Bevo I made his debut in 1916 at the UT-Texas AandM football game. [Credit: UT Austin’s Briscoe Center for American History

“His name is Bevo. Long may he reign!”

With that declaration in the December 1916 issue of UT’s Alcalde alumni magazine, the university’s famous longhorn mascot was formally named. Bevo had made his debut the month before during UT’s 21-7 football victory over Texas AandM.

As UT historian Jim Nicar writes on his website, “‘Bevo’ was a play on the word ‘beeve,’ which is not only the plural of ‘beef’ but long used as slang for a cow or steer destined to become food.” (While Bevo I did indeed meet that fate, today’s Bevos live out their retirement years peacefully at a private ranch.)

The better known story is that Bevo earned his moniker a few months later, after a group of Texas AandM students branded him with “13-0,” the Aggies’ winning score from the 1915 football match-up. As legend has it, Longhorns responded by altering the “13” to a “B,” the dash to an “E,” and then added a “V” in front of the “0.”

But while the Aggies did successfully vandalize the steer, they can’t take credit for the name.

A campus as old as this one (UT celebrated its 130th birthday in September) is crawling with lore. Today the university kicks off the inaugural Longhorn Traditions Week, culminating with the Texas-OU football game on Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Activities include Tower Tours, “Wear your Orange Wednesday” and the annual Torchlight Parade to cheer on the football team.

And the Office of the Dean of Students has been counting down 17 Days of Longhorn Pride (in honor of the Class of 2017), sharing trivia, traditions and facts about the Forty Acres. Below are a few of our favorites. Be sure to follow @UTDoS on Twitter for more trivia the rest of the week.