The University of Kansas Jayhawks' football team made history with their win over BYU
For the second year in a row, the University of Kansas Jayhawks have started their season with four straight wins.
The Jayhawks opened conference play on Saturday in a Week 4 win over BYU, 38-27. The Cougars, who were playing their first in-conference game as one of the newest members of the Big 12, fell to 3-1.
It has been a very long time since Kansas' football team started back-to-back seasons 4-0. In fact, the last time the Jayhawks won their first four games of the season multiple years in a row was over a span of three years: 1913-1915, over 100 years ago. Since then, no Kansas football team had even managed two 4-0 starts in a row until 2022-2023.
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Last time Jayhawks started 4-0 in back-to-back seasons
The world was a different place the last time the Jayhawks had back-to-back years with 4-0 starts.
For one, Kansas only played eight games per season in the early 20th century. A 4-0 start meant at least a .500 season for the team. In 1915, the Jayhawks won two of their final four games but finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference to the undefeated Nebraska Cornhuskers.
It is the same Missouri Valley Conference that exists today, though many of its members from 1915 split off in 1928 and formed what eventually became the Big 12.
There was also a lot going on outside of the college football world in fall 1915 as well.
World War I had just entered its second year, and the United States had not yet gotten involved.
Babe Ruth made his World Series debut and won his first championship with the Boston Red Sox.
The Ford Motor Company manufactured its one millionth automobile.
And on Oct. 23, the day of the Jayhawks' fourth straight win in 1915, Dr. Anna Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the League of Women Voters, led 25,000 people down New York City's Fifth Avenue in a women's suffrage march.
Big 12 standings
Kansas is tied with two other teams for first place in the Big 12 through four weeks. Oklahoma and Texas are the only other undefeated teams in the conference.
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Team | Conference Record | Overall Record |
Kansas | 1-0 | 4-0 |
No. 16 Oklahoma* | 1-0 | 4-0 |
No. 3 Texas* | 1-0 | 4-0 |
Kansas State | 1-0 | 3-1 |
TCU | 1-0 | 3-1 |
1-0 | 3-1 | |
Iowa State | 1-0 | 2-2 |
BYU | 0-1 | 3-1 |
0-1 | 3-1 | |
0-1 | 2-2 | |
Houston | 0-1 | 2-2 |
Oklahoma State | 0-1 | 2-2 |
Baylor | 0-1 | 1-3 |
0-1 | 1-3 |
Kansas Jayhawks football head coach
Kansas head coach Lance Leipold moved to a 12-17 overall record in his third season with the Jayhawks.
He previously coached the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to seven Division III Championship appearances and six wins in eight years (2007-2014).
Immediately prior to taking over at Kansas in 2021, Leipold was the head coach for the University at Buffalo from 2015-2020. The Buffalo Bulls were 37-33 during his tenure with two appearances in the MAC championship.
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Kansas Jayhawks next football game
The Jayhawks head to Austin in Week 5 for a divisional clash with No. 3 Texas on Saturday, Sept. 30 at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on ABC.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kansas Jayhawks: Big 12 leaders' 4-0 record breaks 100-year drought
