People often confuse the two schools in the state of Mississippi that are a part of the Southeastern Conference because both have the words Mississippi and University in them: The University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University. The University of Mississippi is commonly referred to as Ole Miss while Mississippi State University is called Mississippi State, still people get them confused. Ole Miss was established in 1848 and the motto is "On behalf of Knowledge and Wisdom." Ole Miss is located in Oxford, but also has campuses in Booneville, Southaven, Tupelo, Grenada, and in Jackson, there is the Medical Center. Currently there are over 20,000 students enrolled in all of the Ole Miss campuses but the main campus in Oxford has the majority of the students. The Chancellor of Ole Miss is Daniel W. Jones and he has a staff of 729 members. The school colors are Harvard Crimson and Yale Blue and the athletic teams are referred to as the Rebels.

Why is the University of Mississippi named Ole Miss? In 1897, there was a contest to name the first yearbook and a student named Elma Meek gave the name Ole Miss. After naming the yearbook, the school started to be known as Ole Miss as well. No one knows why she chose that name or where she got it from, but it stuck!

In 1848, when Ole Miss opened, only 80 students were enrolled. Its first campus only had six buildings which included the Lyceum, two dorms, two faculty houses, and a steward's hall. The oldest building on campus is the Lyceum and it originally housed all the faculty offices and classrooms. Today, all of the Ole Miss administration offices are located in the Lyceum, Like many other schools in the south, when the Civil War started, all of the students and most of the staff joined the Confederate Army. They were known as the University Greys and every single one of them died during the war. Also, the Lyceum served as a hospital during the Civil war for the Confederate Army and the Union Army. Of all the soldiers that had to come to the Lyceum for treatment, 250 of them died there and were buried on the grounds of the university in a cemetery.

The Mascot is the Rebel Black Bear and the Fight Song is "Forward Rebels." One of the most famous cheers for the school is called "Hotty Toddy" It goes like this: "Are you ready? Hell, yes! Damn Right! Hotty Toddy, Gosh almighty who the hell are we, Hey! Flim Flam Bim Bam, Ole Miss by Damn!" Do you want to cheer on your Ole Miss Rebels in style? Check out our game day dresses and other cute sundresses at SidelineSweetie.com!

At the University of Mississippi there are ten divisions in which you can receive a degree. These divisions are: the School of Journalism and New Media, the School of Accountancy, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Applied Sciences, the School of Law, the School of Business Administration, the Graduate School, the School of Education, the School of Liberal Arts, and the School of Engineering. All of these schools are in Oxford at the main campus. In Jackson, you will find the Medical Center which has: the School of Dentistry, the School of Graduate Studies in Health Sciences, the School of Health Related Professions, the School of Medicine, and the School of Nursing. At the Medical Center, the first human lung transplant was performed by Ole Miss Surgeons in 1963. The very next year, they also completed the first of an animal to human heart transplant! Also, at Ole Miss there is the only legal marijuana farm in the United States. The growing and production of marijuana has been going on at Mississippi since 1968. The marijuana is used for research by the National institute of Drug Abuse and for any of the medical cannabis patients. Wow!

Student Media groups at the University of Mississippi are part of the S. Gale Deley Student Media Center. There is The Daily Mississippian, which is the newspaper that is student-published which has been printed since 1911. It is published five times a week and has a circulation of 15,000. The radio station, which is called Rebel Radio, can be found on WUMS-FM 92.1. It is operated completely by students. The last is a student-produced newscast which is live each weekday at 5:30pm. The last student media option is The Ole Miss, which was mentioned before, and is the student year book. It is normally around 420 pages and is worked on by students and faculty.

In 1936, the athletic teams at Ole Miss were officially called the Rebels, after one time being known as the Mississippi Flood. Ole Miss started a football program in 1890 and from there the athletic program has grown to eighteen men's and women's sports. There are close to 650 student athletes on campus that participate in football, baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, volleyball, lacrosse, soccer, track and field, golf, softball, and other sports. Football is played at the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium or Hollingsworth Field. Basketball is played at C.M. "Tad" Smith Coliseum. Baseball is played at the Oxford-University Stadium or Swayze Field. The Ole Miss Rebels have a few rivals. First of all, the Mississippi State Bulldogs, the Louisiana State University Tigers, and the Arkansas Razorbacks are the main athletic rivals. At the end of each football season, the last game played is called the Egg Bowl. The Egg Bowl is the gameday between the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University. Ole Miss has won the majority of the meetings. The winner of the Egg Bowl gets to have the Golden Egg Trophy for the year following the game. Archie Manning was one of the many all time great players from Ole Miss. His jersey number, 18, is used as the official speed limit on the signs around campus. The current football coach is Hugh Freeze and he has only been at Ole Miss since December of 2011. He was a coach at Lambuth University and Arkansas State University before taking the job at Ole Miss. Hugh Freeze was depicted in the recent book and blockbuster movie, The Blind Side. He is the 37th coach for the Ole Miss Rebels.