Kansas and Kansas State Football Top 25 Ranking Tracker Bobbleheads Unveiled

This morning, to celebrate the start of the college football season, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled first-of-their-kind Kansas Jayhawks and Kansas State Wildcats Football Top 25 Ranking Tracker Bobbleheads. The unique bobbleheads let fans change their team’s ranking each week. Kansas kicks off the season tonight when they host Lindenwood while Kansas State kicks off the season when they host UT Martin on Saturday. The officially licensed bobbleheads are being produced by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, an official licensee of the University of Kansas and Kansas State University.

• Released in conjunction with the start of the 2024 college football season, The bobbleheads are now available in the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum’s Online Store at this link.
• The bobbleheads, which are expected to ship in January, are $40 each plus a flat-rate shipping charge of $8 per order.
• Each bobblehead is individually numbered to 2,024.
• Standing on a football field base, the bobbleheads feature Willie the Wildcat for Kansas State and Big Jay for Kansas with numbered blocks that can be adjusted when each team’s ranking changes.
• Kansas State is ranked #18 in the Preseason AP Top 25 Football Poll and #17 in the AFCA Coaches Poll, while Kansas is ranked #22 in the Preseason AP Top 25 Football Poll and #24 in the AFCA Coaches Poll.
• Kansas State kicks off the season when they host UT Martin on Saturday and Kansas kicks off the season Thursday night when they host Lindenwood.
• The first costumed Willie mascot appeared in 1947. Willie is typically depicted as having a human body with a giant wildcat head. In 1989, newly hired football coach Bill Snyder wanted a new logo to change the image of the program. Tom Bookwalter, a K-State art professor, created a stylized wildcat’s head known as the Powercat that was added to the football team’s helmets. By the mid-1990s, the Powercat replaced the cartoon-style Willie as K-State’s primary logo. Willie has been known to crowd surf and he also does one-push-up on a raised push-up platform for each point on the scoreboard for K-State when the Wildcats score a touchdown or convert a field goal. On the scoreboard at Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium (formerly KSU Stadium), it displays the total number of push-ups that Willie has done since the beginning of the season. In addition to the time-honored push-up tradition, Willie also leads the crowd in his signature K-S-U chant in which he moves his arms and legs to form a K-S-U and then fist pumps to signal the crowd to yell “Wildcats!” three times in a row.
• The original mascot for the Kansas Jayhawks was a bulldog. In 1912, the Jayhawk was first seen in a cartoon by Henry Maloy in The University Daily Kansan. In November 1958, the Jayhawk became the official mascot of Kansas University. Big Jay arrived on the scene in the 1960s, while Baby Jay was created by student Amy Sue Hurst and hatched at halftime of KU’s Homecoming victory over Kansas State on October 9th, 1971. Both mascots are instrumental in “Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk” (aka the “Rock Chalk” chant) that is used at Kansas sporting events. Among the most famous of college cheers, it has been the battle cry for KU fans for more than 100 years.
• “We’re excited to unveil this first-of-its-kind Top 25 Ranking Bobblehead Series in conjunction with the start of the 2024 college football season,” National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said. “These bobbleheads will be the perfect way for Kansas and Kansas State fans to track the team’s ranking each week for many seasons to come and a great way for fans, alumni, students, faculty, and staff to show off their school pride all year long!”
• The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, which is located at 170 S. 1st. St. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, opened to the public on February 1st, 2019. The HOF and Museum also produces high quality, customized bobbleheads for retail sale as well as organizations, individuals, and teams across the country.