Few college mascots are as iconic as Bevo, the Texas longhorn steer with burnt orange coloring, always prominent on the sidelines of The University of Texas football games. Bevo made a first appearance at the November 1916 Thanksgiving game between the University of Texas and their rivals from A&M College of Texas. At halftime, a longhorn steer was brought onto the field by a group of Texas Exes led by Stephen Pinckney, who had long wanted to acquire a real longhorn as a living mascot for the University.
Longtime legend has it that Bevo got his name as a result of a Texas Aggie prank which had pranksters branding the score of the 1915 game (13-0, Aggies victorious) on the side of the longhorn and Texas Longhorn supporters rebranding to adjust that score to read “Bevo”. However, Bevo got his name far more simply. Following the 1916 game the Texas Exes Alcalde magazine provided a full account of the game and the then new mascot. Editor Ben Dyer stated simply, “His name is Bevo. Long may he reign!”
Where then did the name Bevo come from? Another popular theory has been that it was borrowed from the label of a new soft drink at the time. “Bevo” was the name of a non-alcoholic “near beer” which was introduced in 1916. However, while the Bevo drink was a long-term success, its sales in 1916 were comparatively small and its unlikely that many folks knew of it in Austin at that time.
A 1993 article in The Daily Texas suggests the name may be a play on a contemporary comic strip which featured monkeys named for their personality traits. For example, Braggo the Monk constantly made empty boasts. The comic strips were popular enough to create a nationwide fad for persons to nickname their friends the same way, with an “o” added to the end. To this fad add the term “beeve” which is the plural of beef, but is more commonly used as a slang term for a cow (or steer) that’s destined to become food. The jump from “beeve” to “Bevo” isn’t far, and makes more sense given the trends of the time.
Whatever the reason, UT’s mascot’s history is full of colorful characters and great stories. Long may the tradition continue and long may Bevo reign!
Source: TexasSports.com
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