Jackson Free Press

Ole Miss has banned its Colonel Rebel mascot, just in time for Eli Manning's Heisman Trophy campaign. Some Ole Miss fans see this as a long overdue update of the school's image. More reactionary UM fans see this as another stripping away of the school's traditions and another step toward getting rid of the Rebels nickname completely. (Check out the terrific column by Rick Cleveland in Thursday's Clarion-Ledger.) Since the Oxford Eagle broke this story on Tuesday, athletic director Pete Boone hasn't been returning phone calls. And UM chancellor Robert Khayat refused to talk about Colonel Reb's ouster at a state college board meeting on Wednesday. Dr. S predicts the firestorm is just beginning.

Previous Commentsshow

Great column by Rick Cleveland about the Colonel Reb dust-up. While we're outing skeletons, did you also know that Forrest County (Hattiesburg) is named for Mr. Bedford Forrest. Argh. Cleveland writes: "USM went from Southerners to Golden Eagles in 1972 and did away with a mascot called General Nat, named for Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan."

ladd

Jun 19 2003

Dr. S has added a link to the original Oxford Eagle story where Pete Boone announced that Colonel Rebel was being put out to pasture. Pete still hasn't resurfaced. Word out of Oxford is that he will be following the Colonel out of town soon.

Dr. S

Jun 21 2003

I am literally stunned. Stunned that so many people in Mississippi can sit quietly as their constitutional rights and freedoms are stolen away via the Patriot Act, make hardly a sound as their places of employment close up and jobs flee the state, sit passively as the economy of this country goes down the toilet, utter no word of protest as an unprecedented, unjustified and basically unilateral invasion of another sovereign nation is undertaken and our soldiers become moving targets for guerrilla attacks in that country (so many of those soldiers came from Mississippi). While all of this has netted hardly a whimper, something earth-shattering has roused people of this state to fighting readiness - websites, petitions, angry letters (containing threats of reprisal) to the editors of various newspapers around the state, bitter posts to the internet containing violence-laden invective. What could this disastrous occurrence be to have such a deeply apathetic group so shaken and moved to action? The administration at the University of Mississippi wants to update and/or replace the mascot. Am I the only one in this state to find this a circus of the absurd? I really don't care one way or the other about some silly cartoonish mascot - I have a thing or two else on my mind that seems a tiny bit more important. Such an uproar among the students and alumni of the University of Mississippi would be a bit overboard, but more understandable than the outside agitators. The letters and posts I read are often from people in other states who are neither born or bred Mississippians (nor graduates of any of our schools). Many of the missives from the state of Mississippi are from those who never graduated any university, or graduated another university than the one affected. None of their business what the University of Mississippi has for it?s mascot or when they might decide to update it; let them mind their own mascots, if mascots are all they can get excited over. Or maybe they could just get a life? Somebody wake me when the madness is over.

C.W. Roberson

Jun 23 2003

Dr. S suspects that many of the loudest complaints come from Ole Miss "fans" who have never set foot on the Oxford campus.

Dr. S

Jul 2 2003

I see no reason for the University of Mississippi to keep the old traditions of it's past. Colonel Reb, the Confederate Flag, and even "Dixie" should have no place at the UM. This is the 21st century, and the ideals that we as a University should reflect should have nothing to do with causes that the state of Mississippi had 100+ years ago. This is a new age, and the University should reflect new ideals.

Elizabeth Maddox

Sep 22 2003