UGA, THE MASCOT LEGACY Although the University of Georgia is now known as the home of Uga, the pure white English bulldog, several mascots led the Red and Black before Frank W. Seiler provided the current lineage beginning in 1956. The Goat, Feb. 22, 1892 Georgia’s mascot for its first football game against Auburn, February 22, 1892 in Atlanta, Ga., was a goat. Old newspaper clippings indicate that the goat wore a black coat with red U.G. letters on each side. He also had on a hat with ribbons all down his high horns, and the Auburn fans yelled throughout the game “shoot the billygoat.”
Butch, 1947-50 Butch was a brindled English bulldog owned by Mabry Smith of War ner Robins, Ga. He was spotted by students who were attending the 1946 GeorgiaGeorgia Tech game in Athens, and the canine appeared to be suited for the mascot position. Smith agreed to loan Butch to the University during the football season along with a female puppy named Tuffy. The female died of a heart attack following the Georgia Kentucky game in 1948, but Butch continued to serve. Spending the offseason at Smith’s home in Warner Robins, Butch was tragically shot in the summer of 1951 by a policeman after the dog escaped from his pen and was found roaming the streets. Butch is buried behind Smith’s business along Watson Boulevard. In 2004 plans for a marker honoring Butch in his home town were put into motion by longtime Warner Robins resident Guy Fussell.
Trilby, 1894 In 1894, Georgia’s mascot was a solid white female bull terrier owned by a student, Charles H. Black, Sr., of Atlanta. Trilby, named Trilby with owner Charles H. Black after a novel by George Du Maurier, served as the campus pet and mascot for the Chi Phi fraternity. Mike, 1951-55 Disputing stories speculate the origin of the Bulldog nickname, and Butch was succeeded by Mike, the story of Trilby provides yet another opinion: “...every day Trilby another brindled English bull took herself down to old Herty field with her master for football prac dog, owned by C. L. Fain. Mike Bronze statue of Mike tice. She ran signals with the best of them and became an accustomed lived in the field house on cam figure on the athletic field...One morning, Trilby failed to appear for her pus and died of natural canine causes in 1955. As his master’s thesis, breakfast and after a frantic search she was fi Gene Owens of Fort Worth, Texas, cast the nally discovered proudly washing the faces of bronze statue of Mike which is located at her newborn family, 13 white puppies...Late the entrance of Memorial Hall. one dusky fall afternoon, Trilby appeared for a grid workout and scampering after her came Uga Takes the Field her 13 children, darting through players’ legs, In the last 100 years of intercollegiate barking and pace. ‘Well,’ suggested one of football, Georgia’s Uga has established the players, ‘Trilby has brought us a name, himself as the nation’s most wellknown Bulldogs.’ ...Every time a game was played mascot. The line of pure white English bull on Herty Field, the boys would floss Trilby dogs, which epitomizes everything Georgia, and her 13 offerings up with red and black has been owned by the Frank W. “Sonny” Sanford Stadium Graves ribbons, and so attired they have gone down Seiler family of Savannah, Ga., since Uga in history as perhaps the first ‘sponsors’ in I first graced the campus in 1956. southern football.” —Ruth Stanton Cogill (Atlanta newspaper) Through the years, Uga has been defined by his spiked collar, a “After the rein of Trilby and her family, chaos developed in the mascot symbol of the position which he holds. He was given his name, an department at the university. Many games had several, depending on abbreviation for the university, by William Young of Columbus, a law which alumnus got his dog to the game first.” —AJC, Nov. 18, 1962 school classmate of Seiler. Each of the Uga mascots is awarded a varsity letter in the form of a plaque, identical to those presented to all Mr. Angel, 1944-46 Bulldog athletes who letter in their respective sports. Mr. Angel, a brindle and white colored As determined and published by the Pittsburgh Press, the Univer English Bulldog owned by Eastman,Ga., sity of Georgia is the only major college that actually buries its mascots physician, Warren Coleman, filled a void within the confines of the stadium. Ugas I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII are during some of the war years. buried in marble vaults near the main gate in the embankment of the There was no mascot roaming the sidelines South stands. Epitaphs to the dogs are inscribed in bronze, and before and Coleman took Mr. Angel to games and each home game, flowers are placed on their graves. The memorial stood with him on the sidelines. His picture plot attracts hundreds of fans and visitors each year. on the field with the Georgia cheerleaders For the past 30 years, Uga’s jerseys have been custommade at the appears in the 1945 and ’46 UGA annual, beginning of each season from the same material used for the players’ Mr. Angel the Pandora. jerseys. Old jerseys are destroyed. Uga’s on-field home is a permanent air conditioned doghouse lo cated next to the cheerleader’s platform, providing comfort in the heat of August and September.
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