From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bevo is the name of the mascot of The University of Texas at Austin, a Texas longhorn steer. The current animal is the thirteenth in the line of longhorns to bear the honor of being the university's mascot.
History
The idea to use a live longhorn as the university's mascot is attributed to UT alumnus Stephen Pickney in 1916. Pinckney gathered $124 from other alumni to purchase a steer in the Texas Panhandle, which they originally named "Bo" and which they shipped to Austin.
"Bo" made his first public appearance at the halftime of the 1916 Thanksgiving Day football game between Texas and archrival Texas A&M University, a game in which Texas defeated the Aggies.
Popular accounts differ in how the name "Bevo" was chosen. One account is that following the 1916 football game the macot was named by an editor of the UT campus magazine. Another account says that after A&M students kidnapped the steer and branded it in large characters with the score ("13-0") of the 1915 football game in which A&M was victorious, that UT students recovered the animal, and with branding irons changed the mark to read "BEVO", which was a near beer popular on campus at the time.
Bevo makes appearances at all home football games of the University of Texas, as well as many away games. He also typically makes appearances at important pep rallies, such as the ones in the weeks before the games against A&M and the University of Oklahoma. Following commencement ceremonies, he is typically on hand for photographs with graduates and their families.
Since 1945, the care of Bevo during his transportation and appearances has been entrusted to an honorary organization of undergraduate students called the Silver Spurs. Bevo rides in a special burnt orange livestock trailer with his name on the side.
During football games, he typically stands or sits placidly behind one of the end zones and is occassionally greeted by UT players when they score touchdowns. He is riled only in the most extreme of circumstances, such as once during a lightning storm during a game against Rice University, in which he broke away from his handlers and charged at the opposition team's bench.
The Texas A&M community sponsors an annual 'Bevo Burn' which involves the roasting of an entire calf.
Sheila Henderson, The Littlest Longhorn: The Saga of BEVO; ISBN 0-9623171-0 The Littlest Book Company, Austin (1989).
Public appearances
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