Texas mascot Bevo attacks Georgia mascot UGA ... revisited

The last time the Texas Longhorns played the Georgia Bulldogs things got ugly … between the mascots. If you don’t remember Bevo charging Uga on the sideline of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, you might be thinking ‘Huh?!?!’

But it happened! Texas and Georgia have two of the most famous live mascots in all of sports, much less college football.

Bevo weighs roughly a ton and has a horn span of about seven feet from tip to tip. The steer has been the University of Texas mascot for a century. The current Bevo, No. XV, has been the mascot since September 3, 2016.

Uga dates back to 1956 when Sonny Seiler (a Savannah-based attorney that was featured in the true crime novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) brought his family bulldog to a game. That dog became Uga I. Georgia is now on Uga XI, nicknamed “Boom.”

Back in 2019, when Texas and Georgia met in the Sugar Bowl, it was Uga X, nicknamed “Que.” Since the schools had such famous mascots, there was definitely an effort to show them off together. Earlier in the week, the two met but weren’t allowed to interact.

But things didn’t go so well when the decision was made to get them together on the sideline before the game for a photo op. Uga was brought by golf cart over near Bevo. Metal barricades, that were not secured to the ground, served as Bevo’s pen. As a confused Uga sniffed around the Super Bowl turf, Bevo suddenly charged through the barricades horns first, Bevo tried to gore the bulldog.

The incident was caught live on ESPN. The pregame announcers were actually doing play-by-play of the meeting. Uga’s handler did a good job of getting the pooch out of the way, while Bevo’s handlers, the Silver Spurs, desperately struggled to hang on.

The incident is without a doubt the most famous mascot interaction ever. Sadly, Uga X passed away on January 23, 2024, at the age of 10.

Uga XI is scheduled to be in Austin for the game against Georgia Saturday. It’s a good bet they won’t put them face to face again.