Ole Miss ousts mascot

AP ^ | 06/18/03

[Pokey78]

Oxford, Miss. -- The Colonel Rebel mascot is out for this football season while the University of Mississippi searches for a new image.

Athletic Director Pete Boone said the "Southern plantation-look" man with a big head, floppy hat and clothes and cane will off the sidelines while Ole Miss considers what it will do about its mascot.

The Colonel Rebel logo, however, is still an official trademark of the university, university officials said Wednesday.

Boone said the change is not part of any plan to completely overhaul or change the school's longtime nicknames "Ole Miss" or "Rebels."

"It's an idea we've been thinking about and discussing for eight years. It's not something that's new," Boone told the Oxford Eagle newspaper.

"The thing that has always struck me about our mascot is that it was not an athletic mascot," he said. "It was, as we've all said, an old man with a cane. It just didn't look athletic, it didn't represent anything athletic and it seemed to be a different image than what we were trying to do from an athletic department standpoint."

The private Ole Miss Loyalty Foundation that supports athletics has spent $30,000 for the New York-based Phoenix Group to study Colonel Rebel, Ole Miss lettering and logos.

The university may ask for suggestions in a design contest that opens it up to students, alumni and other supporters during the 2003-04 school year.

The study and search are underway, but school officials have said it's highly unlikely a replacement will be found, or finalized, before basketball season or possibly next year. Officials said the school will not have a mascot until a suitable replacement is approved.

[xrp]

so if I have a cane or floppy hat and wear it, does this make me racist?

[TBall]

I remember visiting a friend of mine at Ole Miss. There were ugly girls all over the place.

[annyokie]

Ping!

[dixiechick2000]

Rebel Yell ping!

[Constitution Day]

Good grief.

[Jonez712]

POLITICALLY-CORRECT FOOOOOOOOOOOLS


!

[TomServo]

[Calvin Coolidge]

The article actually paints the decision as being motivated purely on the grounds that an old man with a hat is not a particularly aggressive mascot for an athletic department.

University of Pennsylvania has a similar problem: our mascot is the Penn Quaker. Hard to intimidate your opponents when the 'Fightin' Quakers' take the field. Still, they somehow managed undefeated conference seasons in basketball and football last year, despite the lack of a ferocious logo ;)

[bourbon]

no offense, pal, but are you blind?

Ole Miss is known for the beauty of its co-eds.

[RonF]

I was at the campus of the University of North Carolina a couple of years ago. I was in the area for a training course, and as my daughter was a big Michael Jordan fan I decided to visit the campus, take a look around, and buy something from the campus store for her.

In wandering around the campus taking in the sights, I came across a statue of a Confederate soldier. Having been educated in Boston, I was unfamilar with such, and walked over to it to examine it closely. One of the students and I struck up a conversation. Apparently the statue has a nickname ("Confederate Joe" or something such), and is used as a ready reference point for arranging meetings. He told me that the statue as a big favorite with the students on campus.

I then asked, "Really? Does that include the black students on campus?" I got an icy stare, and no further conversation!

[dead]

I think "Ol' Miss" should adopt Helen Thomas as their mascot.

[bourbon]

Yeah, I just saw this before it was posted.

Big surprise, huh? [/sarcasm] In about five years, I suppose the administration will exhume all of the soldiers buried in the Confederate cemetery on campus and give them "the Cromwell treatment." Who knows where this PC madness will end?

[AxelPaulsenJr]

What? The Colonel is gone!

[WKB]

I remember visiting a friend of mine at Ole Miss. There were ugly girls all over the place.

It must have been the week they were playing Miss. State.

[bourbon]

(((PING)))

[Hatteras]

"The thing that has always struck me about our mascot is that it was not an athletic mascot,"

Athletic mascot? Kinda like a Banana Slug? Or a Cardinal? Or maybe athletic like a Cub or a Buckeye? This guy is a yellow-bellied coward.

[WKB]

See post #15

[WKB]

I saw this in the C\L this morning but did not have time to post it. VBS you know. Thanks

[bourbon]

Just curious. If you were the president of UNC, what would you do about the Confederate soldier statue on campus?