Our take on a classic collegiate University of Kansas crest incorporates Big Jay, in addition to their signature crimson and blue colors. Crimson wasn’t the university’s first color choice – originally, the university adopted the maize of Michigan with sky blue, but they soon replaced yellow with crimson after Col. John J. McCook, a Harvard alum, donated money toward athletics. Since KU had Yale men on staff at the time, too, they demanded the incorporation of a deeper Yale blue.