Seal of The University of Kansas The University of Kansas (often referred to as KU) is an institution of higher learning located in Lawrence, Kansas. The University was founded in 1865 by the citizens of Lawrence, under a charter from the Kansas Legislature, with the assistance of a donation of 40 acres (160,000 m²) of land on Mount Oread in Lawrence from former Kansas Governor Charles Robinson and his wife Sara and a small monetary gift from Amos A. Lawrence. In the Fall 2003, the University enrolled 29,272 students. The total faculty head count was 2,158. The total staff and faculty count was 12,328 employees.
The University's School of Medicine is located in Kansas City, Kansas. The KU Edwards Campus (http://edwardscampus.ku.edu) is located in Overland Park, Kansas in the Kansas City metro area. There are also campuses in Parsons, Topeka and a branch of the School of Medicine in Wichita.
The university enjoys a fine national reputation. The most recent edition of Peterson's Guide to Competitive College (http://e-catalog.thomsonlearning.com/326/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=aboutus.htm&2.0#PCorporate) reports that KU "has a long and distinguished tradition as one of America's premier universities." Another popular college guidebook, The Fiske Guide (http://www.fiskeguide.com/) to Colleges, for more than a decade has awarded KU a four-star rating for academics, social life, and overall quality of university life.
KU is home to the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics as well as Kansas Public Radio. Radio station KANU was one of the first public radio stations in the nation. The university is host to several notable museums including the Kansas Natural History Museum, the KU Museum of Anthropology, and the Spencer Museum of Art.
Academics
The University is a large state sponsored university. In addition to a large liberal arts college, it has schools of Education, Medicine, Pharmacy, Fine Arts, Business, Journalism, Engineering, Architecture and Urban Design, Social Welfare and Law. The study of academic Sociology originated at this university, in 1890, for the first time in America .
Notable faculty
Computing
KU's academic computing department was an active participant in setting up the Internet and is the developer of the seminal Lynx text based web browser. Lynx itself provided hypertext browsing and navigation prior to Tim Berners Lee's invention of HTTP and HTML.[1] (http://www.ku.edu/~grobe/early-lynx.html)
Athletics
Kansas_Jayhawk.gif
Mascot of The University of Kansas
The school's sports teams wearing crimson and royal blue are called the Jayhawks. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A, and in the Big XII Conference.
In NCAA DI play, the Jayhawks participate in basketball, baseball, cross country, football, golf, rowing, soccer (women only), softball, swimming (women only), tennis (women only), track, and volleyball (women only).
Football
KU Football dates from 1890. While not a national powerhouse like KU's basketball team, the Jayhawk football team has had notable alumni including Gale Sayers, a two time All-American and played for the Chicago Bears and John Riggins, an All-American and played for the Washington Redskins. KU played in the Orange Bowl twice: 1948 and 1968.
Basketball
The men's basketball team is a perennial national contender, even though their last national championship was in 1988. In addition, Allen Fieldhouse is considered one of the greatest places to play basketball in the nation. Kansas has counted among its coaches Dr. James Naismith (the inventor of basketball), Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Phog Allen (sometimes dubbed "Father of basketball coaching"), and Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown. Ironically, Naismith is the only Kansas coach to have a losing record for his tenure in Lawrence.
The Jayhawks have won 4 national championships. The 1922 and 1923 championships were retroactively awarded by the Helms Foundation in 1936. The 1952 and 1988 championships were won in the NCAA tournament. They have the third most all-time wins in NCAA history, behind Kentucky and North Carolina. The coaches most responsible for Kentucky and North Carolina's lead in wins are Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith, the two coaches with the most wins in NCAA history. They were both players for Kansas under Phog Allen. In addition, several of Smith's assistant coaches became head coaches at KU, including Roy Williams, Larry Brown, and Dick Harp.
KU Men's Basketball Final Four history
KU basketball coaches
KU alumni in basketball hall of fame
KU NBA basketball players(2004-2005)
Distinguished alumni
- William H. Avery, Governor, State of Kansas in the 1960s.
- Brian Barker, Judge and Queen's Counsel in England
- Etta Moten Barnett, Actress and singer
- Linda Z. Cook, CEO of Shell Gas and Power, part of Royal Dutch/Shell, named the 11th most powerful businesswoman in the world by Fortune magazine in 2002.
- Richard Davis, Chairman and Founder of K.C. Masterpiece Barbecue Products Inc
- Bob Dole, US Senator from Kansas and Republican nominee for President in the 1996 election. Attended KU from 1941-1943. World War II Hero.
- Bob Dotson, NBC TV features reporter
- Robert Eaton, Former Chrysler CEO
- Joe Engle, (Colonel, USAF, Ret.) NASA Astronaut
- Kevin Helliker, 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner for explanatory journalism and Chicago bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal
- William Inge, Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winning author/playwright
- Don Johnson, Actor, Attended KU from 1968-1970
- Nancy Kassebaum Baker, US Senator from Kansas
- Robert Kleist, CEO and Founder of a global company, Printronix that has developed printers that offer languages to support its worldwide user base.
- Neil LaBute, Film director, screenwriter and playwright
- Billy Mills, First American to win Gold medal in the 10,000 m run at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games
- Sara Paretsky, Writer
- Paul Rudd, Actor
- Jim Ryun, US athlete and politician
- Gale Sayers, NFL Hall of Famer 1977
- Vernon L. Smith, Winner of Nobel Prize for Economics, 2002
- William Stafford, Poet and pacifist
- Dee Wallace Stone, Actress
- Clyde Tombaugh, Astronomer, Discoverer of Planet Pluto (1906-1997)
- Danny Manning, Basketball player and coach
External links
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