LAS VEGAS — Bring Hey Reb back.
At Friday’s Board of Regents meeting, I want UNLV supporters to ask the university to review its decision to retire the mascot and give students a say in what comes next.
I will be in Boise covering the Mountain West championship game, so I cannot stand beside the people who go. That is a frustrating place to be: following a football program that has given this community reasons to care while missing a chance to speak about something that helped me become part of that community.
I started the petition “Restore HeyReb! as the Beloved Mascot of UNLV.” I want the university to reconsider the retirement, and I want supporters to explain why it deserves reconsideration. I am part of this campaign because I believe UNLV lost something its community could still use: a familiar character who could welcome people before they knew enough about the school to recognize anyone else.
The Board of Regents is scheduled to reconvene at 9 a.m. Dec. 5 in Student Union Ballrooms B and C, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway. Public comment comes first on Friday’s estimated timeline. There is no mascot restoration vote on the agenda. This is a chance to speak, and the request should be clear enough for university leaders to answer after the meeting ends.
Ask UNLV to name who would lead a review, how students and alumni could take part and when the university would report back.
For me, the case begins before college. My family took me to UNLV games. Hey Reb was part of the university I could recognize before I knew the players or understood why a coaching decision mattered. There were photographs with my parents and younger brother. There were footballs carrying his image. The next time we went, I had someone to look for.
I graduated from UNLV in 2021 with a hospitality management degree, the sixth person in my family to attend the university. That connection was built over years. The mascot was part of it. Anyone who dismisses those experiences as mere nostalgia should consider how a university hopes to create its next generation of alumni and supporters.
Las Vegas artist Mike Miller created the character in 1982 and charged UNLV a dollar for exclusive rights to the design. In the university’s account of his work, Miller described wanting to be a good community citizen and a friend to the school.
Gail Lehtinen, a costumer in UNLV’s theatre department, made the first suit and had the cheer embroidered on the back. Bill Terry’s alumni association helped pay for it. Students voted to adopt Miller’s design. The artist supplied an idea; people at the university supplied the money, costume and support that made its Dec. 9, 1982, debut possible.
“I was trying to be a good community citizen and a friend of the university,” Miller told UNLV in 2011.
The university’s mascot changed over time. The rifle disappeared in 1997. The appearance was revised again in 2017. The character familiar to one generation was not frozen in precisely the form another generation first saw. That history gives supporters a reason to discuss what a return could look like rather than assume every detail must remain beyond question.
It also requires us to be honest about the history before Hey Reb. Beauregard carried Confederate imagery. Black student-athletes objected to it, and the university abandoned that character. The people who challenged the earlier imagery were part of UNLV’s community, and their concerns helped the university change.
The history does not require everyone to share my conclusion. A frontiersman carries associations beyond what his creator intended. Someone can understand the distinction from Beauregard and still object to the image. Those people deserve to explain their concerns without being accused of hating UNLV or looking for something to be offended by.
The statue was removed in June 2020. The university permanently retired the mascot in January 2021. The Rebels name remained. Four years later, supporters are still trying to explain why a school asking them to rally around that name should have a character to rally around, too.
Supporters also have a finding to put before university leaders. Former chief diversity officer Rainier Spencer’s 2015 review concluded that Hey Reb and the Rebels nickname were not tied to the Confederacy. That is a reason to discuss this particular character on his history. It does not settle every objection to a frontiersman, and the university should hear those concerns directly.
A returning Hey Reb should have responsibilities beyond football and basketball. I would want a performer at campus events and in the community, giving people who have never attended a game a way to encounter the university. Southern Nevada has potential Rebels who may never be reached by an athletic department announcement.
A return would require a budget for costumes and performer training, someone to schedule appearances and a university office responsible for the program. UNLV should spell out those costs and responsibilities before committing to a return.
Current students need a real place in that discussion. Some have never seen Hey Reb at a UNLV game. A review should reach them before deciding what a return would look like, including students who object to the character. Alumni can bring photographs and memories; students should be able to describe the campus they are attending now.
If you speak Friday, ask the regents who can start that review and when the university can give students an answer.