Prompted by a petition launched by a former student, a committee is studying whether Franklin High School should dump its Rebels team name.

I have some connection to this issue.

True, I am not a Franklin High graduate. But my college alma mater also uses Rebels for its teams. Alumni news arrives via the Rebel Insider (which I assuredly am not). And, oddly enough, both schools switched to Rebels more than 80 years ago after originally using other sports team names.

Ole Miss football teams were variously referred to as “the Varsity Eleven” or “the Red and Blue” among other names until 1929, HottyToddy.com explains, when “the Flood” was chosen by a committee.

I think we can agree that “the Flood” selection confirms the general uselessness of anything done by committee. It didn’t catch on. In 1936, another contest was held, with nominations sought.

A fellow from Vicksburg named Ben Guider suggested Rebels.

“The name is short, musical, inspiring, simple for publication purposes, and should catch the eye of the sports public in newspaper accounts of Ole Miss football contests,” he wrote.

Among the 600 or so suggestions were “Stonewalls” and “Confederates.” So, on balance, Rebels seems to have been a better choice.

Franklin High teams began as the Pioneers. But the same year of the change at Ole Miss – coincidental, I assume – students voted to switch to Rebels, and so they remain. Pending review.

Team names have been something of a minor obsession of mine for years. It dates to when, as a Tennessean columnist charged with answering reader questions, someone asked about their overall origin.

Try as I might, I could not produce the goods. I still try, from time to time, only to repeat the failure. The origin of any particular name might be ascertainable –Tennessee Volunteers, for example, not much of a problem – but why and how it all began remains a mystery.

I can tell you that tnhighschoolfootball.com lists nine other Tennessee schools whose teams also go by Rebels: South Greene, McKenzie, Stewart County, Sullivan South, Obion County, Knoxville West, Franklin County, Maryville and Tipton Rosemark Academy. I don’t know whether any of those are navel-gazing over a change.

Mascotdb.com lists dozens and dozens of Rebel teams across the country, ranging alphabetically from A.B. Miller High in Fontana, California, to the Zion Chapel Rebels in Jack, Alabama.

As it happens, Miller High announced last month it was removing all images of the Rebel mascot from school property and online, and that officials are “in the process of reviewing potential replacements.” Why Rebels would have ever taken hold in California in the first place is a puzzler.

My own relationship with Rebels has evolved. I had no issue with it during my college days. Now, though, while perfectly happy to wear a shirt or hat announcing my Ole Miss loyalty, I won’t display anything that has a Rebel logo or even the word Rebels.

If you read my column a couple of weeks ago defending the term Dixie, you might wonder how I square those two stands, which are seemingly at odds. They are not at odds.

As mentioned, Dixie is a contemporary term still applied to the South of today. Rebel, on the other hand, is pretty much indelibly associated with the men and boys in gray who actively rebelled against the Union.

Not an easily defensible connection.

Both Ole Miss and Franklin High have, in recent times, distanced themselves from Rebel images. Ole Miss replaced its Colonel Rebel mascot on football sidelines in 2003, replacing it first with a Black Bear and, more recently, a Landshark.

Both are laughable, and I think we’d be better off with nothing at all, but I was not consulted in the matter.

Any move to do away with Rebels entirely for Ole Miss would, I am sure, be met with Mississippi’s usual open-mindedness and calm, reasoned public discussion.

As for Franklin High, I won’t presume to advise. But if they ultimately decide to change, I suggest they avoid “Redskins.”

I gather there’s been some fuss about that name, too.

Joe Rogers is a former writer for The Tennessean and editor for The New York Times. He is retired and living in Nashville. He can be reached at [email protected].