by Paul Jordan
In a somewhat shocking bit of news, the Mississippi student body voted to officially enter the 20th century today as they voted to officially begin the search for a new mascot and to put an end to the “Colonel Rebel” days. In case you had not noticed, the Rebels had been mascot-less since 2003 when Colonel Reb was put in mothballs in a very PC move. Since that time, the Rebels have been the only SEC team without a live mascot. A second incarnation of Colonel Reb appeared briefly the later part of the decade, but he too was presumably booted back to the Civil War era and he disappeared as well.
Today, the Ole Miss student body voted overwhelmingly 2510 – 856 to start the initiative to come up with a new mascot. The Rebels name will stay the same … and it will be interesting to see what “new, non offensive” version of Rebels they will come up with. For their credit, Ole Miss has made strides in the last decade or so to distance themselves from the symbols of the Old South. In 1997, the school ended the waving of Confederate flags at games. In 2003, Colonel Reb, a caricature of white plantation owners was booted. And last year, the band stopped playing the fight song “From Dixie With Love” to discourage the fan chat “the south will rise again”.
In case you miss Colonel Reb, he lives on in assorted facebook groups and websites protesting his ouster.
Speaking of toothless people, Kansas’s Cole Aldrich and Xavier Henry are feeling a tad bit disrespected and are talking big and bad about how they want to face Kentucky in the NCAA tournament. Apparently most of the midwest has been having a major whine and cheese party all season about how being ranked number one in the country, Kentucky is getting all the media love. Xavier wants to find out what the Cats are made out of:
“Everyone keeps saying they are the best team and you hear about them all the time on television. I want to see who is the best”
Sure thing X. And when Kentucky beats you in the NCAA finals (if you make it), you have to go back to pronouncing your name the right way. Bill Self weighs in on the matchup and he kind of admits that the Cats may be better:
“Kentucky has been the team that gets all the media attention, and deservedly so because they may be the most talented team in the country. But our guys see that attention and they want to prove themselves against it.”
For now, it appears that UK’s “Gameday” record of 22,000 fans is safe despite the fact that this Saturday’s edition is being held in a venue that seats over 30,000. A Syracuse spokesman has said that the school expects about 5,000 – 6,000 fans to attend the weekend morning ritual, about the same as previous Gamedays crowds at SU. I think that the Orange faithful are OK with UK keeping the Gameday record however. They have sold over 34,000 for Saturday’s game against Villanova, which would break the Orange’s current record set in 2006.
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