Despite losing the battle to keep Colonel Reb, Ole Miss supporters apparently haven’t given up the fight.
(Rumor Has It Colonel Reb’s a Switch-Hitter)
A new billboard serving as a subtle reminder to Colonel Reb’s cause is now located just west of the University of Mississippi campus and the Oxford business district.
(Ole Miss Employing Black Bear Border Patrol?
But wait, there’s more!
For your convenience, the folks behind the Colonel Reb Foundation have put together a Colonel Reb “Truth Kit” (PDF):
And as a public service to you, there’s even a Colonel Reb Foundation Facebook page which I’m sure will only attract those who want to pay their respect and admiration for the cause.
Follow Brooks on Twitter for real-time updates.
11:31 am on February 7th, 2011
What losers! (Both) wars are over, you redneck hicks! Don’t you have to clean up your trailer or maybe burn a cross?
11:43 am on February 7th, 2011
@Beau:
Colonel Reb was not about the civil war, or being racist, or even being redneck.
It was just a mascot. A mascot.
How does it make them a loser to want to keep the mascot they had for 100 years? All this mascot PC bullcrap is stupid.
12:23 pm on February 7th, 2011
@Beau, don’t you have a factory town to abandon?
12:23 pm on February 7th, 2011
Most beloved mascot in college sports? I would think you would have to have your games on tv outside of Mississippi before anyone would even know who your mascot is.
12:33 pm on February 7th, 2011
The colonel may be gone, but we can still enjoy his chicken.
12:37 pm on February 7th, 2011
They killed the Chief, Col Reb is gone, Lord Jeffery better watch out…
12:59 pm on February 7th, 2011
Maybe Colonel Reb wasn’t pumping some southern apologist agenda 24/7, but I don’t see how one can say he was not in any way in reference to the Confederacy.
2:09 pm on February 7th, 2011
Colonel Reb was/is a reference to the Civil War/Confederacy. However, he is not a racist just because he is associated with the south. The Civil War was not fought over slavery (as everyone is taught nowadays). Abraham Lincoln didn’t even want to address the issue of slavery. The Civil War was actually about a power struggle between the states and the federal government. The states, particularly those in the south, felt that they should be able to override a federal rule if they disagreed with it. The federal government disagreed. In fact, slavery is just another example of morality politics, and was viewed much as the issue of abortion or gay marriage is viewed today. We simply tend to celebrate those who fought slavery, much as we will probably end up celebrating those activists who fought for gay rights or abortion if/when they pass. Colonel Reb is not racist just because he is associated with the south. That is just another example of “History is what the winning side says it is.”
2:10 pm on February 7th, 2011
Colonel Rebel was actually based off a freed slave. He was not racist at all.
@Beau are you mentally handicapped? Not all Ole Miss fans are hillbillies and rednecks, but I guess you flock to your own kind… And Ole Miss isn’t racist, the players said this when Ole Miss was under scrutiny for playing Dixie, and they said this again when Colonel Rebel was attacked. I suggest you read up on your facts before you post like the ignorant fool you are.
2:33 pm on February 7th, 2011
Hey Au-BARN I’ve got two words ROLL TIDE! AND GOD DOES NOT LOVE YOU
in fact he hates you
2:38 pm on February 7th, 2011
Khayat put the Kibosh on the Kolonel
3:02 pm on February 7th, 2011
@poindexter: Liar. A thousand times a liar. The second paragraph of the document used to announce South Carolina’s reasons for leaving the Union is a reference to the federal gov’ts refusal to enforce the FSA and that the election of the President (an un-named Abraham Lincoln) was sure to lead to a ban on slavery. Yep, not about slavery.
@Mary: Blind Jim Ivy wasn’t a freed slave, if that’s even the basis for the Col. Reb image. That and Col. Reb is decidedly white, very much not blind, and most certainly dressed in a CSA Uniform throughout much of his history.
3:05 pm on February 7th, 2011
@auburnjunky
The Rebels as the name for the OM athletic teams has not been around for “100 years”. It was selected in 1936. Col. Reb as a mascot only showed up on the sidelines in 1979.
3:33 pm on February 7th, 2011
Bet this wouldn’t be happening if the mascot was Colonel Rabbi. Or Colonel Ahkmed. This is rediculous. When all those weak-ass schools were dropping the un-PC mascots like they were infected, what happened at FSU? The Seminole Nation stepped up and said no, we want our people represented like this. Chief Osceola is here to stay. Why can’t southerners make the same call? Is it because the mascot is a white man?
3:59 pm on February 7th, 2011
@Drew…yes?
4:07 pm on February 7th, 2011
@latexlatina
4:14 pm on February 7th, 2011
Just another reason why Mississippi is trashy. Not too subtle there. However, a noose would have been better than a baseball bat
4:54 pm on February 7th, 2011
Poindexter, you are so RIGHT. Kudos on telling the truth.
btw … it was the War Between the States. No war was ever ‘civil’.
5:00 pm on February 7th, 2011
No poindexter.
Civil as in a civil affair, not civil as in polite, Missy.
Jesus people are really dumb.
5:31 pm on February 7th, 2011
I told you it was a trap.
- Ackbar
8:52 pm on February 7th, 2011
Multiculturalism is the future and the students/alumn of Ole Missi need to understand that. Therefore I propose a few possible names that will uplift the people of Mississippi.
Ole Miss Drive-bys
10:01 pm on February 7th, 2011
Hey Poindexter,
You’ve been reading too many Southern heritage books and are DEAD wrong about the reason for the Civil War! I will keep this short and to the point of TRUTH:
1) The Civil War was caused because the South seceeded from the Union, a.k.a “breach of contract.” The U.S. Constitution is a binding contract into which all parties (states) entered through mutual consent, not a dictate by a monarch.
2) The “Southern states” seceeded because they wanted to maintain the instution of Slavery.
3) Don’t think so?? Read the Mississippi Declaration of Secession…
http://www.civil-war.net/pages/mississippi_declaration.asp
After you read this document, there should be no doubt in your mind why Mississippi and other Southern states committed this breach on contract. The Union had no choice, but to enforce that contract, hence, the Civil War. Is this logic too complex for you to follow??
9:14 am on February 8th, 2011
HAHAHAHAHAAHAH Ole Miss fans are racist and stupiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiddddd!!!
10:18 am on February 8th, 2011
They just don’t get it…
10:52 am on February 8th, 2011
maybe they should change their mascot to Al Jolson.
6:28 pm on February 8th, 2011
JTS,
1. It wasn’t a breach in contract, the notion of a perpetual union was within the Articles of Confederation but was removed from the Constitution.
2. Partially true but thats an oversimplification… Why wouldn’t there have been ANY talk of reunification when Lincoln essentially allowed them to retain their slaves if they returned to the union(Emancipation Proclamation)?
Slavery was the immediate cause of secession but in all honesty it as an issue that had been brewing for 25 years over a multitude of issues and it finally hit a boiling point with the election of Lincoln.
7:01 pm on February 8th, 2011
Slavery was NOT the immediate casue of secession, it was the right for whites to own blacks. Read your Johnny Reb Constitution. If blacks could have owned whites, Uncle Sam would not have given two shits about you ass-clowns and you would have become North Mexico…
9:45 pm on February 8th, 2011
LOL at these Confederate dorks commenting on here. You lost, you can come out of mom’s basement now. The South were a bunch of stinking traitors to that got spanked.
3:43 am on February 11th, 2011
Fails to understand when it became a sin to be a white male. Some of them are really nice. Sure some of them are douchebags, but that can be said about other races and genders too. I’ve got a great idea though. Let’s persecute all of the present day white males for what was done by other white males decades and centuries ago. I hereby motion that the following mascots be next on the chopping block:
1. UGA. Their mascot (Uga VIII) is a white male.
2. Mr. Met of the New York Mets is also a white male. In addition, he has a hint of red around his neck. Someone should get on that.
3. The San Francisco 49ers mascot is a man by the name of Sourdough Sam. he is a white male and has a certain rural look about him, so he must be a racist.
4. The Dallas Cowboys have a mascot named Rowdy. He is a white male cowboy. Now as everyone knows, the cowboys absolutely hated Native Americans (I mean, they shot them all the time), so I think it is safe to assume that they at LEAST disliked African Americans (didnt cowboys carry whips?) and other ethnic groups. We can’t leave him out.
5. Finally, we have Miles (the Denver Broncos). He is a white male as well, and rounds out the group quite nicely.
10:14 pm on February 12th, 2011
I never heard of the mascot, sorry.
I had to comment on the person that said the Civil War was not about slavery..
Oh — you gotta tell that to the Southern leaders, who issued Five Ultimatums to the North, just before the war started.
All five of their own Ultimatums were about the SPREAD of slavery by force. All five. Did I mention — all five? yes, all five.
Southern newspapers shouted headlines about the Ultimatums such as “THE TRUE ISSUE”. Southern speeches shouted the same thing. Toombs screamed to a cheering crowd “EXPAND SLAVERY OR PERISH”
So yes — by what the Southern leaders said in their own ultimatums, by the Southern newspapers headlines, by the Southern speakers, oh yes yes and yes, the Civil War was fought by the South to SPREAD slavery. And they said so themselves, at the time, over, and over and over, officially, unofficially, loudly and proudly — from the capital, to the newspaper offices, to the pulpit.
http://fivedemands.blogspot.com/
3:09 am on February 15th, 2011
Nope, the rush to Civil War actually started on the Kansas/Missouri border when Northeastern Yankees settled the Lawrence, Kansas, area and started sending raiding parties into the slave state of Missouri to capture slaves, taking them to Kansas where they were freed. They also burned farms and killed Missourians while they were at it. There were blacks who owned slaves too. Also was about unfair trade practices that a Northern dominated Congress rammed down the throats of the Southern states limiting ports of entrance and exit for goods, along with unfair taxes. When the South fired on the North in Charleston, it gave Lincoln the green light to invade the South. Secession is legal in terms of the US Constitution most scholars agree. Most Southerners were merely fighting the Northern invasion. Slavery was on its way out in the South and would have disappeared in conjunction with the coming industrial revolution and changing Western values, with blacks faring much better probably. And actually Col Reb is all about the South and being un-reconstructed.
12:13 pm on March 15th, 2011
A big reason why the war started was slavery. but it was not the only reason. did anyone pay attention in history class? a lot of things were not going the souths way. the north kept getting all the laws made in their favor. and one of the last straws was the railroad. it was suppose to help connect the south to the west and instead it was built in the northern states. so the southerns thought the north didnt care about the south so the south broke away. but yes slavery was a issue but not the main issue. col reb is a mascot the only people who say he is racist are racist themselves, if ole miss is racist then why do black athletes go there? im a lsu fan and i even have to agree with ole miss that this is stupid save col reb
6:48 am on March 27th, 2011
Ole Miss should come to a compromise. Keep the bear as a mascot…but make it a polar bear….that way it’ll be white and more acceptable to the lunatic fringe of their fan base.
12:45 pm on August 4th, 2011
Just 1 question, why does UNLV get to keep their mascot it has a strong resemblance to Colonel Reb.
1:15 am on October 23rd, 2011
I’ve read all of these COMPLETELY ignorant comments, most clearly written by biased persons. No one ever said this was about race. If Ole Miss fans even had a choice last October(c’mon, bears or SHARKS? was there really any decent alternatives??) I also missed that. For all those calling southerners “trash”, shame on you, at least us “trashy” stupid ole southerners have the manners and restraint to expain our position and do not need to resort to, ahem, the “classy” insult slinging. I’m a registered Cherokee (that’s NATIVE American for you who are unsure) and I attend Ole Miss. So I dont have a dog in this fight. Still,if there was racism, by sheer genetic aptitude (hey, all of MY ancestors are d-e-a-d) I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be ok with it. So, sorry, no hoards of racist white trash in Oxford, MS. Don’t judge simply because you don’t understand someone’s position. What’s wrong with wanting to claim a piece of your heritage? What make’s it ok to deny any one that privilege? Because that is what the fight is for. That is EVERYONE’S right…the last I checked.