Kansas AD makes sly joke after Texas mascot Bevo charges at Georgia’s pet bulldog
This ended up foreshadowing the Sugar Bowl game itself.
Before Texas’ 28-21 upset of Georgia on Tuesday, someone thought it would be a good idea to have the schools’ mascots get together for a photo. But Bevo, Texas’ 1,800-pound longhorn, was having none of it and broke through a flimsy enclosure. Georgia’s mascot Uga, an English bulldog, got out of the area quickly.
You can see the pregame, um, festivities in the video above.
“He’s as docile as a lamb,” John Baker, who owns Sunrise Ranch where Bevo was bred, told ESPN. “That’s the first time he’s done that this year.”
Of course, the year is only two days old, right?
While Uga scampered away unhurt, Austin American-Statesman photographer Nick Wagner took the brunt of Bevo’s attempted escape. He posted this on Twitter:
“In the moment, I didn’t feel much of anything other than his one horn in my back, and the other one kinda sucker punched me in the face,” Wagner told SB Nation.
“I’m like OK, I know what’s going on, I better get moving. I turned around for a split second and saw him coming and said yeah, it’s time to get out. But I felt distinctly his two horns and that’s about all I can remember.”
Kansas athletic director Jeff Long saw the mascot brouhaha* and felt a bit of vindication.
*Two words I never expected to type
When Kansas played host to Texas in the regular-season finale for both schools, KU didn’t allow the Longhorns to bring Bevo to Memorial Stadium, because it doesn’t allow live mascots on the sideline. This upset some Longhorns fans because it was just the second time in 73 years that a Bevo wasn’t on the sidelines of a Texas game on Thanksgiving weekend.
Long tweeted this on Tuesday night: “Hmmm wonder why some schools don’t allow live mascots on the sidelines....”
This story was originally published January 2, 2019 at 8:43 AM.
