Before there was Micky Mouse, Walt Disney created Oswald the Rabbit for Universal. Disney didn’t manage to hold onto the rights to the character and NBC ended up owning Oswald lock, stock and barrel. In a deal announced today, Disney’s given up Al Michaels’ contract in echange for ownership of Oswald. I fully expect to see a raft of vintage accessories in the Disney store by the end of the summer as well as a DVD of all 26 shorts.

By granting Michaels his exit papers, The Walt Disney Co., ABC’s parent company, will get back a piece of its history from NBC Universal: the first animated character created by Disney and the forerunner to Mickey Mouse.

His name was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and the cheeky bunny was created in 1927 by Disney and his chief creative partner, Ub Iwerks, at the request of Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures.

In the deal announced Thursday, Disney will get the rights to the Oswald character plus all 26 shorts created by Disney. The deal, which also includes some sports content, does not includes the “Oswald” films and other products produced by Universal. Disney has not said what it will do with the cartoons, but a DVD release is likely.

“When Bob (Disney president and CEO Robert Iger) was named CEO, he told me he wanted to bring Oswald back to Disney, and I appreciate that he is a man of his word,” Walt Disney’s daughter Diane Disney Miller said in a statement Thursday. “Having Oswald around again is going to be a lot of fun.”

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