LAWRENCE, KS. — A beloved Texas fan favorite will be missing Friday when the No. 11 Longhorns play on the road at Kansas with a chance to earn a spot in the Big 12 championship game.
The Longhorns’ three-year-old steer Bevo XV cannot attend the game because of the Kansas rule prohibiting live mascots in the stadium. This will only be the second time in the past 73 years that the school’s steer couldn’t take the field at the Thanksgiving week game.
The Texas steer mascot tradition started in 1916 when one was brought to a Thanksgiving Day game. Ben Dyer, the campus magazine editor, gave him the name Bevo. Although no one knows for sure exactly why the first one was named Bevo, it is believed he was named either for a non-alcoholic beverage by the same name or because the plural of beef is beeves.
The current mascot’s real name was Sunrise Spur, but all mascots are renamed Bevo. There’s no official weight listed for Bevo XV, but his predecessor Bevo XIV weighed 1,800 pounds.
These steers have plenty of history: Bevo III escaped and was at large on campus for two days, Bevo XIII is considered the winningest mascot because he was present for four championships (1990, 1994, 1995 in the Southwestern Conference and 1996 in the Big 12) and Bevo XIV attended George W. Bush’s second inauguration in 2005.
No word on where Bevo XV will be during the game, but he eats 30 pounds of food per day. So we can be guessing he will be snacking during the game.
