OXFORD, Miss., Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Ole Miss students and alumni are hotly divided, struggling to find a new mascot replacing antebellum plantation caricature Colonel Reb, school officials say.
The white-bearded, cane-toting Colonel Sanders in Confederate drag hasn't been the Rebels' official team symbol since 2003 -- the school finally yielding to decades of complaints of racial insensitivity -- but allegiance to Colonel Reb is as divided as the old North and South, The New York Times reported Sunday.
"There's no more of a noble cause than continuing the tradition of Colonel Reb," said Levi West, Colonel Reb's doppelganger. "Everyone loves the guy."
"These are new times, we need a new image. But we also just need a mascot," said Ellison Brown, 21, an African-American junior from Jackson.
As far as merchandising goes, this summer Ole Miss announced a ban on the sale of anything with Colonel Reb's image on it and the university says it will hold a student-run election to select a new mascot, the Times reported.
Colonel Reb diehards are not going quietly into the southern night and a group of them have gathered 2,000 signatures on a petition against a new mascot.
"Over. My. Dead. Body," said Mack Allen, 36, an alumnus from Memphis, who wore a T-shirt to a recent football game that read, "Colonel Reb - Loved by Many, Hated by Few."
"It's a long process for people to embrace a new mascot," Chancellor Daniel W. Jones said. "In most universities with new mascots, after a period of time, there is relatively broad acceptance."
