Ole Miss Rebels x Crown Royal Tony the Landshark Collector's Whiskey Decanter

Picture the Ole Miss defense in 2008, just after a big hit. A player raises one hand, fingers pressed together, and stands it upright on his forehead like a fin slicing through water. The gesture traced back to Tony Fein, a linebacker who had served a year in Iraq with the Army before he ever played in Oxford, and the word that went with it was Landshark. It was loud, a little silly and very Oxford.

The Landshark rides a glass wave beside its navy box, crown on its head and Hotty Toddy across the front.

The fin became a vote, and the vote became Tony

Nine years later the gesture had outgrown the defense. In 2017, students cast more than 4,100 votes on a new mascot, with 81 percent backing the Landshark, and on October 6 that year Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter announced it would take over with the 2018–19 season. Tony the Landshark was introduced to fans on August 11, 2018, wearing No. 47 in honor of Fein's old jersey.

The costume has made far fewer appearances since 2021, but the fin never depended on a costume. Our shark wears No. 17 rather than 47, so treat him as one of Tony's teammates, not a replica of the suit.

Crown and grin up close, with the navy box softly blurred behind them.

Read the bottle from the crown down

Every part of this decanter has a job, and most of them are jokes. Start at the top and work down.

• The crown. A red-and-gold stopper with a fleur-de-lis finial, a tip of the cap to Crown Royal and its famously crowned bottle.
• The grin. A gray-and-white shark with a cartoon-wide smile full of zigzag teeth, more class clown than predator.
• The jersey. Ole Miss red with white stripes on the sleeves, the script wordmark across the chest and a bold No. 17 beneath it.
• The fins. Left as clear glass, so they glow amber when the decanter is full.
• The wave. A curl of clear glass at the base that the shark seems to be surfing straight toward you.
• The box. Navy with a gold crown, a shark badge, Est. 1848, a Tony the Landshark banner and Hotty Toddy! in white script.

On a dark wooden bar, the red jersey catches the light from the bottles behind it.

Hotty Toddy is older than anyone can explain

The cheer printed on the box predates the shark by nearly a century. Its earliest known appearance in print came in the student newspaper, The Mississippian, on November 19, 1925, and even that version did not quite match what fans shout today. Nobody can say for certain where it came from, and the most common theory, which links it to the Highty Tighties band at Virginia Tech, has never been settled either.

Rebels use Hotty Toddy as a cheer, a greeting and a password, so printing it beside a Landshark pairs one of Oxford's oldest traditions with a much newer one. Nobody seems to mind that the history is fuzzy.

Lift the crown, pour over ice, and the shark keeps grinning from the kitchen counter.

A Landshark belongs where friends gather

This is a bottle for game-day hosts, alumni who still answer the phone with Hotty Toddy, and parents of new Rebels who want something on the bar cart besides a pennant. If someone in your life collects college mascots, our Michigan State Sparty decanter wears a matching crown stopper and makes a good neighbor on the shelf.

The No. 17 jersey and the glass wave, close enough to follow every curl of the crest.

Fill it before kickoff or leave it empty as a display piece. Either way, the fins go up whenever somebody walks past.

Written by Roland Ashby, Drinkware & Barware Specialist at DoesignUs.