In our series SEC Connections, we take a quick look at coincidences, partnerships and parallels between The University of Texas at Austin and our sister schools in the Southeastern Conference. This week, the University of Georgia.
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Texas and Georgia both have had dogs for mascots. While we all know Georgia’s bulldog mascot is Uga, from 1914 until the first Bevo was introduced in 1916, UT’s mascot was a pit bull named Pig Bellmont, the pet of Athletics Director Theo Bellmont.
Within the last five years, Texas and Georgia faculty have done extensive joint research in molecular biosciences and integrative biology, earth and planetary science, population health and chemical engineering.
“Friday Night Lights” star Kyle Chandler studied drama at the University of Georgia, and the show, which was filmed mostly in Austin, has at least two connections to UT. Mack Brown, UT’s head football coach at the time, appeared in the show’s pilot episode playing a team parent and was not given lines but simply asked to ad lib things he had heard from parents over his years as a coach. Also, UT’s Gregory Gym was used as a location for the fictional Oklahoma Tech University (dangerously close to sacrilege).
Austin and Athens are both known as music towns. Bulldog students constituted the original fan base of R.E.M., The B-52s and Widespread Panic, while Longhorn students filled clubs for Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan and indie rock band Spoon.
