No, Ole Miss did not change their mascot. The University of Mississippi's official mascot is still known as the Rebel Black Bear. The change from their previous mascot, Colonel Reb, occurred in 2010. The decision to change the mascot was made in order to promote inclusivity and diversity on campus. The university wanted to move away from the association with the Confederate South that the previous mascot represented. The new mascot, the Rebel Black Bear, was introduced as a more modern and inclusive symbol for the university.

Mascots, Myths and Momentum

As chancellor of The University of Mississippi, I have learned it is difficult to have a rational conversation about an emotional subject such as a school mascot. Still, it is important to separate emotion from fact, myth from reality, and accuracy from misleading generalizations.

American history has marched through our campus on several occasions, leaving among its marks our Confederate monument, historic Lyceum, and cemetery. This year, we will add a civil rights monument to memorialize the role Ole Miss played in making higher education in Mississippi accessible to all.

To allay the fears of those who believe we are abandoning our history and heritage, please know that (1) we are the Ole Miss Rebels and will continue to present ourselves to the world under that name; (2) the song "Dixie" remains in our repertoire of school spirit songs and will continue to be played at sporting events; (3) Colonel Rebel is an official trademark of the University and will continue to be included among our registered names, appear on merchandise and in public presentations.

Our athletics history began in 1876 when we fielded an intercollegiate baseball team called "The Red and Blue." We selected as school colors the crimson of Harvard and the Navy blue of Yale. There was no mascot.

In 1896 students published the first yearbook and called it "Ole Miss." Since then the institution has been known affectionately as Ole Miss, one of the most recognizable university names in America.

In 1929 we became the "Mississippi Flood" and continued using the colors red and blue. 1936 brought a name change from "Flood" to "Rebels," but there is no evidence of an on-field mascot for the Flood or the Rebels.

An official mascot did not appear until 1979 when the Department of Athletics introduced the figure of an "old man in baggy pants" as part of a national trend toward Disney-like cartoon characters. The original Colonel Rebel continued with a separate identity from the on-field mascot, appearing on printed materials, statues, yard signs, and t-shirts. We fully expect our fans to continue to display Colonel Rebel, but the on-field mascot will be replaced with a more energetic, vibrant figure.

We are gratified that Ole Miss students and fans are emotionally invested in how the University is presented to the public. We are deeply disappointed that some would inject race into the discussion. Athletics Director Pete Boone is responsible for every aspect of game management, including on-field activities. I endorse his administrative leadership and totally support and applaud Mr. Boone's recommendation.

The decision to update the mascot was based on the belief that a Disney-like elderly plantation person is not representative of a modern athletics program. Our mascot should reflect the youthful energy, vitality and enthusiasm of our students.

The Department of Athletics soon will announce a contest soliciting ideas for a new mascot and a process that will include input from students, active alumni, donors and season ticket holders. The final selection will be made by the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics based upon preferences expressed by those who participate in the process - particularly our students.

In the meantime, we hope the people of Mississippi and Ole Miss students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends will focus their energy on issues such as the economy, health care, high quality education, literacy, and a better life for Mississippians.

Ole Miss is committed to offering a world-class educational experience for our students, relevant research by our faculty, and meaningful service by our entire community. It is a waste of energy to be bogged down in a strident argument about a mascot. We have generated great momentum as a university and we are committed to the relentless pursuit of excellence and leadership.

Mascot vote resurfaces on an evolving Ole Miss campus

Voters will face more than just the annual personality elections on Tuesday, with a vote to support adopting a new mascot in the Landshark or stand with Rebel the Black Bear.

Years ago, Rebel the Black Bear won a student election to become the new face of Ole Miss and its athletics. In 2010, he polled at 62 percent. The Landshark finished not far behind, polling at 56 percent. While the issue may have been temporarily put to bed back then, some campus leaders agree that the school the mascot is supposed to represent has evolved since then.

“I think you have a different result if you did that same vote this year,” Michael Thompson said. “I think a lot has changed in seven years, but he (Rebel the Black Bear) won the vote fair and square seven years ago.”

Thompson took the position of senior associate athletics director for communications and marketing 10 days before the student referendum decided on a new mascot in 2010. He quickly became a very busy man.

Since its introduction, Rebel the Black Bear has picked up a wide range of supporters and opponents.

“Rebel the Black Bear has been the unfortunate placeholder for a much needed school mascot,” ASB President Dion Kevin III, who announced the vote, said. “It is uninspiring and does nothing to represent school spirit, and I’m certain that students feel it’s time to replace it.”

Sparky Reardon was serving as dean of students in 2010 and helped advise the committee along with university attorney Lee Tyner. He said that at the time, the committee made the right choice.

“The student committee that selected the bear worked extremely hard to be thorough, but in retrospect they were more cerebral than emotional and probably ‘overthought’ the process.”

Thompson said once the students made their choice in 2010, he led the charge in launching the new mascot, from licensing strategies to costume design. As the debate rears its head once again this year, Thompson said he sees some similarities.

“It’s not quite deja vu, but it definitely brings up memories,” he said. “Let’s put it that way.”

The fate of the school’s plush foam leader has been up in the air since Ole Miss Athletics formally removed Colonel Rebel from the sidelines in 2003. After nearly seven years without a cartoon face to rally behind, a student committee decided to adopt the Black Bear as the university’s official mascot in 2010.

“… That is when there was a referendum much different than the one now that we’re seeing,” committee co-chair and 2013 graduate Margaret Ann Morgan said. “Something along the lines of would you support the process to begin searching for an on field mascot.”

ASB and the university opted to form a student committee to handle the process after the initial poll, which is when Morgan became involved. She said the committee created a rubric of what a mascot for Ole Miss should represent and stuck to it. Criteria included the mascot’s timelessness, perception by children and how it would reflect the university.

“The students around the table, not everyone was on the same page with what they personally liked, but it was known that students liked the Landshark, but we said, again, we were going to go by that rubric and were going to go by the polling percentages that we received back, and so that’s how we came to the Black Bear,” she said.

This year’s referendum on adopting the Landshark as school mascot comes a year after Ole Miss Athletics announced its own Landshark licensing program. Last September, Athletics announced a partnership with ROTC to offer vendor licenses to sell Landshark-branded products. A portion of the proceeds from those Landshark products helps fund Ole Miss ROTC scholarships in memory of former Rebel linebacker and U.S. Army veteran Tony Fein.

In a press release announcing the partnership, Ole Miss Athletics explained the Landshark’s origins.

“Roots of the Landshark and ‘Fins Up’ cry at Ole Miss date back to 2008. As part of the football defensive unit’s identity, players celebrate big plays by putting a hand to their forehead in the shape of a shark fin,” the press release states. “The term Landshark originated that season from senior linebacker Tony Fein, an Army veteran who served a one-year tour in the Iraq War before arriving in Oxford.”

Thompson said the program honors Fein’s life and embodies the Rebel defense’s signature attack.

“It was probably three-and-a-half years ago that we, Ross and I, were talking to Tony Fein’s mom and really trying to find a way to honor him and at the same time put out a licensing program that the Ole Miss fan base can get behind,” Thompson said.

He said that in the months since the program has been open to license applications, vendors have excitedly applied to sell Landshark gear. Thompson said the Landshark has grown popular among not only Ole Miss fans but the athletic teams themselves. From shark projections in the stadium to Landshark images on the video screens, the symbol has made its way into Ole Miss game day culture.

“It’s caught on, and we’ve tried to leverage some of that,” Thompson said. “If you go to a football game, you’re going to see a lot of Landshark.”

Student leaders picked up on the Landshark’s expanding influence on Ole Miss’s campus as far as three years ago, when the push for a Landshark mascot began. Spring 2016 graduate Jack Pickering said he met with Athletics representatives in 2014 to discuss the growing Landshark brand on campus.

“In 2014, during my time as a student, I, along with other student leaders, met with the administration in the goal of implementing an in-stadium shark tank to give Ole Miss a highly unique stadium experience and to enhance the game atmosphere,” Pickering said.

This semester, Pickering called ASB President Kevin to further discuss a possible change in mascot. Pickering said he supports the Landshark because it will give the Ole Miss family something to be excited for during the pending NCAA investigation.

“On Aug. 30 … I encouraged Dion to lead a student-driven grassroots movement that unites the student body and give every student a voice to help implement a positive change,” he said.

Kevin said an official mascot change has the ability to make the ROTC program at Ole Miss one of the best in the Southeast. Thompson expressed a similar hope that if the school does adopt the Landshark, its branding will join the already functioning ROTC partnership program. He said ASB executives met with him earlier this year to discuss the Landshark program’s future and where it stands now.

“We had a great talk with Dion and told him where we stood with the licensing program and again answered some technical questions,” Thompson said.

Should the Landshark win Tuesday’s election Thompson said he imagines Athletics would look at an additional logo, adding to the mark and revisiting the branding program. Kevin said he is unsure what a new logo would look like, but it will likely keep some of the same logo designs currently used in Landshark branding.

“It has a story behind it. It inspires excitement, and it unifies our fan base,” Kevin said. “Additionally, it is already marketed in our merchandising and advertising.”

Morgan said that when she helped steer the ship through the 2010 mascot selection process, she could not count how many mascot design recommendations the committee received. At the end of the day, she said she supported the mascot that would best serve Ole Miss’ future.

“Any time that you have a place that is welcoming to everyone, it makes it better,” Morgan said. “And when you have leaders who support that, it is stronger.”

Mascot Madness: Mississippi, a.k.a. “Ole Miss”

In 2020, we are seeing athletes ask their teams and universities to make a real change in their image across the sports landscape. One easy, simplistic way to begin that change is through language. More specifically, seeing the names we use to refer to schools, mascots, and team names as carrying weight. Changing them may be a tangible step in the right direction. The University of Mississippi, better known as “Ole Miss,” is no exception.

For starters, the school is more commonly referred to as “Ole Miss.” Ole Miss was first chosen as a title for the university’s yearbook, and appears at first as a shortened, southern version of “Old Mississippi.” It’s pretty much confined to athletics and sporting events, as university Chancellor said it touches on the “university’s spirit.” However, a quick look at Southern history tells us that “Ole Miss” was a term used throughout the entire South… by enslaved African Americans, in reference to the wife of the plantation owner. It was shortened slang of the “old missus” or “old mistress.” It calls back the racial hierarchy of slavery and the culture of the Antebellum South.

It implied deference and servitude that is troubling to ask of its students, especially it’s student-athletes.

The name and branding problems in Oxford, Mississippi, aren’t just in the nickname for the school itself. While Colonel Reb, the mascot, was retired in 2003… the school still refers to all varsity sports teams, officially, as the Rebels. The school is working, slowly, towards separating itself from Confederate ideology and symbols of the Old South, but needs to speed up the process by renaming their teams.

Luckily for University, Chancellor Glenn Boyce, Athletic Director Keith Carter, and all University of Mississippi students, alumni, and fans… we at Belly Up are here to help. Below, we’ve come up with some new names for the University of Mississippi. At the bottom, let us know which one the university should run with by voting for one of our ideas.

Parker’s Nominated Name: The University of Mississippi River Flow

What are the first three things, in some order, you think of when you think “Mississippi?” Football? Racism? The Mississippi River? Well, here’s to a mascot that aims to end one of those connections and play off of another. The Mississippi River Flow is a team name and mascot based around the flow of the Mississippi River, the most consistent reference point in how big things are, or what side of the country you’re on.

The River Flow is a great mascot because much like the Stanford Cardinal, Tulane Green Wave, and Alabama Crimson Tide, it’s a singular being. It unites. It inherently brings people together. You’re no longer a rebel amongst a student body of rebels… you’re a part of a larger flow of water. How much damage can one droplet of water do? How much damage can the flow of a river like the Mississippi River do? See the strength of this unifying team name?

The costumed mascot would be some silly, 90’s era cartoon of a wave of water, a Southern ambiguous Poseidon, or a large-mouth bass fish native to the river that can navigate the flow itself. In any case, it would be a family favorite hit come alumni reunion football game. The school could don the same blue threads, and keep the same typeface “Ole Miss” is currently written in.

Plus, when partying at “The Grove,” “The Flow” can take on a whole other meaning. One of the dangers of taking on a new team name is losing tradition, which is something especially important in the South. Luckily for Mississippi, that doesn’t have to happen. The school already has a rich tailgating history, full of adult beverages constantly flowing. Why not make it another play on words? The flow before The Flow. And locking the Vaught? The fans linked up swaying side to side are just waves in the rivers flow. BOOM, traditions saved.

I can hear it now… “GO! FLOW! GO!”

Chaka’s Nominated Name: The University of Mississippi Grove

The idea of being a “rebel”, in and of itself isn’t bad.

The idea that your mascot has ties to confederate “rebels’’ that fought a war and divided a country in the name of enslaving and dehumanizing an entire group of people- well, that kind of makes your mascot problematic.

Now, Mississippi has been making some very recent strides. Back in 2015, the University of Mississippi announced that it would not fly the state flag on its campus due to the confederate symbol emblazoned in the top corner. The state legislature is finally following suit. The state has approved legislation to change the flag.

Mississippi might have 99 problems, but it’s flag ain’t one.

So, let’s get on this “rebel” fiasco.

Have you ever been to an Ole Miss football game? It is truly an experience. How about we embrace this part of the culture of the state?

The Grove is where Ole Miss fans tailgate and celebrate their team all day and all night long on Saturdays in the fall. The dress code is business casual, the food is soulful, and the atmosphere- well, let’s just say that I may have had a little too much fun as a road fan when I visited The Grove back in my college days. Hotty, toddy, gosh almighty!

As it has been said, Ole Miss might lose the game, but they always win the party! Nothing signifies this better than The Grove! It is truly the best winning tradition in Ole Miss Football history- time to embrace it!

Kev’s Nominated Name: The Ole Miss Losers

Ole Miss has been atrocious for the last 50 years. They have not won the SEC since 1963, and have not won the SEC West since 2003. They are losers top to bottom. Maybe Joey Freshwater will change that, but probably not. Things are not going well in Oxford. Most current Rebs fans want to scream “Go Losers” during a game anyway, why not make it official?

Teams also love sponsors. By naming Ole Miss “The Losers”, I’m sure DC would gladly fork over some money to plaster their characters all over campus. It would certainly give any future coach like Houston Nutt and Hugh Freeze some extra cash to sign a few five stars.

The biggest reason, however, is they need a name to stick. The Rebels go through mascots almost as often as they go through coaches. Mississippi is so attached to the memory of a bunch of traitors who have lost 100% of the wars they fought in, a great name is the best way to celebrate this legacy.

Loser is a great way to memorialize all the great players and men of Mississippi.

VOTE:

Vote below for which of the names is your choice. Have a better idea? Respond in the comments to let us know what you’re thinking and why!

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The new mascot, the Rebel Black Bear, was introduced as a more modern and inclusive symbol for the university. Despite some initial resistance and controversy surrounding the change, the Rebel Black Bear has become widely accepted and embraced by the Ole Miss community..

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Rebranding Ole Miss: The Process of Choosing a New Mascot