The crowd’s cheers echoed throughout Samford Stadium at the last home game, but not for a touchdown or a field goal. The “Goooooo Dawgs!” chant hadn’t even sounded off yet to signal a kickoff. In fact, the crowd wasn’t cheering for the Dawgs at all but instead, a dog. A small, completely white English bulldog who sat eagerly panting on the field and held the attention of the entire stadium, wearing a look on his face that could easily be mistaken for an open-toothed grin.
The University of Georgia’s old mascot, Uga IX (also known as “Russ”), was replaced Saturday before the football game against Georgia Southern by a new English bulldog, Uga X (also named “Que"). With the recent controversy of long-time coach, Mark Richt, leaving the University, the new mascot was soon forgotten.
This bulldog tradition started back in 1956 when UGA’s head coach Wally Butts asked Frank “Sonny” Seiler if his bulldog could be the team’s official mascot after Seiler brought future Uga to the first home game that season. Ever since, the Seiler family has continued to breed the line of pure white English bulldogs, all of whom have descended from the original 1956 Uga.
Behind “Que” and “Russ” on the field stood owner Sonny Seiler and family, including his children and grandchildren.
“Russ was a little naughty at times,” said granddaughter Anna Story. “He would take my baby cousins’ toys and drag them outside every night. My aunt and uncle would have to go outside and find them.”
Story said that after her grandmother, Cecelia Seiler, passed away, the raising of the mascot slowly began to be passed on from her grandfather Sonny Seiler to her uncle Charles Seiler, who now raises the Ugas at his house.
“Each bulldog has been raised around small children such as my mom and her brothers and sisters and now my baby cousins,” said Story. “My grandparents always did this so that the dogs would know how to behave around fans.”
Sonny Seiler still attends every home and away game according to Story, and handles Uga with the help of daughter Swann Seiler and son-in-law Todd Story at every home game.
