Ole Miss Unveils "Official" Mascot Renderings

[aawagner011]

All three are awful. None portray the school at all. They shouldn't just select a generic mascot just to have one. A mascot is something that should be an image of your school and team. Look around, Uga at Georgia, the Sooner Schooner at Oklahoma, Chief Osceola at FSU, etc. All are reflections of their universities and embody the team. None of these three concepts do that for Ole Miss. Maybe Colonel Reb is out, but that doesn't mean they need to select a generic mascot just to say they have one.

[bohob]

Three words: Greendale. Human. Beings.

[rams80]

I like the Landshark the best. It's the most comical, and comical is the best adjective to describe Ole Miss athletics.

Hotty Toddy looks so douchebag-esque I want to punch him in the face right now.

[NJTank]

Ole Miss Sucks it should have been the Admiral

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dddAi8FF3F4

[Mingjai]

Definitely should have been Admiral Ackbar.

Admiral Ackbar Cereal!

[SilverNRed]

Anything is better than Admiral Akbar, no reference to Star Wars or Star Trek or Star whatever should be in sports. That stuff was not cool when it came out and still is lame.

Totally, dude. Star Wars was so "not cool" when it came out that it was the highest grossing movie of all time. And how much money did that Star Trek movie make last summer?

Look, if you're on a special message board to talk about sports uniforms and logos, you might as well just admit that you're a nerd and embrace it.

[AJM]

All three are terrible, I guess the bear is the best of the three if I had to choose.

Wish that Colonel Reb would have been allowed to remain.

[YELDARBfield]

The Land Shark should win by default. He's such a Rebel, he refuses to stay in the water.

Also, Hotty Toddy is a douche, so the student body will relate most with him.

[Primal]

Pardon my ignorance, but why does a mascot need formal attire?

[illwauk]

Anything is better than Admiral Akbar, no reference to Star Wars or Star Trek or Star whatever should be in sports. That stuff was not cool when it came out and still is lame.

Totally, dude. Star Wars was so "not cool" when it came out that it was the highest grossing movie of all time. And how much money did that Star Trek movie make last summer?

Look, if you're on a special message board to talk about sports uniforms and logos, you might as well just admit that you're a nerd and embrace it.

I fully embrace my nerd-ness, yet I've never seen any of the Star Wars films and haven't paid attention to Star Trek since The Next Generation... if ever there was a time when it was decided that all nerds HAVE to be into sci-fi I was probably out taking a leak...

Florida will replace the Gator with a Jorts wearing anthropomorphized Tim Tebow.

This made me laugh really hard. Personally, I prefer the bear but I don't quite understand the fuss over Colonel Reb.

Me either... if Magnolia State's largest university wants to project an image of Mississippians being a bunch of backwoods idiots who are still trying to fight the civil war, they should have that right

If you don't like their logo then don't but their stuff or support their team. This PC BS is just plain stupid. If they are backwoods idiots what are the people that still blame slavery for every damn thing that has happened since 1865.

Did you actually take the time to comprehend my point, or were you just licking your chops at the thought of slamming some EVUL PC LIBRULZ?

Besides, is it really such a hard concept to grasp that maybe, just maybe, the decision to retire the Colonel had nothing to do with that oh-so-dreaded political correctness and is just an attempt by Ole Miss to refresh its image? Colleges do that sometimes even when their identity doesn't have any such implications (see: North Texas, Oklahoma State, etc).

[tron1013]

Anything is better than Admiral Akbar, no reference to Star Wars or Star Trek or Star whatever should be in sports. That stuff was not cool when it came out and still is lame.

Totally, dude. Star Wars was so "not cool" when it came out that it was the highest grossing movie of all time. And how much money did that Star Trek movie make last summer?

Look, if you're on a special message board to talk about sports uniforms and logos, you might as well just admit that you're a nerd and embrace it.

I fully embrace my nerd-ness, yet I've never seen any of the Star Wars films and haven't paid attention to Star Trek since The Next Generation... if ever there was a time when it was decided that all nerds HAVE to be into sci-fi I was probably out taking a leak...

Florida will replace the Gator with a Jorts wearing anthropomorphized Tim Tebow.

This made me laugh really hard. Personally, I prefer the bear but I don't quite understand the fuss over Colonel Reb.

Me either... if Magnolia State's largest university wants to project an image of Mississippians being a bunch of backwoods idiots who are still trying to fight the civil war, they should have that right

If you don't like their logo then don't but their stuff or support their team. This PC BS is just plain stupid. If they are backwoods idiots what are the people that still blame slavery for every damn thing that has happened since 1865.

Did you actually take the time to comprehend my point, or were you just licking your chops at the thought of slamming some EVUL PC LIBRULZ?

Besides, is it really such a hard concept to grasp that maybe, just maybe, the decision to retire the Colonel had nothing to do with that oh-so-dreaded political correctness and is just an attempt by Ole Miss to refresh its image? Colleges do that sometimes even when their identity doesn't have any such implications (see: North Texas, Oklahoma State, etc).

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[CDixonDesign]

The bear is the only logical option of those three. No matter how pointless those three may be....

[omnivore]

I love that their mascot has different outfits, specifically a dress outfit. That's great. Not a fan of any of them, Admiral Ackbar would've been fun but Mississippi isn't really the place for that. I'm guessing the first one will win, because it's an actual person. I think the Colonel Reb thing is a decision the administration can make on their own, realizing that it was hurting their brand in the end to have a mascot that was a vestige of a different time and place. I'm not sure it was really about political correctness as much as it's about perceptions of the brand and the money involved in maintaining a positive image.

[Lee.]

And Ole Miss might want to take a trip to a Wizards game before choosing "Hotty Toddy""

Completely off topic, this would make the beginnings of a kick-ass Powdered Toast Man costume for Hallowe'en.

[rams80]

Pardon my ignorance, but why does a mascot need formal attire?

I'm of the impression that partying, especially of the Pre-Game variety, is SERIOUS BUSINESS at Ole Miss.

[B-Rich]

Okay, my two cents:

This whole thing is a joke. First of all, The University of Mississippi can't have it both ways. They cannot have their nickname/team name remain "the Rebels" and yet have totally unrelated mascots.

For that matter, if the powers that be are so intent on removing the Colonel Reb image from everything associated with the University, then they also need to remove the nickname "Ole Miss" as well. Because, (for those not in the know) "Ole Miss" was a plantation term used to refer to the (white) matriarch of the house. Reference to the University of Mississippi as Ole Miss is not just a play on words (Ol' Mississippi) but also a variation of the idea of Alma Mater, or "nourishing mother": just as the Ole Miss was the "mother" of the plantation, Ole Miss is the alma mater of all alumni.

To me, the use of "Ole Miss" should be considered as as offensive as the use of an old southern man as a mascot (dressed not in confederate military garb, mind you, but in a hat and formal wear). But what will people say about keeping the term "Ole Miss"-- it's tradition, it's become a part of the lexicon. Well, that's the same thing you can say about the Colonel Reb image.

For the life of me, I see no difference in terms of a costume between the "Colonel Reb" and the "Demon Deacon" at Wake Forest. Both are white-haired white southern men from a bygone era.

Ole Miss rid themselves of the confederate flag-waving and playing of "Dixie". That was a needed and important step. Now I think the most appropriate path would be to go one way or the other: Remain the Ole Miss Rebels, with Colonel Reb as a logo/mascot, or become the University of Mississippi Bears/Flood (their original name)/Landsharks, etc.

What they're doing now is just too half-assed.

[Firefly]

Bears are (were?) native to Mississippi. The whole teddy bear name comes from Teddy Roosevelt going on a bear hunting trip in Miss and came upon a bear cub that one of his hosts tied to a tree for easy hunting (after being hounded and beaten by said hosts). TR, being a sportsman, wouldn't shoot the bear. The story spread and we get the Teddy Bear.

So, it makes more sense than nuetral man ("All I know is that my gut says 'maybe'") and land shark.

[Mingjai]

If they're going to have a person as a Rebel mascot, then a James Dean-like character would be better than generic frat boy.

[CitizenTino]

Three words: Greendale. Human. Beings.

Outstanding.

Exactly what I thought of when I saw the "Hotty Toddy" version.

[CS85]

Ackbar was the clear winner, these mascots radiate lame.