Numerous changes to the school’s mascot over the past 15 years have left students confused over who or what represents Ole Miss Athletics.
When asked, many UM students could not name the Ole Miss mascot. Tony the Landshark? Rebel the Black Bear? Colonel Reb? Students’ quizzical faces were telling.
Hailey Mewborn, a sophomore special education major from Memphis, believes it is time to end the debate and stick with the Landshark.
That is, unless one of UM’s campus celebrities is on the table. Enter Juice Kiffin: the social media-famous unofficial mascot of Ole Miss Football.
“I would choose Juice over the landshark any day,” Mewborn said. “I wear Juice buttons to games all the time. My only fear would be if (Ole Miss Football Head Coach Lane Kiffin) leaves Ole Miss. He would have to leave the dog.”
Kiffin welcomed the yellow Labrador retriever as his family pet two years ago. Known for fetching kickoff tees at home football games, Juice has over 55,500 followers on X — more than any player on the team.
While Juice has recently gained popularity as a mascot candidate, a significant number of students still favor Colonel Reb. The white-goateed Confederate army colonel is considered by many to be an offensive symbol of slavery, yet some students, alumni and Ole Miss fans continue to support the former mascot.
Jackson Sutliff, a business major from Austin, expressed fondness for the controversial figure.
“I like Colonel Reb, but I understand why the university removed him,” Sutliff said.
In 2003, Chancellor Robert Khayat and Athletics Director Pete Boone led UM administrators’ decision to remove Colonel Reb as the school’s on-field mascot. Thus began the ongoing battle to replace the colonel with a figure loved by all Ole Miss fans.
After seven years with no official mascot, students led an effort to select a new on-field representative for Ole Miss Athletics. Rebel the Black Bear won the election.
Rebel represented the two subspecies of black bears residing in Mississippi. The American black bear occupies the northern one-third of the state, and the Louisiana black bear is found in the southern two-thirds. The mascot was also inspired by Oxford author William Faulkner’s short story titled “The Bear.”
Rebel may have won the vote, but he did not win the hearts of Ole Miss fans. In 2017, then-Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter announced the university’s choice to replace the black bear with Tony the Landshark in the 2018 football season. The landshark honored Tony Fein, a former Ole Miss linebacker who passed away from a drug overdose in 2009.
Fein popularized the “fins up” gesture when he threw his hand above his head following a successful tackle during the 2008 practice season. The gesture and mascot gained traction among Ole Miss fans for a few years as the Landshark Defense overpowered opponents on the football field.
Today, however, Tony the Landshark is rarely, if ever, spotted at sporting events. Legend has it his fierce countenance scared youngsters in the Grove. A lackluster Ole Miss defense over several subsequent seasons diminished his impact, as well. The landshark’s low visibility has prompted many students to consider him a failed mascot.
It is not often that a phenomenon like Juice Kiffin comes along. Considering the yellow Lab’s astronomical approval among. UM fans young and old, should the university consider another mascot change?
Junior real estate and finance major Cooper Edmonson supports one last transition.
“I don’t think the landshark really makes any sense now that Juice is such a big symbol of the university,” Edmonson said. “Honestly, our mascot should be a yellow Lab instead of a landshark. We don’t really use the landshark on the field, and it’s kind of creepy. We should make the switch.”
