Given the prevalence of knee injuries in the pediatric population, along with a greater push towards using immature tissues as cell sources for linearity gluc tissue engineering, a thorough elucidation of the biochemistry of immature knee joint tissues, not just adult tissues, is warranted. An understanding of immature joint physiology may also yield insight into tissue development by providing a reference to which adult tissues can be compared, as well as informing a general understanding of factors at play in pediatric joint injury. Additionally, because orthopaedic explant and tissue engineering studies are relying more readily on bovine tissues, it is imperative that a full assessment of the bovine joint be undertaken. The objective of this study was to perform a comprehensive characterization of the tensile properties, collagen content, and pyridinoline crosslink abundance of the major connective tissues of the immature bovine knee joint. Tissues of interest were femoral condylar and patellar cartilage, medial and lateral menisci, cranial and caudal cruciate ligaments, medial and lateral collateral ligaments, and patellar ligament. It was hypothesized that trends in tensile properties would reflect those in collagen content; that tensile properties and collagen content would be higher in fibrocartilaginous and ligamentous tissues than in hyaline tissues; and that pyridinoline crosslinks would be found in all tissues, in spite of the immaturity of the tissues. Results from this investigation reinforce the interplay of tissue biomechanics and biochemical content and provide design parameters for future efforts concerned with connective tissue engineering for joint repair. This study examined the major connective tissues of the immature bovine knee joint, motivated by a need to understand the interplay of biomechanics and biochemistry in immature connective tissues, as well as to establish design parameters for in vitro tissue engineering efforts. In the present study, differences were found across tissue types with respect to histology, collagen content, pyridinoline crosslink abundance, and tensile properties. In addition to reinforcing orthopaedic structure-function relationships, to our knowledge, this study is the first to examine these parameters in a direct head-to-head comparison among all of the major connective tissues of the knee, the first to assess pyridinoline crosslink abundance in all the tissues of a bovine joint, and the first to report results for pyridinoline crosslink abundance that suggest its preferential role over collagen in determining stiffness for certain tissues. In the present study, tissues of interest were first examined histologically for the presence of collagen and GAGs to infer qualitative structural differences underlying the biomechanical distinctions between these different tissues. Meniscus and ligament specimens appeared nearly identical, exhibiting extensive staining for collagen with no observable GAG staining. Hyaline cartilage, by contrast, exhibited less collagen staining than either meniscus or ligament, but also significant GAG staining. These histological trends correspond to the notion of knee joint connective tissues spanning a continuum between hyaline tissue and fibrous tissue . These qualitative histological differences relate to the functional roles of these tissues: fibrous tissues and fibrocartilage tissues experience tremendous tensile stresses during locomotion, while hyaline cartilage experiences a balance of both tensile and compressive stresses, though preferentially the latter.