Bevo and how he REALLY got his name

Anyone familiar with the Longhorn mascot has heard the story of how he got his name:

Around 3:00 a.m. on February 12, 1917, a group of Texas Aggie students branded the University's first longhorn mascot "13 – 0," the score of a football game won by Texas A & M in 1915. According to the story, UT students altered the brand to read "Bevo" by changing the "13" to a "B," the "-" to an "E," and inserting a "V" between the dash and the "0. 

For years since, Aggies have constantly taunted UT by claiming that their stunt was the reason "Bevo" got his name.

I hate to break it to you Aggies but you did NOT give Bevo his name. 

During the 1916 Thanksgiving Day game against Texas A&M (UT won 21-7), a longhorn steer was presented for the first time during halftime as the mascot for UT. According to "The Truth About Bevo" by Jim Nicar, to spread the news of the Longhorn victory, "editor Ben Dyer gave a full account of the game and halftime proceedings" in the December 1916 issue of the Texas Exes Alcalde magazine. In regard to the longhorn Dyer claimed, "His name is Bevo. Long may he reign!"

Now for those of ya'll who haven't caught up yet, 1916 comes before 1917. So the Aggies couldn't have possibly given Bevo his name because Ben Dyer already gave the longhorn his name two months before!

One theory as to why Dyer named the longhorn Bevo relates to the term "beeve." According to Jim Nicar, Beeve is the plural of beef, typically this term is slang for a cow (or steer) that's destined to become food. It's easy to see how one can turn the term "beeve" into "bevo."

So there you have it. Bevo the longhorn, mascot of The University of Texas at Austin.  


This information and picture on this blog post were taken from:  
http://www.texasexes.org/uthistory/traditions.aspx