Ole Miss new mascot hunt update

Submitted by Happyshooter on

Ole Miss's president banned Col Reb. Whatever you think of an adminstrator imposing their will on a University community's traditions (see, eg Eastern Michigan and the Hurons)--- Col Reb needs to be replaced.

The students voted to start a new mascot. Admiral Akbar from Star Wars is in the lead right now for the committee.

http://www.ajc.com/multimedia/dynamic/00417/ackbar_417664l.jpg

jvblaha

February 24th, 2010 at 9:03 PM ^

"i have no problem with colonel reb. i don't think he's racist, but i do think he looks stupid. i really had no opinion on the matter until i found out who was in the "save colonel reb foundation" a friend of mine owed one of the guys a favor so we gave him a ride to memphis. he turned out to be one of the most racist, profane people i've ever been around in my entire life and so i made up my mind that if that was the kind of person representing the foundation and the fight to get col reb back on the field, then i was going to be against it."

"anyway, mascot or not…i don't really care. the admiral ackbar stuff is hilarious and i love the press we are getting for it. hopefully we end up with a bear - there is a lot of history tied up with black bears in mississippi (in fact the term "teddy bear" originates from mississippi). but whatever. i'm just glad we're moving on. i understand people love the old south stuff but it's been used against us in recruiting for years and it's time to just get rid of the rest of it."

Interesting that he points out the part about recruiting.

Beavis

February 24th, 2010 at 9:10 PM ^

Kind of hard to call out the school's logo when "Ole Miss" is still the school's popular name.

Ole Miss = oldest female slave on a plantation back in the day....

formerlyanonymous

February 24th, 2010 at 9:52 PM ^

Doesn't guarantee that they'll use what's voted on. I'm pretty sure the royalties on using the Admiral will probably be astronomical. Nothing Star Wars related comes cheap.

That, and I feel like old people won't find it nearly as funny. And as they're the ones who really fund the program/school, I could see it missing.

M-Wolverine

February 25th, 2010 at 12:05 AM ^

I hadn't realized till a couple of these posts that there's a whole "It's a Trap" industry worth of posts. I particularly like " Duel of the Fates" to Saving Private Ryan.

WolverineEagle

February 25th, 2010 at 12:54 AM ^

The worst thing the school ever did was remove the Huron as the school's nickname. They could have used an Eagle or some Huron appropriate name for the Mascot and used the Huron as a teaching tool.

Alas, the political correct junta decided to abolished it all together and leave the school divided. What a waste.

FreetheFabFive

February 25th, 2010 at 1:14 AM ^

Yeah, I think it's ridiculous that a political agenda is abolishing mascots and nicknames. It's funny that CMU and FSU got overwhelming support to keep their Chippewa and Seminole names, yet other schools have to get rid of their Native American names or logos because the government says it's wrong. The only overly racist nickname out there is 'Redskins.'

Pretty soon though, there wont be any nicknames that aren't inanimate objects. 'Vikings' will be politically incorrect. PETA will deem any animal mascot cruelty to animals. 'Rockets' will give NASA a bad image. You can really make ludicrous arguments for any mascot these days. People are just too sensitive.

M-Wolverine

February 25th, 2010 at 10:45 AM ^

PETA wants the Packers to change their name, because of how horrible the meat packing industry is. But so tasty...

And I'm disturbed that my spell-correct knows that PETA should be all CAPS.

TrppWlbrnID

February 25th, 2010 at 8:29 AM ^

i hope we are aware that during the civil war, the USA armed forces lost over 364,000 soldiers, barely less than the 405,000 in WWII.

is the personification of the military that was responsible for this really worth keeping? what would we say if a school's mascot were Rommel or Goebels or the Viet Cong? not to mention fighting largely to preserve one of the more dastardly practices of mankind.

jb5O4

February 25th, 2010 at 8:38 AM ^

I'm not too familiar with Mississppi but being from Louisiana, most people I know that display those things actually are racist. I had to put up with "the only thing a n***** is good for is playing sports", among other racist comments, for 5 months before I got another job. One of my coworkers wanted to hang up a Confederate flag in our lab. One of the black guys I worked with sued the company because someone called him a n*****.

Baldbill

February 25th, 2010 at 8:48 AM ^

No excuses but, you will always have a few people in any group that fall outside of the norm. I have known white people that I thought were racist, but I have also known black people that I thought were racist. There will always be a few that hold negative attitudes. I was in the Marines and during Boot Camp I saw the drill instuctors break down a few barriers, they found the barriers and broke them down. In the Marines we are all green. Dark green marines, light green marines and even medium green marines (Hispanic) were in my boot camp with me. We support each other and learned to respect each other, we are all green. Although these days with all the time in the desert areas, maybe we are all shades of tan...hmmm.

Don't let a mascot be anything other than what it is, someone that jumps up and down and roots for you team, I honestly don't think it is any deeper than that.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

jvblaha

February 25th, 2010 at 11:41 AM ^

When you say Confederate flag, are you referring to the actual Confederate flag, or the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia? What we commonly refer to as the Confederate flag is actually the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate Naval Jack. The actual Confederate flag is very different. For obvious reasons, I will not post pictures for comparison.

Unfortunately, the Naval Jack was adopted by many racist organizations and has become a stand-in symbol for them. A flag that should be a representative of General Lee, a man widely acknowledged as the greatest American tactician, and his army of that consistently overcame incredible odds has unfortunately become a symbol for many racist organizations.

BlueVoix

February 25th, 2010 at 12:56 PM ^

Facing completely and totally incompetent generals on the Union side made Lee look pretty awesome. He was a great general and tactician, and certainly more of a honorable person than, oh, 99% of the Confederacy, but he also had a lot of luck in facing inept men like McClellan.

jsquigg

February 25th, 2010 at 12:23 PM ^

What's more shocking than the fact that they are finally changing their mascot is the fact that a secessionist mascot lasted until 2010. Good thing we're in a "post-racial" society (not)....