Kansas () is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name (natively kką:ze) is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was probably not the term's original meaning. Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans."
For thousands of years what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the Eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the Western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. Kansas was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a free state or a slave state. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided, and was known as Bleeding Kansas. The abolitionists eventually prevailed and on January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state. After the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly, when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. Today, Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, sorghum and sunflowers.
For millennia, the land that is currently Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. The first European to set foot in present-day Kansas was Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who explored the area in 1541.
In 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Kansas, however, was still a part of Spain, Mexico, and the Republic of Texas until the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848. From 1812 to 1821, Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory. The Santa Fe Trail traversed Kansas from 1821 to 1880, transporting manufactured goods from Missouri and silver and furs from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wagon ruts from the trail are still visible in the prairie today.
In 1827, Fort Leavenworth became the first permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state. The Kansas-Nebraska Act became law on May 30, 1854, establishing the U.S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and opening the area to broader settlement by whites. Kansas Territory stretched all the way to the Continental Divide and included the sites of present-day Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. Missouri and Arkansas sent settlers into Kansas all along its eastern border. These settlers attempted to sway votes in favor of slavery. The secondary settlement of Americans in Kansas Territory were abolitionists from Massachusetts and other Free-Staters, who attempted to stop the spread of slavery from neighboring Missouri. Directly presaging the American Civil War, these forces collided, entering into skirmishes that earned the territory the name of Bleeding Kansas. Kansas was admitted to the United States as a slave-free state on January 29, 1861, making it the 34th state to enter the Union. By that time the violence in Kansas had largely subsided. However, during the Civil War, on August 21, 1863, William Quantrill led several hundred men on a raid into Lawrence, destroying much of the city and killing nearly two hundred people. He was roundly condemned by both the conventional confederate military and the partisan rangers commissioned by the Missouri legislature. His application to that body for a commission was flatly rejected due to his pre war criminal record.
After the Civil War, many veterans constructed homesteads in Kansas. Many African Americans also looked to Kansas as the land of "John Brown", and led by men like Benjamin "Pap" Singleton began establishing black colonies in the state. At the same time, the Chisholm Trail was opened and the Wild West era commenced in Kansas. Wild Bill Hickok was a deputy marshal at Fort Riley and a marshal at Hays and Abilene. Dodge City was another wild cowboy town, and both Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp worked as lawmen in the town. In one year alone, 8 million head of cattle from Texas boarded trains in Dodge City bound for the East, earning Dodge the nickname "Queen of the Cowtowns."
In part as a response to the violence perpetrated by cowboys, on February 19, 1881 Kansas became the first U.S. state to adopt a Constitutional amendment prohibiting all alcoholic beverages.
Precipitation ranges from about 47 inches (1200 mm) annually in the southeast of the state, to about 16 inches (400 mm) in the southwest. Snowfall ranges from around 5 inches (130 mm) in the fringes of the south, to 35 inches (900 mm) in the far northwest. Frost-free days range from more than 200 days in the south, to 130 days in the northwest. Thus, Kansas is the 9th or 10th sunniest state in the country, depending on the source. Western Kansas is as sunny as California and Arizona.
In spite of the frequent sunshine throughout much of the state, due to its location at a climatic boundary prone to multiple air masses, the state is also vulnerable to strong thunderstorms, especially in the spring months. Many of these storms become Supercell thunderstorms. These can spawn tornadoes, often of EF3 strength or higher. According to statistics from the National Climatic Data Center, Kansas has reported more tornadoes (for the period 1 January 1950 through 31 October 2006) than any state except for Texas – marginally even more than Oklahoma. It has also – along with Alabama – reported more F5 or EF5 tornadoes than any other state. These are the most powerful of all tornadoes. Kansas averages over 50 tornadoes annually.
According to NOAA, the all-time highest temperature recorded in Kansas is 121°F (49.4°C) on July 24, 1936, near Alton, and the all-time low is −40°F (−40°C) on February 13, 1905, near Lebanon.
Kansas's record high of 121°F (49.4°C) ties with North Dakota for the fifth-highest record high in an American state, behind California (134°F/56.7°C), Arizona (128°F/53.3°C), Nevada (125°F/51.7°C), and New Mexico (122°F/50°C).
City | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Concordia | ||||||||||||
Dodge City | ||||||||||||
Goodland | ||||||||||||
Topeka | ||||||||||||
Wichita | ||||||||||||
As of 2004, the population included 149,800 foreign-born (5.5% of the state population). The ten largest reported ancestry groups, which account for over 85% of the population, in the state are: German (33.75%), Irish (14.4%), English (14.1%), American (7.5%), French (4.4%), Scottish (4.2%), Dutch (2.5%), Swedish (2.4%), Italian (1.8%), and Polish (1.5%). People of German ancestry are especially strong in the northwest, while those of English ancestry and descendants of white Americans from other states are especially strong in the southeast. Mexicans are present in the southwest and make up nearly half the population in certain counties. Many African Americans in Kansas are descended from the Exodusters, newly freed blacks who fled the South for land in Kansas following the Civil War.
Christian 86%
Non-religious 9%
Jewish 2%
Other 2%
As of the year 2000, the RCMS reported that the three largest denominational groups in Kansas are Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, and Catholic. The Catholic Church has the highest number of adherents in Kansas (at 405,844), followed by the United Methodist Church with 206,187 members reported and the Southern Baptist Convention, reporting 101,696 adherents.
Though small, the Kansas Baha'i community has the distinction of being the second in the western hemisphere, founded in 1897 in Enterprise, Kansas. {| style="float:right; margin:0 0 1em 1em; clear:right; text-align:right;" | |}
Out of all the cities in these Midwestern states, 89% have fewer than 3,000 people, and hundreds of those have fewer than 1,000. In Kansas alone, there are more than 6,000 ghost towns and dwindling communities, according to one Kansas historian, Daniel C. Fitzgerald.
At the same time, some of the communities in Johnson County (metropolitan Kansas City) are among the fastest-growing in the country.
The agricultural outputs of the state are cattle, sheep, wheat, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, hogs, corn, and salt. Eastern Kansas is part of the Grain Belt, an area of major grain production in the central United States. The industrial outputs are transportation equipment, commercial and private aircraft, food processing, publishing, chemical products, machinery, apparel, petroleum and mining. {|align=right | |- | style="text-align: right;"| {| style="float:right; width:310px; background:#f9f9f9; border:1px #aaa solid; border-collapse:collapse;" |- ! colspan="5" style="background:#ffdead;" | Largest Employers (as of 2007) |- !style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Rank !style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Business !style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Employees !style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Location !style="background: #e3e3e3;"|Industry |- | #1 | Sprint Nextel | 12,000 | Overland Park | Telecommunications |- style="background: #e3e3e3;" | #2 |Cessna | 11,300 | Wichita | Aviation |- | #3 | Spirit AeroSystems | 10,900 | Wichita | Aviation |- style="background: #e3e3e3;" | #4 | Hawker Beechcraft | 6,767 | Wichita | Aviation |- | #5 | Embarq | 3,800 | Overland Park | Telecommunications |- style="background: #e3e3e3;" | #6 | Black & Veatch | 3,800 | Overland Park | Engineering |- | #7 | Boeing | 3,005 | Wichita | Aviation |- style="background: #e3e3e3;" | #8 | Farmers Insurance | 3,000 | Olathe | Insurance |- | #9 | YRC Worldwide | 2,600 | Overland Park | Trucking |- style="background: #e3e3e3;" | #10 | Garmin | 2,500 | Olathe | GPS Technology |- | #11 | Learjet | 2,250 | Wichita | Aviation |- style="background: #e3e3e3;" | #12 | Koch Industries | 2,000 | Wichita | Chemicals/Materials |- | #13 | Schwan Food Company | 2,000 | Salina | Food |- style="background: #e3e3e3;" | #14 | Collective Brands | 1,700 | Topeka | Apparel |- | #15 | Blue Cross and Blue Shield | 1,603 | Topeka | Insurance |} |} Kansas ranks 8th in U.S. oil production. Production has experienced a steady, natural decline as it becomes increasingly difficult to extract oil over time. Since oil prices bottomed in 1999, oil production in Kansas has remained fairly constant, with an average monthly rate of about in 2004. The recent higher prices have made carbon dioxide sequestration and other oil recovery techniques more economical.
Kansas ranks 8th in U.S. natural gas production. Production has steadily declined since the mid-1990s with the gradual depletion of the Hugoton Natural Gas Field—the state's largest field which extends into Oklahoma and Texas. In 2004, slower declines in the Hugoton gas fields and increased coalbed methane production contributed to a smaller overall decline. Average monthly production was over 32 billion cubic feet (0.9 km³).
The Kansas economy is also heavily influenced by the aerospace industry. Several large aircraft corporations have manufacturing facilities in Wichita and Kansas City, including Spirit AeroSystems, Boeing, Cessna, Learjet, and Hawker Beechcraft (formerly Raytheon).
Major company headquarters in Kansas include the Sprint Nextel Corporation (with world headquarters in Overland Park), Embarq (with national headquarters in Overland Park), YRC Worldwide (Overland Park), Garmin (Olathe), Payless Shoes (national headquarters and major distribution facilities in Topeka), and Koch Industries (with national headquarters in Wichita).
Revenue shortfalls resulting from lower than expected tax collections and slower growth in personal income following a 1998 permanent tax reduction has contributed to the substantial growth in the state's debt level as bonded debt increased from $1.16 billion in 1998 to $3.83 billion in 2006. Some increase in debt was expected as the state continues with its 10-year Comprehensive Transportation Program enacted in 1999. As of June 2004, Moody's Investors Service ranked the state 14th for net tax-supported debt per capita. As a percentage of personal income, it was at 3.8%—above the median value of 2.5% for all rated states and having risen from a value of less than 1% in 1992. The state has a statutory requirement to maintain cash reserves of at least 7.5% of expenses at the end of each fiscal year, however, lawmakers can vote to override the rule, and did so during the most recent budget agreement.
Spur routes serve as connections between the two major routes. I-135, a north/south route, connects I-70 at Salina to I-35 at Wichita. I-335, a northeast/southwest route, connects I-70 at Topeka to I-35 at Emporia. I-335 and portions of I-35 and I-70 make up the Kansas Turnpike. Bypasses include I-470 around Topeka and I-235 around Wichita. I-435 is a beltway around the Kansas City Metropolitan Area while I-635 bypasses through Kansas City, Kansas.
US Route 69 runs north and south, from Minnesota to Texas. The highway passes through the eastern section of Kansas, from the Kansas City area, through Louisburg, Fort Scott, Frontenac, Pittsburg, and Baxter Springs before entering Oklahoma. Kansas also has the second largest state highway system in the country after California. This is because of the high number of counties and county seats (105) and the intertwining of them all.
In January 2004, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) announced the new Kansas 511 traveler information service. By dialing 511, callers will get access to information about road conditions, construction, closures, detours and weather conditions for the state highway system. Weather and road condition information is updated every 15 minutes.
The state's only major commercial (Class C) airport is Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, located along US-54 on the western edge of the city. Manhattan Regional Airport in Manhattan offers daily flights to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, making it the second-largest commercial airport in the state. Most air travelers in northeastern Kansas fly out of Kansas City International Airport, located in Platte County, Missouri. For those in the far western part of the state, Denver International Airport is a popular option. Connecting flights are also available from smaller Kansas airports in Dodge City, Garden City, Great Bend, Hays, Hutchinson, and Salina. Forbes Field in Topeka sustained commercial flights on Allegiant Air for short period of time until that service was terminated in 2007.
The legislative branch of the state government is the Kansas Legislature. The bicameral body consists of the Kansas House of Representatives, with 125 members serving two-year terms, and the Kansas Senate, with 40 members serving four-year terms.
The judicial branch of the state government is headed by the Kansas Supreme Court. The court has seven judges, who are selected via the Missouri Plan.
Kansas has a reputation as a progressive state with many firsts in legislative initiatives—it was the first state to institute a system of workers' compensation (1910) and to regulate the securities industry (1911). Kansas also permitted women's suffrage in 1912, almost a decade before the federal constitution was amended to require it. Suffrage in all states would not be guaranteed until ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. The council-manager government was adopted by many larger Kansas cities in the years following World War I while many American cities were being run by political machines or organized crime, notably the Pendergast Machine in neighboring Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas was also at the center of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, a 1954 Supreme Court decision that banned racially segregated schools throughout the U.S.
Kansas was one of the few states in which Franklin D. Roosevelt had limited political support, winning Kansas only twice in his four campaigns, although he won the state over Kansas governor Alfred M. Landon during the landslide of 1936. The state backed Republicans Wendell Willkie and Thomas E. Dewey in 1940 and 1944, respectively. Kansas also supported Dewey in 1948 despite the presence of incumbent president Harry S. Truman, who hailed from Independence, Missouri, approximately 15 miles east of the Kansas-Missouri state line. Since FDR carried Kansas in 1932 and 1936, only one Democrat has won Kansas' electoral votes, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
Over the past four decades, Kansas has remained more socially conservative than many parts of the nation. The 1990s brought new restrictions on abortion, the defeat of prominent Democrats, including Dan Glickman, and the Kansas State Board of Education's 1999 decision to eliminate evolution from the state teaching standards, a decision that was later reversed. In 2005, voters accepted a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. The next year, the state passed a law setting a minimum age for marriage at 15 years. In 2008, Governor Sebelius vetoed permits for the construction of new coal-fired energy plants in Kansas, saying: "We know that greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. As an agricultural state, Kansas is particularly vulnerable. Therefore, reducing pollutants benefits our state not only in the short term – but also for generations of Kansans to come." However, shortly after Mark Parkinson became governor in 2009 upon Sebelius's resignation, Parkinson announced a compromise plan to allow construction of a coal-fired plant.
In 2010, Sam Brownback was elected governor with 63 percent of the state vote. He was sworn in as governor in 2011, Kansas' first Republican governor in eight years. Brownback had established himself as a very conservative member of the U.S. Senate in years prior, but since becoming governor has made several controversial decisions. In May 2011, much to the opposition of art leaders and enthusiasts in the state, Brownback eliminated the Kansas Arts Commission, making Kansas the first state without an arts agency. In July 2011, Brownback announced plans to close the Lawrence branch of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services as a cost-saving measure. Hundreds rallied against the decision. Lawrence City Commission later voted to provide the funding needed to keep the branch open.
Historically, Kansas has been strongly Republican, dating from the Antebellum age when the Republican Party was created out of the movement opposing the extension of slavery into Kansas Territory. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since the 1932 election, when Franklin D. Roosevelt won his first term as President in the wake of the Great Depression. This is the longest Senate losing streak for either party in a single state. Senator Sam Brownback was a candidate for the Republican party nomination for President in 2008. Brownback was not a candidate for re-election to a third full term in 2010, but he was elected Governor in that year's general election. Moran defeated Tiahrt for the Republican nomination for Brownback's seat in the August 2010 primary, then won a landslide general election victory over Democrat Lisa Johnston.
The only non-Republican presidential candidates Kansas has given its electoral vote to are Populist James Weaver and Democrats Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt (twice), and Lyndon Johnson. In 2004, George W. Bush won the state's six electoral votes by an overwhelming margin of 25 percentage points with 62% of the vote. The only two counties to support Democrat John Kerry in that election were Wyandotte, which contains Kansas City, and Douglas, home to the University of Kansas, located in Lawrence. The 2008 election brought similar results as John McCain won the state with 57% of the votes. Douglas, Wyandotte, and Crawford County were the only counties in support of President Barack Obama.
+Cities with population of at least 15,000 | ||||
!!City!!Population*!!Growth rate**!!Metro area | ||||
1 | Wichita, Kansas>Wichita | align="right"382,368|| | 11.1% | Wichita |
2 | Overland Park, KansasOverland Park|| | 173,372 | 16.3% | Kansas City Metropolitan Area>Kansas City, MO-KS |
3 | Kansas City, KansasKansas City|| | 145,786 | style="text-align:center;"||
4 | Topeka, KansasTopeka|| | 127,473 | 4.2% | Topeka |
5 | Olathe, KansasOlathe|| | 125,872 | 35.4% | Kansas City |
6 | Lawrence, KansasLawrence|| | 87,643 | 9.4% | Lawrence |
7 | Shawnee, KansasShawnee|| | 62,209 | 29.6% | Kansas City |
8 | Manhattan, KansasManhattan|| | 52,281 | 16.6% | Manhattan |
9 | Lenexa, KansasLenexa|| | 48,190 | 19.8% | Kansas City |
10 | Salina, KansasSalina|| | 47,707 | 4.4% | ‡ |
11 | Hutchinson, KansasHutchinson|| | 42,080 | 3.2% | ‡ |
12 | Leavenworth, KansasLeavenworth|| | 35,251 | style="text-align:center;"||
13 | Leawood, KansasLeawood|| | 31,867 | 15.2% | Kansas City |
14 | Dodge City, KansasDodge City|| | 27,340 | 8.6% | ‡ |
15 | Garden City, KansasGarden City|| | 26,658 | style="text-align:center;"||
16 | Emporia, KansasEmporia|| | 24,916 | style="text-align:center;"||
17 | Junction City, KansasJunction City|| | 23,353 | 13.0% | Manhattan |
18 | Derby, KansasDerby|| | 22,158 | 24.4% | Wichita |
19 | Prairie Village, KansasPrairie Village|| | 21,447 | style="text-align:center;"||
20 | Liberal, KansasLiberal|| | 20,525 | 4.4% | ‡ |
21 | Hays, KansasHays|| | 20,510 | 2.5% | ‡ |
22 | Pittsburg, KansasPittsburg|| | 20,233 | 5.1% | ‡ |
23 | Newton, KansasNewton|| | 19,132 | 11.3% | Wichita |
24 | Gardner, KansasGardner|| | 19,123 | 103.5% | Kansas City |
25 | Great Bend, KansasGreat Bend|| | 15,995 | 4.2% | ‡ |
colspan = 5 |
Kansas has 627 incorporated cities. By state statute, cities are divided into three classes as determined by the population obtained "by any census of enumeration." A city of the third class has a population of less than 5,000, but cities reaching a population of more than 2,000 may be certified as a city of the second class. The second class is limited to cities with a population of less than 25,000, and upon reaching a population of more than 15,000, they may be certified as a city of the first class. First and second class cities are independent of any township and are not included within the township's territory.
Several institutions of higher education are located in Northeast Kansas including Baker University (the oldest university in the state, founded in 1858 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church) in Baldwin City, Benedictine College (sponsored by St. Benedict's Abbey and Mount St. Scholastica Monastery and formed from the merger of St. Benedict's College (1858) and Mount St. Scholastica College (1923)) in Atchison, MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Ottawa University in Ottawa and Overland Park, Kansas City Kansas Community College and KU Medical Center in Kansas City, and KU Edwards Campus in Overland Park. Less than an hour's drive to the west, Lawrence is home to the University of Kansas, the largest public university in the state, and Haskell Indian Nations University.
To the north, Kansas City, Kansas, with the second largest land area in the state, contains a number of diverse ethnic neighborhoods. Its attractions include the Kansas Speedway, Kansas City T-Bones and The Legends at Village West retail and entertainment center. Further up the Missouri River, the city of Lansing is the home of the state's first maximum-security prison. Historic Leavenworth, founded in 1854, was the first incorporated city in Kansas. North of the city, Fort Leavenworth is the oldest active Army post west of the Mississippi River. The city of Atchison was an early commercial center in the state and is well known as the birthplace of Amelia Earhart.
To the west, nearly a quarter million people reside in the Topeka metropolitan area. Topeka is the state capital and home to Washburn University. Built at a Kansas River crossing along the old Oregon Trail, this historic city has several nationally registered historic places. Further westward along Interstate 70 and the Kansas River is Junction City with its historic limestone and brick buildings and nearby Fort Riley, well known as the home to the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, also known as the "Big Red One". A short distance away, the city of Manhattan is home to Kansas State University, the second largest public university in the state and the nation's oldest land-grant university, dating back to 1863. South of the campus, Aggieville dates back to 1889 and is the state's oldest shopping district of its kind.
Up river (the Arkansas River) from Wichita is the city of Hutchinson. The city was built on one of the world's largest salt deposits, and it has the world's largest and longest wheat elevator. It is also the home of Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Prairie Dunes Country Club and the Kansas State Fair. North of Wichita along Interstate 135 is the city of Newton, the former western terminal of the Santa Fe Railroad and trailhead for the famed Chisholm Trail. To the southeast of Wichita are the cities of Winfield and Arkansas City with historic architecture and the Cherokee Strip Museum (in Ark City). The city of Udall was the site of the deadliest tornado in Kansas on May 25, 1955; it killed 80 people in and near the city. To the southwest of Wichita is Freeport, the state's smallest incorporated city (population 5).
Southeast Kansas
Southeast Kansas has a unique history with a number of nationally registered historic places in this coal-mining region. Located in Crawford County (dubbed the Fried Chicken Capital of Kansas), Pittsburg is the largest city in the region and the home of Pittsburg State University. The neighboring city of Frontenac in 1888 was the site of the worst mine disaster in the state in which an underground explosion killed 47 miners. "Big Brutus" is located a mile and a half outside the city of West Mineral. Along with the restored fort, historic Fort Scott has a national cemetery designated by President Lincoln in 1862.
Central and North-Central Kansas
Salina is the largest city in central and north-central Kansas. South of Salina is the small city of Lindsborg with its numerous Dala horses. Much of the architecture and decor of this town has a distinctly Swedish style. To the east along Interstate 70, the historic city of Abilene was formerly a trailhead for the Chisholm Trail and was the boyhood home of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. To the west is Lucas, the Grassroots Art Capital of Kansas.
Northwest Kansas Westward along the Interstate, the city of Russell, traditionally the beginning of sparsely-populated northwest Kansas, is the home of former U.S. Senator Bob Dole and the boyhood home of U.S. Senator Arlen Specter. The city of Hays is home to Fort Hays State University and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, and is the largest city in the northwest with a population of around 20,000. Two other landmarks are located in smaller towns in Ellis County: the "Cathedral of the Plains" is located east of Hays in Victoria, and the boyhood home of Walter Chrysler is west of Hays in Ellis. West of Hays, population drops dramatically, even in areas along I-70, and only two towns containing populations of more than 4,000: Colby and Goodland, which are located 35 miles apart along I-70.
Southwest Kansas
Dodge City, famously known for the cattle drive days of the late 19th century, was built along the old Santa Fe Trail route. The city of Liberal is located along the southern Santa Fe Trail route. The first wind farm in the state was built east of Montezuma. Garden City has the Lee Richardson Zoo.
Twice since 1999 the Board of Education has approved changes in the state science curriculum standards that encouraged the teaching of intelligent design. Both times, the standards were reversed after changes in the composition of the board in the next election.
Sporting Kansas City, who have played their home games at CommunityAmerica Ballpark since 2008, are the first top-tier professional sports league and first Major League Soccer team to be located within Kansas. From the start of the 2011 season, the team will move to Livestrong Sporting Park, a brand new $165m soccer specific stadium.
Historically, many Kansans have supported the major league sports teams of Kansas City, Missouri, including the Kansas City Royals (MLB), the Kansas City Chiefs (NFL) and the Kansas City Brigade (AFL) – in part because the home stadiums for these teams are just miles from the Kansas border. The Chiefs and the Royals play at the Truman Sports Complex, located about from the Kansas-Missouri state line. The Kansas City Brigade play in the newly opened Sprint Center, which is even closer to the state line. Additionally, from 1973 to 1997 the flagship radio station for the Royals was WIBW in Topeka, Kansas.
Western Kansans sometimes also support the major league teams from Denver, while those who live close to the Oklahoma state line may support the Dallas Cowboys. All Chiefs games are televised throughout Kansas by television stations in Topeka and Wichita.
Two major auto racing facilities are located in Kansas. The Kansas Speedway located in Kansas City hosts races of the NASCAR, IRL, and ARCA circuits. Also, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) holds drag racing events at Heartland Park Topeka. The Sports Car Club of America has its national headquarters in Topeka.
In 1887, the Western League was dominated by a reorganized Topeka team called the Golden Giants – a high-priced collection of major leaguer players, including Bug Holliday, Jim Conway, Dan Stearns, Perry Werden and Jimmy Macullar, which won the league by 15½ games. On April 10, 1887, the Golden Giants also won an exhibition game from the defending World Series champions, the St. Louis Browns (the present-day Cardinals), by a score of 12–9. However, Topeka was unable to support the team, and it disbanded after one year.
Both KU and K-State have tradition-rich programs in men's basketball. The Jayhawks are a perennial national power, ranking second in all-time victories among NCAA programs, behind Kentucky. In 2008, the Jayhawks won their fifth national crown (third NCAA tournament title). K-State also had a long stretch of success on the hardwood, lasting from the 1940s to the 1980s. After a 12-year absence, the Wildcats returned to the NCAA tournament in 2008 and made it into the Elite Eight in 2010. KU is tied for 4th all-time with 13 Final Four appearances, while K-State has made four appearances in the Final Four. Wichita State has made one Final Four appearance.
However, success on the football field has been infrequent for either team. When the two teams met in 1987, KU's record was 1–7 and K-State's was 0–8. Fittingly, the Governor's Cup that year, dubbed the "Toilet Bowl" by the media, ended in a 17–17 tie when the Jayhawks blocked a last-second K-State field goal attempt. There have been recent breakthroughs for both schools. KU won the Orange Bowl for the first time in their third visit to the Orange Bowl in 2008, capping a 12–1 season, the best in school history. K-State was historically one of the worst college football programs in the country, until Bill Snyder arrived to coach the Wildcats in 1989. He turned K-State into a national force for most of the 1990s and early 2000s, until he retired after the 2005 season. Snyder returned to the sideline in 2009. The team won the Fiesta Bowl in 1997 and took the Big 12 Conference championship in 2003.
Washburn University, in Topeka, won the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship in 1987. The Fort Hays State University men won the 1996 NCAA Division II title with a 34–0 record, and the Washburn women won the 2005 NCAA Division II crown. St. Benedict's College (now Benedictine College), in Atchison, won the 1954 and 1967 Men's NAIA Basketball Championships.
The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference has its roots as one of the oldest college sport conferences in existence and participates in the NAIA and all ten member schools are in the state of Kansas. Other smaller school conference that have some members in Kansas are the Heartland Conference, the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference, the Midwest Christian College Conference, and the Heart of America Athletic Conference. Many junior colleges also have active athletic programs.
Category:States and territories established in 1861 Category:States of the United States
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