The Rebel humor magazine designed the Colonel, as this group-known as the "Rebel Club"-was founded in 1937 shortly after the University adopted the "Rebels" nickname and featured on the magazine's masthead an illustration of the Colonel was identical to the one found in the 1937 annual. Still others maintain that the printing company that published the Ole Miss annual was responsible for the design.

University of Mississippi historian David Sansing has noted that "Blind Jim [Ivy] may have been the