The University of Nevada Rebels. Confederate statues are being removed from college campuses all over the United States, but what about their sports teams and mascots? Have you ever heard of Hey Reb? The official nickname of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) is The Rebels, and the team’s mascot is Hey Reb. Whenever I go to Las Vegas, I see people wearing Hey Reb t-shirts. I also see them at gift shops at the airport and in hotels. Hey Reb is an old Confederate soldier with a huge white mustache. Hey Reb is often depicted carrying a Civil War era rifle. He sometimes also has a cannon. But why?! Nevada was a Union state, and slavery was never legal in Nevada. During the Civil War, Nevada Territory contributed significantly to the Union war effort. The 1860s was the height of the Comstock Lode, the biggest concentration of silver ever found in one place in all of history. The mines in and around Virginia City shipped hundreds of millions of dollars in silver back east to finance the Union war effort. Nevada was admitted into the Union in late October 1864, one week before the presidential election. There weren’t enough people living in Nevada at the time to qualify it for statehood, but Nevada was admitted into the Union anyway in order to give Lincoln a few more electoral votes. So, considering its history, why is the mascot of UNLV an old Confederate soldier? In 2016, after a mass shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina; the UNLV student newspaper changed its name from ‘The Rebel Yell’ to ‘The Scarlet & Gray Free Press’, but that was as far as they were willing to go. The majority of the players on UNLV’s football team are black. What do you suppose those black football players are thinking when they win a game and then a guy runs out onto the field dressed up like an old white Confederate soldier to congratulate them and do a victory dance?

Update: The University of Nevada Las Vegas has just announced that they are considering replacing Hey Reb with a new mascot. Well, I have a suggestion. I think that their new mascot should be named Hey Sucker! Hey Sucker! would be a bankrupt gambler with his pockets out to show that there is nothing in them. Hey Sucker! could be of any race. Las Vegas casinos will accept the life savings of anyone, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. They are very democratic about that. What do you think of my idea?