Pig Battle

Friday, March 27, 2014

Remembering the University’s first mascot

Before UT alum Stephen Pickney gathered $124 in 1916 to purchase a Longhorn steer in the Texas panhandle that would become a symbol of Texas athletics for over 90 years, there was a first mascot—one that very few remembers.
Pig Battle.
He wasn’t a pig, though. Rather a scrappy tan and white Pit Bull Terrier and he came to Texas two years earlier than the lovable mascot we know today as Bevo.
Former University Co-op Society leader, L. Theo Bellmont was the man responsible for the first mascot of the university. Athletic director and co-founder of the Southwest Athletic Conference, Bellmont brought the American Pit Bull with him to work. The scrappy dog would follow his owner to work, chasing squirrels, running through bluebonnets, and garnering the attention of thousands of students.
After a few years on the sidelines at home and away athletic events, Pig was officially made a University of Texas Letterman. He couldn’t wear a letter jacket, of course, so instead sported a custom, shiny brass “T” attached to his collar. He was the first “Varsity Mascot.”
His name, unusual to us now, made plenty of sense then. Being the athletic man he was, Bellmont named his pet after Texas football center Gus “Pig” Dittmar. Dittmar was known for slipping through the defensive line “like a greased pig.” During a game in 1914, Pig’s first year attending games, the athlete and the dog stood next to each other on the sideline. The students noticed, of all things, that both were bowlegged, and from that moment on, the two would forever be linked to each other.
But all great things must come to an end.
After nine years of being on the sideline, Pig was struck by a Model T (Yup, it was this long ago) on New Year’s Day 1923, right in front of the Co-op stands today (corner of 24th and Guadalupe streets). He appeared to only be injured, but two days later he died.

On January 5, 1924, Pig’s body lay in state in front of the University Co-op. Thousands lined up besides Pig’s black casket, adorned with orange and white ribbons and carried by the Texas Cowboys. His funeral was led by the Varsity Band and the eulogy given by Dean Thomas Taylor, founder of the School of Engineering. “Let no spirit of levity dominate this occasion,” the dean said, “a landmark has passed away. I do not know if there is a haven of rest to which good dogs go, but I know Pig will take his place by the side of the great dogs of the earth.”