UNLV turns from Rebel mascot, Ole Miss should follow suit
UNLV announced this week that it has removed a Rebel statue on campus and is looking to change their nickname. Is it finally time for Ole Miss to put their confederate past behind them? Pete Thamel and SI’s Pat Forde broke it down on the latest Yahoo Sports College Podcast. Subscribe to the Yahoo Sports College Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Video Transcript
PAT FORDE: The Hey Reb statue at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas was taken down Tuesday night. UNLV's nickname is the Rebels. So he's gone. The question will be whether the Rebel nickname is gone. And then the question is when we get to the school-- more prominent school with the Rebel nickname-- University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, a name that has its own baggage-- what does Ole Miss do-- a school that has no shortage of history with racial problems. So let's start first with UNLV. What do you think of the move there to take down the statue? Would you change the nickname if you were the president and/or AD?
PETE THAMEL: I think yes, right? Like, I assume there was-- there was some backlash to this from minority communities. And, look, ties to-- any sort of perceived tie to the Confederacy, I think we're going to see extinguished from American culture. And certainly, they can be in museums behind glass in different places, and that's how that whole heritage first history thing is another-- you know, is an argument that you're not going to hear here.
But I really feel like we are entering an era where we-- after being under-sensitive for generations, we are now going to be rightfully oversensitive. And certainly, this is going to happen at the university level. And you know, there's even now-- there was an "AP" story out of Jackson, Mississippi this week that out of the state level, we may see-- we may see the state of Mississippi remove the Confederate emblem from part of their flag. And so, anyway, I hijacked UNLV and went to the other Rebels there, Pat. But I just think that's-- that's the climate we're in, and I am all for it.
PAT FORDE: Yeah, here's the thing, is the state of Nevada had nothing to do with the Civil War. Las Vegas wasn't even a city when the Civil War was fought. So you can't sit there and say, well, this is some sort of ode to our heritage or anything like that. And if it was, you absolutely have to get rid of it. So you could make an argument like, look, you are inventing a controversy here. But if I am a university president and/or the athletic director, I'm like, invented or real, we don't want any part of the controversy.
We don't want to be on the wrong side of this issue, especially if you're the AD or if you're a coach and you are interacting and trying to recruit a large population of black people to come to school there and wear your uniforms. You don't want the mascot guy to be that guy-- or a statue to be that guy or the name on the jersey to say, Rebels. So I-- you know, you can go ahead and debate the-- you know, the merits, I guess, back and forth, but if I were involved with that school in a decision-making capacity, I would say, let's get it changed. And let's get it changed by, like, the end of June.
OK, now let's go-- go into Ole Miss, which is-- boy, that's a bigger can of worms for many reasons there. Because, you know, state of Mississippi had probably more awful, tragic things happen than any other place in the nation throughout the Civil Rights Movement, and going back before that Jim Crow, going back before that to slavery, going back-- you know, Civil War, et cetera. The population, I believe it's 37% African-American population in the state, which might be the highest in the country. I'm not sure.
But the school-- the University of Mississippi has been an absolute flashpoint for racism and racial strife for a long time. And it goes back when James Meredith integrated the college and thereafter. And they have made progress. They have made strides. They got rid of the school song which was Dixie, which was the Confederate song. They got rid of Colonel Reb, who was the mascot. They got rid-- who was basically a plantation owner-- a caricature of a plantation owner. They finally made the students stop bringing Confederate flags to the games.
But not all messes are cleaned up there. The nickname is still Rebels. And for there, there is no mistaking that it is tied to the Confederacy, which the Confederate army was called the rebels. So Ole Miss, once again, is back in it. And this isn't a new story or a new issue. I saw a Mike Bianca calling from five years ago talking about those two things-- Ole Miss and the word Rebel. And then as you mentioned, obviously, the part of the flag that still has the stars and bars in it-- so hotter issue, touchier issue there, Pete. What do you think of it?
PETE THAMEL: Well, I would think if Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin-- who are two pod favorites-- got together with their players and said, we want change and we need change, change would happen.
