The
Mascot
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 billy-goat.” 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. Disputing stories speculate the origin of the Bulldog nickname, and the story of Trilby provides yet another opinion: “...every day Trilby took herself down to old Herty field with her master for football practice. She ran signals with the best of them and became an accustomed figure on the athletic field...One morning, Trilby failed to appear for her breakfast and after a frantic search she was finally discovered proudly washing the faces of her newborn family, 13 white puppies...Late one dusky fall afternoon, Trilby appeared for a grid workout and scampering after her came her 13 children, darting through players’ legs, barking and pace. ‘Well,’ suggested one of the players, ‘Trilby has brought us a name, Bulldogs.’ ...Every time a game was played on Herty Field, the boys would floss Trilby and her 13 offerings up with red and black Sanford Stadium Graves ribbons, and so attired they have gone down in history as perhaps the first ‘sponsors’ in southern football.” —Ruth Stanton Cogill (Atlanta newspaper) “After the rein of Trilby and her family, chaos developed in the mascot department at the university. Many games had several, depending on which alumnus got his dog to the game first.” —AJC, Nov. 18, 1962 Mr. Angel, 1944-46 Mr. Angel, a brindle and white colored English Bulldog owned by Eastman,Ga.,physician, Warren Coleman, filled a void during some of the war years. There was no mascot roaming the sidelines and Coleman took Mr. Angel to games and stood with him on the sidelines. His picture on the field and with the Georgia cheerleaders appears in the 1945 and ’46 UGA annual, the Pandora.
Mr. Angel
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 Georgia-Georgia Tech game in Athens, and the canine appeared
BULLDOGS
Legacy
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 GeorgiaKentucky game in 1948, but Butch continued to serve. Spending the off-season 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 hometown were put into motion by longtime Warner Robins resident Guy Fussell. Mike, 1951-55 Butch was succeeded by Mike, another brindled English bulldog, owned by C. L. Fain. Mike lived in the field house on campus and died of natural canine causes in 1955. As his master’s thesis, Gene Owens Bronze statue of Mike of Fort Worth, Texas, cast the bronze statue of Mike which is located at the entrance of Memorial Hall. Uga Takes the Field In the last 100 years of intercollegiate football, Georgia’s Uga has established himself as the nation’s most well-known mascot. The line of pure white English bulldogs, which epitomizes everything Georgia, has been owned by the Frank W. “Sonny” Seiler family of Savannah, Ga., since Uga I first graced the campus in 1956. Through the years, Uga has been defined by his spiked collar, a symbol of the position which he holds. He was given his name, an abbreviation for the university, by William Young of Columbus, a law 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 Bulldog athletes who letter in their respective sports. As determined and published by the Pittsburgh Press, the Univer sity of Georgia is the only major college that actually buries its mascots within the confines of the stadium. Ugas I, II, III, IV and V are buried in marble vaults near the main gate in the embankment of the South stands. Epitaphs to the dogs are inscribed in bronze, and before each home game, flowers are placed on their graves. The memorial plot attracts hundreds of fans and visitors each year. For the past 20 years, Uga’s jerseys have been custom-made at the beginning of each season from the same material used for the players’ jerseys. Old jerseys are destroyed. Uga’s on-field home is a permanent air conditioned doghouse located next to the cheerleader’s platform, providing comfort in the heat of August and September. The custom-made doghouse is a gift from the Bahamian Bulldog Club of Nassau, Bahamas, through the courtesy of Fred Hazlewood.
107