Striking a dignified southern gentleman pose, the erstwhile mascot for Ole Miss Rebels cuts a dashing figure on these vintage ceramic coasters. Colonel Reb once represented the collegiate athletic teams of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. He was the sideline costumed mascot from 1979 until 2003, but his history with the college goes all the way back to his design in 1936. The Colonel’s caricatured image appeared over the years on an array of university sanctioned items and inevitably sparked questions about whether he constituted a racist trope. Yet surprisingly one story of Colonel Reb’s origin postulates that he was based on a black concessions vendor named Blind Jim Ivy. Reportedly during a baseball game that Mississippi was losing, the stadium’s peanut seller began cheering the team on in his loud, booming voice. The players turned the game around for a decisive win. This was sometime just after 1896, and Ivy spent the next sixty years as a campus fixture, renowned for his enthusiasm for all University of Mississippi sports. The sightless Ivy liked to joke how he had, quote: “never seen Ole Miss lose.” A stretch that Colonel Reb’s origin story would be based on anything other than a white southern dandy, but it supplies another reason why he sports a walking stick, just as he does on these coasters. And this set of cork-backed throwbacks will only get more and more nostalgic. UM replaced the Colonel with the Black Bear as an on-field mascot. So set your drinks on a classic as you eat ‘yer fresh hot peanuts’ and enjoy the game.
Condition: Used Good. Sports Related. Dimensions: 3.75" square
