All 'Dawgs Go to Heaven

There’s something delightfully southern about having a live animal for a mascot. LSU has Mike the Tiger, Tennessee has their blue tick hound Smokey, and perhaps the most famous of all live mascots is UGA, the white English Bulldog who prowls the sidelines between the hedges at Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia.

Sadly, UGA VI, passed away last Friday and was interred Monday afternoon at the traditional burial place for all Georgia mascots, a marble memorial inside Sanford Stadium.

Now I’m no Georgia fan, especially after the Hokie-Bulldog debacle in the 2006 Peach Bowl (I’ll never refer to it by the sponsor’s name) and I’ll only root for the ‘Dawgs if it’s convenient for my team, but UGA represents a fine tradition indeed.

Owned by Savannah attorney Frank W. “Sonny” Seiler, whose family has owned the line of UGA’s dating back to 1956 when the mascot became a regular at football games, UGA has become a proud symbol of the university and a full-fledged celebrity.

“People pet him so much his head gets sore,” Seiler once said of his prized bulldogs. “He’s like a politician who shakes too many hands.”

UGA V (the most recent UGA’s father) was in the motion picture “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” portraying his father and was the same UGA who jumped at Auburn receiver Robert Baker during a game in 1996 (shown above). His father before him, UGA IV was the first live mascot invited to the Heisman Trophy presentation, when he accompanied Herschel Walker to the Downtown Athletic Club in 1982 dressed for the occasion in a tuxedo.

UGA VI, whose full name is “UGA V’s Whatchagot Loran?” (more on that later) leaves behind an impressive legacy as well. He leaves his post after compiling the best record of any UGA with 87 wins and 27 losses. Including 2 Sugar Bowl wins (2003 & 2008) and 2 SEC Championships (2002 & 2005).

Perhaps the best eulogy was given by Georgia athletics director Damon Evans who said of UGA, “UGA VI was a damn good mascot and a damn good dog.”

Now how delightfully southern does that sound?



Now for the name explanation. The voice of Georgia football is Larry Munson, a professional fan essentially who refers to the team as "we" and openly roots on the 'Dawgs while maintaining a strangely pessimistic view on things. Whenever he sends it to his sideline reporter Loran Smith he says, "Whatchagot Loran?"

For a classic sample of Larry Munson in action, click on the link below to him describing young Herschel Walker.

http://larrymunson.com/audio/UGA_UT_1980.MP3