Maybe its possible that civil unrest that was let loose on missouri of that time would have never happened if you would have stayed out of our states politics and choice to be anti slave. If you made the wrong call and acted as border ruffians the jay hawks were just the medicine your fore fathers needed!!
As someone who ain't from here, I must say I've always truly enjoyed the rivalry between the sister-fucking hillbillies of Missouri and the redneck Kansas dirt farmers. It beats the shit out of football, or even hockey. I've been sorta hoping y'all would kill each other off, but so far no luck.
I guess if I stood in the clown shoes of Kansas fans, I'd be a little defensive as well. After all, how will you continue to play the victim card (relative to the burning of Lawrence) when everyone now knows the Jayhawkers committed this act of atrocity upon Osceola long before anyone ever thought of marching on Lawrence. Your only course of action is to resort to ridiculing and demeaning Osceola in hopes the truth will not be heard. Shame shame on you.
Where the hell is Osceola? Sounds like typical Missouri town...telling residents to use incorrect grammar.
ku fans are ignorant of history and what their mascot truly represents. jayhawkers actually did sell the slaves they stole from Missourians into the deep south which was a fate much worse for the poor slaves. I assume you've heard the term "sold down the river?"
"Snob Hill"? "Gayhawks"? "jayhawk scum"? WOW. Some people really get emotionally attached to the state they were born in, or find themselves living in, as if those other people over there must suck because they are not us! It's easier to navigate a small world I guess and then just reject the rest of it. Just one reminder though....the jayhawkers back then didn't buy and sell other human beings and make them work for free. Slavery is evil - does anyone disagree with that?
I would like to officially request that the town of Osceola stop using the word "Osceola" as it brings up painful memories of the Seminole Indians being forced off their land in Florida and moved west of the Mississippi against their desires. The native american named "Osceola" fought the move and was tricked into being arrested and imprisoned while the government plowed ahead with resettling the Seminoles far from their native lands. What the hell does the Osceola city council have to say about that, the freakin' hypocrites!!!!!
yer darn right them jaybirds did us Osceolans wrong. Or is it gaybirds? heh heh heh.. They need to pay for their orgy of drunkenness and lootin. The only orgy axeceptable in these parts is the one mah cousin throws.
When ku chose the "jayhawk" as a mascot, they knew exactly what they were doing. It was intended as an insult to every innocent Missourian who had been victimized by the jayhawker scum during the Civil War. ku can rationalize all they want about the mascot being a cartoonish bird, but we all know the truth. I can tell you all as a student of history, Missourians (who were trying to forget about the Civil War) were enraged when ku chose the jayhawk as a mascot. It's probably the main reason there is a rivalry because otherwise, who really gives a **** about ku.
I was unaware of the Osceola raid. We burned Osceola? For reals?
Why, oh why, won't anyone think of the cheese? The delicious, melty cheese.
I have no problem with mourning the deaths and destruction of both towns. Lawrence and Osceola, real people died, real people murdered others, families and homes were destroyed. The civil war and it's issues have left damage and scars. Osceola has a point about people should not dismiss or justify the killing and looting, but I would add, of either community. I dislike the connecting of these issues to a damn sports rah rah rivalry. That is just part of the importance people are emotionally assigning to games.
I drive through Osceola all the time on the way to the lake and I'm a KU grad. I'll have to be sure to not stop and buy gas or cheese at Osceola Cheese anymore. People who can't give up their confederate past and/or can't get over some fun college rivalry have very small minds.
I think they should keep Jayhawk. Despite the slaughter there is too much history in the name. It isn't so much about the killings as it is about the time when giant woody woodpecker-like creatures helped Abe Lincoln end slavery.
Wait, so someone from the former slave state used the word "uppity" to describe Kansans? Sounds about right to me. Still racist after all these years.
Yeah, not the first city in the U.S. to be "terrorized" by a neighbor. Political biz must be slow-going in Osceola. - The Jackalope News
I am from Columbia, MO and am an MU alumni and I find this silly. I love the MU/KU rivalry but come on. This is just asking to be made fun of and that's not exactly going to bring any additional respect to Osceola or Missouri for that matter. Besides, isn't the best revenge just not caring and moving on?
I would never refer to KU as a place of "higher learning". Want an education in Kansas go to K-State. Want recreation, go to KU.
I work in sales so when I have to make small talk with a customer (who is usually from a different region of the country) it is often about sports. Talk inevitably turns to the KU - MU rivalry and why it is so intense. I generally start my explanation with, "Well, it actually goes back to the Civil War..." and I end it with, "...and then they burned Lawrence, Kansas to the ground."
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