The new tattoo for Ole Miss baseball fan Brandon Gibens proclaims Ole Miss as the 2020 NCAA champions.

People are coping with the coronavirus-induced shutdown of sports in different ways. It is something that Ole Miss baseball fan extraordinaire Brandon Gibens, an accountant in Oxford, will never forget. Gibens made sure of that on Thursday after it was announced the NCAA would not host a championship tournament for baseball this season, effectively ending his beloved Rebels' season.

The 2009 graduate of Ole Miss decided to memorialize the Rebels' 16-1 start, No. 5 national ranking and the country's top power ranking by College Baseball Nation with a tattoo. It's a baseball with the script Ole Miss Baseball running through it adorned with the words "NCAA Champs 2020."

Central Florida has claimed a couple of mythical football national titles in the last few years, so why not the Ole Miss baseball team?

Gibens had the tattoo placed on the calf of his right leg. It is the work of local artist Doug Hollis.

Doug Gibens

Gibens admits he is somewhat of a Rebel super fan.

"We're there for every game," Gibens told the Ole Miss Spirit. "I sit out in left-center field with a bunch of guys. We're there on Tuesday nights in February when it's 25 degrees. We get out there on Saturday mornings super early and sit and wait in line. Ole Miss Baseball is just something that we do together and enjoy together. I thought the team was really special this year. They're not going to get the opportunity to go further. I just felt like they needed to be remembered, and this is the way for me to remember them forever. I'm a tattoo guy. It was something that I thought was cool, so I went ahead and did it."

Gibens didn't waste much time acting on his urge. He headed to the tattoo shop at practically the same time the announcement was made that there would be no College World Series this season.

"It was Thursday, about the time I found out they cancelled the College World Series. I said, 'Yep, I'm going to go do this,'" Gibens shared.

"...My wife said, 'Sure. If that's what you want to do, go for it.' She's pretty supportive. She goes to all of the games with me, and my daughter, as well. She was all for it."

Gibens admits he is saddened by the turn of events that has cost the Rebels their season. Like his new tattoo, the what-if's will last forever.

"It's disappointing for me, but I just feel so disappointed for the kids. They don't get to play. I'm disappointed that they can't live out this year and see how far they could go. It's pretty disheartening. The tattoo, for me, is to kind of memorialize it and say, 'Hey, we will not forget what they did do in the short amount of time that they had.'"