The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebel Student-Athletes Help Lead Mascot Search
5/5/2010 | Athletics
Ole Miss Athletics Media Relations
For the last seven years, Ole Miss fans have gone without an on-field mascot at Rebel sporting events.
Now, Ole Miss athletes Gabby Rangel and Matt Daniels are among the students leading the search for a new mascot.
In February of this year, the Ole Miss student body decided by a 74 percent majority to support a student-led effort to develop and propose a new on-field mascot for the Ole Miss Rebels. After the vote, Associated Student Body President Artair Rogers quickly pulled together a group of student leaders charged with the task of choosing a Mascot Selection Committee.
Among 97 applicants for the selection committee, about half were interviewed. By the end of March, 17 of the best and brightest students on campus were chosen to serve on the prestigious committee.
What separates Rangel and Daniels from the rest of the group is that they not only shine in the classroom and the community, but they also compete at the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics for the Rebels.
"I heard that we were looking for athletes to be represented on the mascot committee, and I felt like we needed that," said Rangel, a sophomore on the No. 17-ranked women's tennis team. "I thought I would be a good fit for it."
In addition to helping the Rebels to an SEC Western Division Championship this year while playing at No. 6 singles and No. 2 doubles, Rangel has spent long hours with her new role in the mascot search.
"With school ending and exams around the corner, it's been challenging, but we've been meeting a lot and working so hard," she said. "We've hosted a couple of focus groups and have had great responses from those. Not only have we been talking to students and different student organizations, but we've had focus groups with alumni, season ticket holders, athletics staff, coaches and UMAA Foundation members. We are really trying to reach out to anyone with any relation to Ole Miss. We launched our website, mascot.olemiss.edu, and we've been getting more and more people visiting it every day."
A junior sprinter on the 12th-ranked men's track and field team, Daniels also saw the need for athletes to be involved in the selection committee and threw his name into the mix.
"When I heard they were making a selection committee, I felt like it was important that athletes be represented," Daniels said. "As an athlete, I think it's very important that the mascot that's chosen represent us - as athletes, coaches and a department as a whole - and what we're trying to accomplish athletically."
While he attends class and trains with the Rebels' 4x400 meter relay squad that is working toward its second straight NCAA Regional appearance, Daniels has been busy learning with the rest of the committee from marketing professionals all about mascots and the benefits they can have in athletics.
"A mascot works two-fold," he said. "It represents what we're trying to accomplish as we compete, and it's also there to pump up the crowd and get the crowd involved. Those two functions tend to play off each other and really enhance the gameday experience."
The committee's initial phase has consisted primarily of working with the Ramey Agency, a Mississippi-based, full-service marketing firm, to assure the student group uses an inclusive, transparent best-practices approach in developing and proposing an on-field mascot for the Rebels. The student committee has begun its research and is seeking input from as many individuals and groups as possible about a new mascot. In the second phase, the group will evaluate all of the information to develop and propose what it believes the new mascot should be.
"It's very important that everyone in the Ole Miss family be able to connect to the mascot," Daniels said. "We want it to be something everybody believes in and everybody supports."
The committee members also want fans and Rebel supporters to realize that they are only selecting a new mascot - not a new nickname, new colors or any other new traditions.
"We want to make sure that everyone knows we will continue to be the Ole Miss Rebels," Rangel said. "All we're trying to do is find a mascot that personifies the Rebels name."
"Now we have the opportunity to create a brand, something that's going to represent us as a university, as an athletic department and what we're trying to accomplish as we compete against other SEC schools and other schools across the nation," Daniels added.
As they compete with intensity and passion in their sports, Rangel and Daniels are both committed to helping make their university the best that it can be during their time in Oxford. They have worked tirelessly to help Ole Miss excel since arriving on campus, and they want to ensure that the future is even better.
"What I really like about Ole Miss is that it's a close-knit community, like a family," Daniels said. "I like the culture and how everybody is proud of its tradition. As a member of this committee, I just want to help find a mascot that everybody believes in and everybody supports."
"Personally I think it's really important to have a mascot," Rangel said. "We've had alums at focus groups tell us that when they go to games with their kids, the kids are playing with the other teams' mascots, and you kind of see what you're missing. It's really important for young kids to relate to something, because they don't always know what's going on at the games. Those kids are the future of Ole Miss, and we want to pick something that represents who we are now and what Ole Miss will be in the future. We want to respect our traditions, but also to move forward."
The Mascot Selection Committee believes that it's time for the Rebels to get a new mascot. To follow the committee's progress and to submit ideas, Ole Miss faithful may visit the committee's official website, mascot.olemiss.edu.
