Rebel Run welcomes ninth class of new students

Only 2,000 get to be in Rebel Run each year.

Students will participate in the ninth annual Rebel Run, which will take place at 3 p.m on Saturday prior to kickoff at the home football game against Wofford in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Bradley Baker, director of the Ole Miss Student Union, has worked on campus since the before first Rebel Run 2007.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the students to run across the field with their peers in front of over 60,000 people,” Baker said. “We hope this is just one more way to get the crowd excited about the first home football game of the season. This has become an annual tradition that fans expect and are proud of as they see the hordes of students run across the field.”

While one of the university’s senior leadership was watching a similar event at Vanderbilt, the idea of Rebel Run came up, and thus became a big tradition on the Ole Miss campus as a way to showcase the incoming freshman class.

“A few years ago, we came up with the motto ‘The fastest 100 yards of your life’ because the students are so excited and don’t realize how fast they actually run across the field,” Baker said.  

Junior music education major Hadassah Strong said she learned about the event in her EDHE class and decided to run.

“It was so fun,” Strong said. “I was just running with my best friend and we almost hit the cameraman. We actually got a picture taken of of the almost collision that ended up being used on the Ole Miss webpage.”

Chandler Tucker, co-director of entertainment of SAA, said Rebel Run is a good way for freshmen to meet each other.

“It is also just a fun experience for them as new students on the campus,” Tucker said.

Although the event is mainly for freshmen, transfer students can participate in a different way. Through the EDHE 305 courses, transfer students have the opportunity to volunteer to help with the logistics of the event behind the scenes as well as on the field.

The event is hosted by the Student Activities Association and the Ole Miss Alumni Association, along with help from Ole Miss Athletics and other volunteers.

“I think that Rebel Run is a great event and a unique tradition here at the university,” Baker said. “While the participants are an integral component in the event, it would not be a success without the support of Ole Miss Athletics and our faculty, staff and student volunteers.”