Editor’s note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

Nearly five years after UNLV retired Hey Reb! controversy surrounding the mascot remains active.

Michael Cooper, a fan of the mascot, created a petition on Change.org calling for the restoration of Hey Reb!. Nearly 1,300 supporters have signed the petition.

The cartoonish Hey Reb! mascot drew criticism for its perceived allusion to slavery and the Confederacy. The university retired the mascot in 2021 and removed its statue from campus.

Cooper contends that the mascot “was never about hate or division. Hey Reb! was created to reflect UNLV’s unique character — not the Confederacy, not the Old South and certainly not hate,” Cooper said.

Efforts to bring back Hey Reb! or designate a new mascot to represent UNLV took center stage at this month’s quarterly Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents meeting, where students and alumni voiced their opinions during public comment.

There was no agenda item regarding Hey Reb! or the possibility of selecting a new mascot for UNLV. Regent Byron Brooks suggested the issue would be one to take up with university leadership instead of the board.

In a statement to the Sun, a UNLV spokesperson said the current focus on campus was “preparing for a busy and productive spring semester in January.” UNLV didn’t shut down the possibility of mascot discussions in the future.

A bit of history

UNLV adopted the Rebels nickname in the 1950s to highlight the then-new school’s “rebellion” against UNR.

The nickname took on a more political tone in the 1960s when the sports programs introduced Beauregard, a wolf mascot named after Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard and dressed in a Confederate soldier’s gray uniform.

During the 1968 season, the football team wore helmets featuring the Confederate flag despite Nevada’s deep history as a Union state.

After protests from Black students, UNLV eliminated the Confederate imagery in 1976 but retained the Rebels nickname. The school transitioned from Beauregard to a more colonial-style Rebel character.

In 1982, the university introduced Hey Reb! The mascot, UNLV said at the time, was designed to represent a mountain man or frontiersman.

Despite retiring the mascot in 2021, the university kept the Rebels nickname. Then-President Keith Whitefield — a Black man — explained the decision in a statement, saying “Rebels are not afraid to fail and create a new path when one doesn’t exist. For all these reasons and many more, we will continue to be known as ‘Rebels.’ ”

But for Hey Reb! supporters, keeping the Rebels name isn’t enough — they want the mascot back too.

A grassroots organization has been attending UNLV home athletic events to speak with supporters about the efforts to reinstate the mascot. Save Our Mascot was founded by Alexander Gaglio, a “lifelong Rebel” who has helped lead the campaign.

Gaglio says Hey Reb! is one of the most recognizable figures in collegiate sports and a unifier on campus that “brings events to life.”

The mustached mountain man’s absence from the student section has “significantly diminished” the fan experience, according to Gaglio, who regularly attends home games. He added that the Rebel identity attracts students to the school and even influenced his own decision to enroll.

Matthew Wilantt, a 2016 UNLV graduate, said he viewed the former mascot as a historic part of the university that he hoped to share with his children when they enter college.

“I want my daughters to experience the same spirit of campus life I enjoyed when I lived on campus,” Wilantt said. “Members of the band today, as they march out to perform before games, shout to us, ‘bring back Hey Reb!’ from the field to the court. UNLV athletes have told us they know Hey Reb! and they want him back. We want UNLV to remain recognizable among the crowded field of Division I programs.”

Other supporters of Save Our Mascot say Hey Reb! embodies a sense of pride for alumni and evokes memories of “the greatest college basketball team of all time,” when former coach Jerry Tarkanian transformed the Runnin’ Rebels program into a national powerhouse from 1973 to 1992.

Opposing views

Bringing back Hey Reb! could ostracize Indigenous students, says Elena Marcos, a second-year biology major and vice president of UNLV’s Native American Student Association.

Marcos, who is part of the Oglala Lakota tribe, believes the university has a strong identity that doesn’t “need to cling to racist and outdated mascots to have school pride.” She said that reinstating Hey Reb! could be seen as celebrating Native American genocide and would make Indigenous students at UNLV uncomfortable.

Mercedes Krause, an alumna and founding member of the Native American Alumni Club, told regents the depiction of Hey Reb! perpetuates the “broken treaties, land theft (and) violence” against Native Americans.

The mother of three current UNLV students, Krause said her family was “still healing because of policies and actions that perpetrated harm.” She says she doesn’t want the university to make a decision that might cause her children and many others at UNLV emotional harm.

“Many people just see the story, a fun story, of a $1 mascot and the representation of folksy freedom, but to my kids and I, this is not what Hey Reb! represents,” Krause said. “I can’t go backwards, but I can stand now as a mom of three STEM students who walked the campus of UNLV and stand up to protect them and help this body to make decisions to not harm my children by placing nostalgia above the emotional safety of my kids.”

Another alumna, Nedra Cooper, also spoke against reinstating Hey Reb!, saying it is a reminder for Black students and alumni “of the painful legacy associated with the Old South, where racism and segregation was deeply entrenched.”

Rather than reinstating Hey Reb! some students are advocating for a new symbol for the university. They support UNLV officials’ effort to survey the campus community and hold a vote on a new mascot.

Tyler Jarley, an admissions counselor at UNLV, said the campus community needed “the opportunity to rally around a figure that can make us all feel part of the UNLV family,” stressing that “Rebels” should get to have the final say.

“No matter what your affiliation to UNLV is, I think that there’s one thing that most of us, if not all of us, can agree on, and that’s that UNLV needs a new mascot,” he said. “There are so many different ideas across campus, but we as a community need the opportunity to rally around a figure that can make us all feel part of the UNLV family. The only way we can do that is if Rebels get to have the final say.”

Myles Lum, an alumna and professor-in-residence at UNLV, wants whatever mascot the university lands on to be fun, quirky, and represent not only the whole of Southern Nevada, but all of the people on campus.

Listening tours, surveys and discussions with a wide variety of students should be had before any decision is made, said Ethan Phui, associate director of legislative affairs for Consolidated Students of UNLV (CSUN),the school’s undergraduate student government group..

Interim President Chris Heavey, at a September faculty meeting, acknowledged the calls to bring back a university mascot and said he would be talking to community members about it during an upcoming listening tour to develop a campus strategic plan.

“We appreciate the incredible passion that UNLV fans have for our university and for UNLV Athletics. UNLV is a special place, and that’s evident every day in the great pride that our alumni, students, employees and supporters have in being a part of this university,” a UNLV spokesperson told the Sun.“We listened to multiple voices on the topic of a UNLV mascot during December’s Board of Regents meeting, and we have and will continue to listen to members of our university and the community on this and other topics.”