Carlos Medina, a 2016 graduate of Lee High School, was among the small group of students, alumni and community members who shared feedback on the current Rebel mascot. In 1989, star Ole Miss women's basketball player Kimsey O'Neal became the first black student to gain the title "Miss Ole Miss." The university replaced him in 2010 with a new on-field mascot, the Black Bear. But some time in … FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2012, file photo, UNLV's mascot "Hey Reb!" The Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton School District Rebel mascot. The Rebel mascot, as see on the side of this South High School building, has long ago shed its Confederate imagery. The anthropomorphic black bear replaced Colonel Reb as the official mascot in 2010. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken, File), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. • Stanford. The mascot appearance was modified in 1997 and 2017. The Rebels compete in the NCAA Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision for college football) as a member of the Mountain West Conference.The school's colors are scarlet and gray. Concrete evidence has not been found, however, to support the conclusion that Mr. Ivy was the inspiration for Colonel Reb's design. This title had previously been called "The King of Mardi Gras," but this name was changed by the Associated Student Body executive council in the fall of 1939. A recent petition to change the mascot claims the Rebels "represent the south's fight for the 'right' to buy, sell, and own black people." After five months of contest and polling, the university's athletics committee formally approved the name, and its sports teams have been known as the Rebels ever since. Atherton High School to retire Rebel mascot. Thus, in 1979, Colonel Reb advanced from his 40-year history on paper to a living caricature on the field. Students at Roncalli High School will no longer be called the “rebels.” The school announced Wednesday it would end the use of the nickname and mascot because of … By Anita Miller on June 21, 2020 News. Citing the former mascot’s ties to the Confederacy, Lenart told members of the Fairfax community that the decision was one that had been made last September. [2] One theory proposes that Billy Hix, the art editor for the 1936-1937 Ole Miss yearbook in which the Colonel first appeared, created the image as an illustration for the university's new athletics sobriquet. [8] Ultimately, "Rebels" was the choice of 18 out of the 21 sportswriters, a nickname alluding to the University Greys. [16] During that same year, he was also honored as the "National Mascot Fundraiser Champion" for his fundraising efforts for juvenile diabetes research and charitable appearances for United Way. Well you're in luck, because here they come. University president Keith Whitfield pointed in an announcement Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, to the removal last June of a campus statue of the mascot following racial justice protests around the nation and an outcry from student groups, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. mascot after nearly four decades, but will keep its Rebels nickname. Richland High School will no longer use Rebels mascot. For the longest time, there was even a Confederate battle flag hanging in the school gym. In 1975, former National Football League standout Ben Williams became the first black student to be elected "Colonel Reb." The UNLV Rebels are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Beauregard’s smirk and wink contrasted with UNR’s ferocious wolf, another nod to the fledgling school’s break from tradition and its older and more established peer. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has retired its "Hey Reb!" [17] The limited fan response, as well as ridicule from fans of rival schools, prompted the administration to cancel the poll. However, the Civil Rights movement with all its marches and ideals were seemingly very far from Central Texas, where many communities were only just emerging from their rural culture.s. Ole Miss, "Fuzzy Memories: College Mascots and the Struggle to Find Appropriate Legacies of the Civil War", ColonelReb.org, a site dedicated to Colonel Reb's revival, University of Mississippi School of Engineering, University of Mississippi School of Business Administration, Croft Institute for International Studies, National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Colonel_Reb&oldid=1011260753, Former college mascots in the United States, Articles with dead external links from December 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 March 2021, at 22:22. Rebel Guy was drawn in the 1990s to resemble an Old West scout and replace the school’s original “Colonel Reb” mascot, who was described as “a plantation owner in … [12] This distinction was made in addition to the female equivalent ("Miss Ole Miss"), which had been bestowed upon female students on campus for over a decade. Since the early '90s, the school has tried to rebrand the Rebel mascot to be a less obvious nod to the Confederacy, but there was a time when the school used imagery that included a … During a baseball game between Ole Miss and the University of Texas, a student told Ivy that Mississippi was losing badly. The 1941-1942 Ole Miss features a depiction of Colonel Reb that looks much more like the well-known image that is used to this day. [citation needed] A contest was held in which fans were invited to design a replacement. By Nick Picht | October 13, 2020 at 6:34 PM EDT - Updated October 13 at 6:37 PM . A recent petition to change the mascot claims the Rebels "represent the south's fight for the 'right' to buy, sell, and own black people." On October 6, 2017, Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter announced that the new university mascot would be the Landshark, beginning with the 2018–19 season. While a group of Boyle County alumni recently started a petition to remove and replace the Boyle County High School Rebel mascot due to an association with the Confederacy and promotion of racist ideology, another BCHS alumni has started a petition to keep the mascot that has garnered a significant amount of support. (This group, which featured Colonel Reb in its earliest performances, was originally known as the "Dixie Daredevils," but it eventually rebranded as the "Bud Light Daredevils" after obtaining a sponsorship from Budweiser. … In 2013, the Associated Student Body at the University officially changed the name of this honorary title from "Colonel Reb" to "Mr. Ole Miss. It was renamed “Hey Reb!” in 1982, years after the school removed Confederate logos but kept the Rebels nickname. Prior to this, the teams had been called by various names–the Red and Blue, the Oxfords, the Mighty Mississippians, the Southerners, the Crimson and Blue–and most recently and most popularly up until 1936, the Flood. It is a racist mascot signaling to parents that their non-white children have no place here. Citing the former mascot’s ties to the Confederacy, Lenart told members of the Fairfax community that the decision was one that had been made last September. in his first year, and he also helped lead the Rebels to third- and first-place distinctions by the National Cheerleading Association ("NCA") and the Universal Cheerleading Association ("UCA"), respectively, among 99 competing universities. Formerly the Rebels, Hays CISD announced in January the name of the new Hays High School mascot – the Hawks! “Rebels have a purpose or motivation for a greater cause and are not afraid to take risks to make incredible things happen,” he said. Part of the problem is that the word “rebel” has multiple meanings. The Hays Rebels didn’t exist until 1968 — the same year Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. The mascot was replaced by a bear in 2010, although the teams’ name remains the Rebels. You guessed it: black. University president Keith Whitfield pointed in an announcement Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, to the removal last June of a campus statue of the mascot following racial justice protests around the nation and an outcry from student groups, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The team was strangely inspired by Mr. Ivy’s enthusiastic cheering, and won the game decisively.”[6][7] From that point on, “Blind Jim” became a campus fixture at the University for the next sixty years and was regarded as one of the most passionate fans of its sports teams, known to proudly tell others that he had "never seen Ole Miss lose.". NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas - Richland High School will no longer use its longtime Rebels mascot. LAS VEGAS (AP) — The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has dropped its “Hey Reb!” mascot after nearly four decades, but it will keep its Rebels nickname. Whitfield termed the nickname “a strong, nationally recognized brand,” that “captures the essence of an iconic city that is unconventional and celebrates its independence, tenacity and resiliency.”. mascot after nearly four decades, but will keep its Rebels nickname. How the Rebel mascot came to be. Whitfield’s predecessor as UNLV president, Marta Meana, said at the time the future of the mascot would be studied. [9] The California company Angelus Pacific also claims that it designed the Colonel; during this era, ex-Disney artist Art C. Evans illustrated dozens of collegiate mascots that became hugely popular across America and are still widely recognizable today.[10][11]. The university replaced him in 2010 with a new on-field mascot, the Black Bear. [19], The Colonel Reb Foundation, a student group founded in support of reinstating Colonel Reb as the university's mascot, has sponsored the unofficial appearances of the mascot in The Grove on game day. [15], For a brief period during the early 1980s, the Colonel also joined members of the Rebel cheerleading squad in traveling to several NBA games to perform at halftime shows, in which the group would use mini-trampolines and perform flashy, acrobatic slam-dunks and other basketball stunts. Ivy, blinded as a teenager while working with tar on the Tallahatchie Bridge, originally made his way to Oxford in 1896 and became a peanut vendor. The Mississippian: That Famous Little Old Man, Colonel Rebel, Was Born 17 Years Ago in a State-Wide Contest, October 9, 1953. The earliest and most widely recognized version of the “modern” Colonel, however, appeared on the 1946-1947 Ole Miss, adorning the cover in full color and in much more detail. The mascot wore a standard … The Vestavia Hills High School mascot, the Rebel Man, and slogan, "Go Rebels," are raising concerns, and now the local school board is debating whether … For years the mascot was a cartoony Confederate officer brandishing a sword. Portland high school worries that Evergreen tree mascot is problematic because it could symbolize 'lynching' Ida B. 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