Las Vegas has never been one thing. It’s a city built by all kinds of people from all kinds of places, and that mix is exactly why it works. UNLV reflects that better than almost any campus in the country. Diversity isn’t a slogan here, it’s just reality.
That’s why the attacks on Hey Reb never added up. Seeing racism in everything is lazy thinking. Hey Reb, wasn’t that. He wasn’t designed to divide anyone. He was designed to represent where we’re from and who we are.
Hey Reb arrived in 1982: a cartoonish mountain man with a big mustache,a wide-brim hat, rugged, Western. He was a nod to Nevada’s frontier roots and to a young UNLV breaking from old molds. He didn’t wave a Confederate flag. He didn’t wear gray. He wasn’t modeled on plantation imagery. He was a stylized Western character tied to this region to independence, grit, and the rebel spirit that built this city.
The “Rebels” nickname came long before the mascot, back in the 1950s, when Southern Nevada finally pushed for its own university instead of living under Reno’s shadow. That’s the rebellion in our name: local pride, not racial ideology. “Rebel” isn’t owned by the Civil War. It’s a word for nonconformity, exactly the UNLV underdog vibe that made this place special.
In 2020, the campus statue came down. In January 2021, the mascot was retired. No vote. No public debate. No plan to replace him. A petition to keep Hey Reb drew 7,627 signatures in just over a week. Alumni, students, boosters, locals, and national media took notice. The response from the university? Silence. No engagement. No alternative. Just a hole where the heartbeat used to be.
Here’s what’s different now: Interim President Chris Heavey has said he’s willing to reopen the conversation.
That matters. It means the door isn’t locked anymore. It’s cracked open. And if the Rebel community is who it says it is, this is the moment to push.
Because the record still matters. There’s no evidence that Hey Reb was used as a symbol of hate or to intimidate anyone. He brought joy to kids, energy to the Thomas & Mack, and identity to the program. He was updated in 1997 and again in 2017 to keep pace with the times, proving he could evolve. If the goal was modernization, UNLV could have reframed him, explained his origin, and owned the story. Instead, leadership made a panic move and erased a unifying icon. It didn’t fix anything. It just erased something thousands of people loved.
Vegas doesn’t erase its icons. Vegas builds around them. Reinvents them. Makes them stronger.
If critics want to equate Hey Reb with truly toxic symbols, they’re forcing a false comparison. There’s a world of difference between a mascot born from Nevada’s frontier ethos and symbols created to defend slavery or oppression. Hey Reb was never that. He was ours, the tongue-in-cheek, larger-than-life, Wild West face of a school that never fit the mold.
UNLV says the conversation can be reopened. Good. Then let’s have it in public, with the people who actually built this community: alumni, students, athletes, and fans. Let’s talk about what a modern Hey Reb looks like, how we educate new students on the true origin, and how we make sure the symbol stands for what it always stood for: bold, resilient, unconventional Vegas.
If you want this to happen, don’t assume someone else will carry it. Make it impossible to ignore.
Sign the petition.
Share it with your groups and your timelines.
Tag UNLV. Tag Interim President Chris Heavey. Add your name and your story.
Here’s the link, expanded and easy to copy and share:
https://change.org/p/restore-heyreb-as-the-beloved-mascot-of-unlv
Do it now. Then send it to five people who care about this place as much as you do. Post it in alumni chats. Drop it in your section’s group text on game day. If the administration says the door is open, it’s on us to walk through it together, loudly, and with the facts.
UNLV kept the Rebels’ name. It kept the spirit. What’s missing is the face that brought it all together. Bring back Hey Reb, not as a relic, but as a statement of who we are and who we’ve always been.
One more time, so there’s no hunting for it:
https://change.org/p/restore-heyreb-as-the-beloved-mascot-of-unlv
Rebels don’t fold. They fight. Let’s bring him home.