Found this shirt online, with a little history box next to it. Thought I'd pass it along. Seems a bit harsh. I'm guessing these aren't for sale in Larrytown...
Jay•hawk•er (ˈdʒeɪˌhɔ kər)
n.
1. a native or inhabitant of Kansas
(used as a nickname).
2. (sometimes l.c.) a plundering
marauder, esp. one of the antislavery guerrillas in Kansas and Missouri before
and during the Civil War.
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jay·hawk·er (j
  hô k r)
n.
1. One of the free-soil guerrillas in
Kansas and Missouri during the border
disputes
of 1854 to 1859 to 1859.
2. A Unionist guerrilla.
3.
Jayhawker Informal
A native or resident of Kansas.
[From jayhawk, a fictitious bird.]
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The origin of the term "Jayhawker" is
uncertain. The term was adopted as a nickname by a group of emigrants traveling
to California in 1849. The origin of the term may go back as far as
the Revolutionary
War, when it was reportedly used to describe a group associated with
American patriot John Jay.
The term became part of the lexicon of the
Missouri-Kansas border in about 1858, during the Kansas territorial period.
The term was used to describe militant bands nominally associated with the
free-state cause. One early Kansas history contained this succinct
characterization of the jayhawkers:
A newspaper reporter traveling through Kansas
in 1863 provided definitions of jayhawker and associated terms:
"Jayhawkers, Red Legs, and Bushwhackers
are everyday terms in Kansas and Western Missouri. A Jayhawker is a Unionist
who professes to rob, burn out and murder only rebels in arms against the
government. A Red Leg is a Jayhawker originally distinguished by the uniform of
red leggings. A Red Leg, however, is regarded as more purely an indiscriminate
thief and murderer than the Jayhawker or Bushwhacker. A Bushwhacker is a rebel
Jayhawker, or a rebel who bands with others for the purpose of preying upon the
lives and property of Union citizens. They are all lawless and indiscriminate
in their iniquities." …the jayhawk is said to be a combination of two
birds, "the blue jay, a noisy, quarrelsome thing known to rob other nests,
and the sparrow hawk, a stealthy hunter."
It's always something....
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