Editor’s Note: Due to print deadline, all interviews for this story were conducted before the Colonel Reb PAC arrived on campus.
Fans attending last night’s football game at Davis Wade Stadium might have seen a mascot they did not expect to come across: the recently-retired Colonel Reb.
The Colonel Reb Political Action Committee was in Starkville last night collecting signatures for a petition to bring back the mascot that was replaced by the Rebel Black Bear last year. The PAC had a man dressed as Colonel Reb greeting fans before the game and attended the game.
Arthur Randallson, director of the Colonel Reb Pac, said he acknowledges the rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State but is hoping everyone in Mississippi has an interest in bringing back Colonel Reb, even in enemy territory.
“We’re coming on a mission of peace,” Randallson said. “This is a fight to stop political correctness.”
Randallson said he is hoping to have the initiative placed on the ballot in the 2012 general elections but needs 100,000 signatures evenly distributed throughout Mississippi in order to do so, hence the need to come to Starkville.
The PAC and Colonel Reb were present at the Neshoba County Fair in July, where they said they received a warm reception from MSU fans.
Rhett Hobart, Mississippi State Student Association president, said he thinks Colonel Reb’s presence will be interesting to see but will not cause any problems on gameday.
“Our fans and students are respectful,” Hobart said. “I think it will be an interesting response to it, but I don’t think it will be a bad response. We’re the best fan base and student body in the country, and I think we’ll act accordingly.”
For many people, the image of Colonel Reb brings back the state’s racial problems of the past, from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement, which is why the mascot was deemed inappropriate.
Shelbie Gordon, president of the Black Student Alliance at MSU, said she would not be surprised if confrontations occurred with the mascot but is hoping nothing happens.
“I don’t think (the reception) will be good at all,” Gordon said. “Me personally, I don’t want to see him at all. It’s a really negative connotation that comes along with Colonel Reb.”
Butch Harris from Water Valley was dressed as Colonel Reb in a suit modeled off of the “1947 yearbook look.” Harris vsited with both MSU and LSU fans at the game. Harris said he does not see the Colonel Reb issue as one of race, and he does not see color in people.
 ”I don’t think we’re going to have anything but a good reception,” Harris said.
One of the main representatives working with the Colonel Reb Pac is an MSU alumnus, House District 19 Representative Mark DuVall. The initiative, which is labeled as Ballot Initiative Measure Number 37, could have to wait until 2014 if not enough signatures are gathered before the 2012 election deadlines.
“(DuVall) is a great example of how MSU fans and Ole Miss fans will come together as Mississippians when our Southern Heritage is under attack,”Randallson said.