Bevo ( mascot ) Bevo is the mascot of the sports teams at the University of Texas at Austin , a Texas longhorn steer with burnt orange coloring . The shape of the Longhorn ' s head and horns gives rise to the school ' s hand symbol and saying , Hook ' em Horns . The current Bevo is fourteenth in the line of longhorns that have been the university ' s mascot . History . A Longhorn steer was not the original mascot of the University of Texas . The original mascot was actually a pit bulldog named " Pig " . The idea to use a live longhorn as the university ' s mascot is attributed to UT alumnus Stephen Pinckney in 1916 . Pinckney gathered $ 124 from other alumni to purchase a steer in the Texas Panhandle , which they originally named " Bo " and shipped to Austin . Lineage . Counting the currently serving mascot , there have been fourteen Bevos to date . Bevo I was originally named " Bo " but came to be called Bevo during his service . Bevo II once charged a SMU cheerleader , who had to defend himself with his megaphone . Bevo III escaped from his enclosure and ran amok across campus for 2 days . Bevo IV once attacked a parked car , while Bevo V broke loose and scattered the Baylor band . More recent Bevos have had a more peaceful tenure . The most recently retired and longest - serving Bevo was Bevo XIII , which like the current Bevo was supplied to the university by John T . Baker , owner of the Sunrise Ranch in Liberty Hill , Texas . Baker is past president of the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America and serves as a judge in its competitions . Bevo XIII , originally named Sunrise Express , was a champion steer at the age of 3 , before becoming the UT mascot . Bevo XIII became the mascot in 1988 and served 16 seasons on the sideline . He presided over 191 UT football games and attended President George W . Bush ' s inauguration in 2001 . During his tenure , he presided over four ( 1990 , 1994 , 1995 , 1996 ) conference football championships and a Heisman trophy award for Ricky Williams . Bevo XIII was the winningest Bevo in UT history , and was replaced by youth grand champion Sunrise Studly , becoming Bevo XIV , at the September 4 , 2004 football game versus the University of North Texas . It was the only time that two Bevos have ever appeared at the same football game . Bevo XIII was returned to Baker ' s ranch where he lived out the rest of his days in peace . Bevo XIII died on October 9 , 2006 due to heart failure . Bevo XIV attended George W . Bush ' s second inauguration in January 2005 . He also attended the 2005 Rose Bowl win over Michigan as well as the 2006 Rose Bowl game in which the Longhorns won the 2005 - 2006 National Championship over USC . , Bevo XIV weighs , stands , and his horns measure tip - to - tip . His birthday is April 8 . At the 2008 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo , he took home the honors of Reserve Champion . Origin of the name Bevo . " Bo " made his first public appearance at the halftime of the 1916 Thanksgiving Day football game between Texas and archrival the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas ( later Texas A & M University ) , a game in which Texas defeated the Aggies 22 - 7 . Following the game , Ben Dyer , editor of the UT campus magazine " The Alcalde " , referred to the mascot as BEVO . It is not known why he chose this name , though various theories have been put forth , including that Texas A & M had a hand in naming the mascot . The legend , accepted by both schools for decades , claims that the name came about due to a prank led by students of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas . It is true that in 1916 , four Texas A & M Aggies kidnapped the longhorn and branded him with " 13 - 0 " , the score of A & M ' s 1915 win over Texas . Texas students are rumored to have retaliated by changing the steer ' s brand to Bevo . However , newspaper records show the name was attributed to Bevo before the branding incident . Bevo was fattened up and served at a football banquet in 1920 , due to the fact the university did not have the money to take care of him and he was not tamed to roam the campus . The Aggies were fed the side they had branded and presented with the hide , which still read 13 - 0 . Some Longhorn fans and even the official athletic site have recently come up with alternate explanations , including that the mascot was named for a near beer , Bevo . Another potential source of the BEVO name was the one reported in " The Daily Texan " , the student newspaper of UT : " Through the 1900s and 1910s , newspapers ran a series of comic strips drawn by Gus Mager . The strips usually featured monkeys as the main characters , all named for their personality traits . Braggo the Monk constantly made empty boasts , Sherlocko the Monk was a bumbling detective , and so on . 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 . The Marx Brothers were so named by their colleagues in Vaudeville : Groucho was moody , Harpo played the harp , and Chico raised chicks when he was a boy . Mager ' s strips ran every Sunday in newspapers throughout Texas , including Austin . In addition , the term ' beeve ' 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 term is still used , though it was more common among the general public in the 1910s when Texas was more rural . The jump from ' beeve ' to ' Bevo ' isn ' t far , and makes more sense given the slang and national fads of the time . " Public appearances and traditions . Bevo is one of the most recognized college mascots and has even been called " the toughest - looking animal mascot in sports " . Bevo makes appearances at almost all home football games of the University of Texas , as well as many away games . He also typically makes appearances at important pep rallies , such as the ones in the weeks before the games against Texas A & M and the University of Oklahoma . Following commencement ceremonies , he is typically on hand for photographs with graduates and their families . Since 1945 , the care of Bevo during his transportation and appearances has been entrusted to an honorary organization of undergraduate students called the Silver Spurs . Bevo rides in a special burnt orange livestock trailer with his name on the side . Bevo is a steer , as an intact bull would be too dangerous in a crowded environment like a stadium . In 2002 , an alumni group proposed that Bevo be given neuticles to " increase his masculinity " . During football games , he typically stands or sits placidly behind one of the end zones ( the south end zone in Darrell K . Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium ) and is occasionally greeted by UT players when they score touchdown s . Bred to be docile , he is riled only in the most extreme of circumstances , such as once during a lightning storm during a game against Rice University , in which he broke away from his handlers .