OXFORD, Miss. (U-WIRE) -- The recent announcement made by University of Mississippi Athletic Director Pete Boone to exclude the Colonel Reb mascot from the field and court has left confusion over the colonel's place at Ole Miss.

However, Chancellor Robert Khayat said this was not the beginning of phasing him out all together.

"He is still an official symbol of Ole Miss," Khayat said in a phone interview. "He will still be in the Grove before the games and available for parades and other such things ... There's no plan or scheme here."

Khayat also said this was an "athletic issue" and has to do "with games only."

He said this whole affair has been "blown out of proportion."

After weeks of speculation over what Boone was planning to do with the mascot, he announced his decision in a meeting between at least one person from The Oxford Eagle and himself.

"In trying to create the athletic image -- I would also like to call it a 'champions' image' -- for Ole Miss athletics, you have to look at every part of the program ... and, certainly, the look of the mascot," Boone said, according to The Oxford Eagle. "Every area needs to be looked at on a continuous basis to make sure that it's projecting the sort of champions' image that our school should have. This is one of those areas."

Khayat said the athletic department thought it would be better for the game if Colonel Reb was not on the field.

Boone said in The Oxford Eagle, "The thing that has always struck me about our mascot is that it is not an athletic mascot. It was, as we've all said, an old man with a cane. It just didn't look athletic; it didn't represent anything athletic, and it seemed to be a different image than what we were trying to do from an athletic department standpoint."

Since Boone has decided not to have the mascot participate in the games, the Ole Miss athletic games will remain mascotless through this football season at least.

Khayat said the people at the athletic department did not see anything that fit Ole Miss right through the "infamous study" conducted by the New York-based Phoenix Group, which the Loyalty Foundation paid $30,000.

In a previous interview with Jeff Alford, assistant vice chancellor of university relations, he said ideas had already been vetoed for a new mascot look, sending the group back to the drawing board.

Khayat said Boone had suggested having a contest about another mascot and pointed out Ole Miss became the "Rebels" after a contest in 1936 sponsored by the school paper. The name was chosen out of the submissions, and 18 out of 21 Southern sports writers voted for "Rebels" from the five options presented to them.

This affair has given stores selling Ole Miss merchandise a boost, according to workers at both Campus Book Mart and Rebel Bookstore.

"I have definitely seen an increase in sale," Linda Singletary, assistant manager at Rebel Bookstore, said. "I have two shirts with Colonel Reb on it, and they have sold consistently for two days. I've sold out of Colonel Reb ornaments and have pre-booked orders for Colonel Reb statues."

Floor manager at Campus Book Mart Jennifer Anderson said sales there have also increased.

"If anything, it has helped [our sales], to be honest," she said.

Singletary said many of the people buying different items with the mascot on them are afraid they will not be available in the future and want to stock up now.

"I have already booked quite a few things with the Colonel Reb logo," she said. "I'll still be receiving those at this point."

Anderson said Campus Book Mart is doing the same.

"I just got off my phone with our buyer," she said. "We will continue to buy until we can't get it anymore. To my understanding, though, it's just the athletic department and not the university, and until they say 'no' to the colonel, we will keep getting his stuff."

Langston Rogers, associate athletic director for sports information, said ticket sales for this year's football games are on pace with what they were last year. Last year 43,000 season tickets were sold.

Boone is out of town and could not be reached for comment.

(C) 2002 Daily Mississippian via U-WIRE.