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Transcript from "We Need a Mascot"

Well, in the old days, a lot of people mistakenly think that we're the bulldogs because Yale had a (bulldog) mascot for a long time. But we didn't do it because of our association with Yale. In the early 20s, Coach Stegeman had such a great defensive team and it tackled so ferociously that an Atlanta sportswriter around 1922 said Georgia's defense was as ferocious as a bulldog, and that's how they began calling them bulldogs. Gradually. And people originally, several alumni would bring bulldogs to the sidelines. None of them were the official bulldog, you know. But by 1942, our bulldog was an English bulldog. We had brindle bulldogs, and…but we had an English bulldog that some alumni in Columbus, Georgia, carried to the Rose Bowl. And there's a connection between UGA and that mascot. We had a brindle bulldog in 1953 or ‘54. He used to live in the old field house where the Rankin Smith building is now. He lived in the attic and there'd be some boys on a minor sports team that used to live up there in the attic. They could live free up there in the attic, but they had to let the dog out and walk him and feed him and everything. But this brindle bulldog died. Coach Butts said, "Get us another mascot.” I put a story in the paper, we were looking for a new mascot. Anybody that had one, get in touch with me. Well, immediately a law school student, Frank Seiler, Sonny Seiler, came up to me. He said he and his wife, Cecelia have a little puppy, and I had known Sonny when he was on the swimming team at Georgia. So I went out to their apartment, I think it was somewhere on Milledge, and saw the little puppy. It was an English bulldog, white, and it looked all right to me. They told me that he was the grandson of our Rose Bowl mascot in Columbus. Cecelia was from Columbus. I think it may have been a cousin of hers that had the Rose Bowl mascot. I went to Coach Butts and I said "I'll take you out there and you can see this little puppy and see if you think he ought to be the mascot, and by the way, he's the grandson of your Rose Bowl bulldog." He said, "I ain't got time to go out there right now, but if he was the grandson of our Rose Bowl mascot, he's got good blood, sign him up." And that's how Uga became our mascot, but he got the nickname, Uga, from Billy Young, a fellow law school student with Sonny Seiler, who was from Columbus. He said, "What are you going to name the bulldog?" Sonny said, "I don't know." He said, "Name him Uga for University of Georgia." And it's pronounced with mugga, it's not youga, it's Uga pronounced with mugga. And that's…and then Sonny Seiler and Cecelia and his family, all of them, have done the greatest job of a mascot, having carried on that dynasty of mascots of any school in the United States. They've just done a magnificent job and the first time we changed mascots, when Uga I was going to be replaced by UGA II, he was getting too old. We had a changing of the mascots, changing of the dog, and it was a ceremony on the football field. The band would play, and it was a good ceremony and the cheerleaders would get the students to yell, "Damn good dog." That's when that began. But Sonny and Cecelia and their children have just done one magnificent job.

I nearly cried when we did it the last time.

Yeah. No school has the history. And Uga V, who was nicknamed Magillicuddy, they named him for me, was mascot of the year and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And the greatest picture of Uga V was when he was…an Auburn player had caught a touchdown pass and UGA was in the end zone and the Auburn player taunted Uga. He taunted him. He went over there with the ball and was shaking the ball, and he made Uga so mad, he bit him. That's a great picture.

Came back to get him.

I don't know whether he bit him actually, but he tried to. It's a great picture.

In 1954 you were named head coach of the tennis program, and as I said earlier, you were leading a rich, full life. I don't know how you did everything you did.