ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512180054
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It has become apparent Virginia Tech and Virginia are serious about football. As evidence of just how prominent their pigskin profiles have become, consider who wasn't at their standing-room-only meeting on Nov.18:
The Independence Bowl.
In the first 100 years each played football, the Cavaliers and Hokies combined for eight bowl bids. In the past seven seasons, they've combined for nine. To paraphrase Tech coach Frank Beamer, these two programs have taken it to the mezzanine.
In hopes of raising the elevator, UVa coach George Welsh is talking about expanding Scott Stadium. Tech will be building a $6 million support facility. But I have another idea how the state's NCAA Division I-A programs can show they've gotten real about football.
Mascots.
Not George Allen and Dick Cranwell ... real mascots.
The Hokies and Cavaliers need look no further than their bowl opponents later this month for an example. Texas has Bevo XIII against Tech in the Sugar Bowl. Georgia has Uga V ready for Virginia in the Peach Bowl. Forget the Associated Press or CNN-USA Today polls. In the mascot rankings, Uga the bulldog and Bevo the longhorn are in the top 5.
Call it tradition. Call it animal magnetism.
Virginia has the Cavalier. As mascots go, this one is about as imposing as the leprechaun running around the Notre Dame sideline. No, we don't mean Lou Holtz. You thought the Notre Dame mascot was Touchdown Jesus, right? Cavalier is precisely what this UVa mascot is.
Tech has the Hokie Bird. Let's take a popular question a word deeper. What's a Hokie? How about, what's a Hokie Bird? It looks to be the result of a date between a turkey and an eagle without birth control. There is only one Hokie Bird, which means the species is nearly extinct.
We can always hope.
Both schools also have difficulty coming to grips with just who they are. It's great to have two nicknames, if you're ``The Babe'' and ``The Sultan of Swat.'' Tech's Hokies pretty much killed the Gobblers when Bill Dooley arrived as athletic director and coach, but the nickname still hangs in large letters on the side of Lane Stadium and the scoreboard still gobbles.
The Cavaliers also are the Wahoos. No, not like Chief Wahoo. Could a mascot at Mr.Jefferson's University be politically incorrect? Somehow, I don't see what UVa quarterback Mike Groh referred to earlier this season as ``the wine-and-cheese crowd'' doing the tomahawk chop. And has anyone ever yelled, ``Hook 'em 'Hoos?''
Of course, different people look at mascots and nicknames in different ways. Ask a Michigan fan to define a Buckeye and the answer is ``a worthless nut.'' Syracuse officials just spent thousands of dollars on a study to find a more marketable mascot. They came up with a wolf. Then, Syracuse chancellor Kenneth ``Buzz'' Shaw said he wouldn't squeeze out Otto the Orange.
Uga V will be right there on the Georgia Dome turf when his Bulldogs play Virginia. No, he's not the one in the doghouse for the Peach Bowl. That's UVa trainer Joe Gieck. You might say he's a real trip. Banned from the sideline. Maybe Virginia can sneak him out there in that geeky Cavalier outfit.
Uga is the only live mascot to make it to the Final Four, traveling with the human Bulldogs in 1983. A few months earlier, when Herschel Walker accepted the Heisman Trophy, Uga V's daddy was there. Uga IV showed up at the Downtown Athletic Club in his game jersey, but also wearing a collar and black bow tie. He was the first mascot invited to the Heisman ceremony.
Good thing they didn't send Ralphie the Buffalo an invitation when Rashaan Salaam of Colorado won last year.
Texas is a slight favorite over the Hokies, and it's probably Bevo that gives the Longhorns the edge. He weighs around 1,400 pounds, about the same as the Hokies' five-man offensive front. His horn span is 51 inches, or, if he's standing close enough, about the same as the diameter of the roof of the Louisiana Superdome.
One Bevo or another has been at Texas since 1916, when an alumnus collected $1 from 124 fellow grads and bought a steer.
The delightfully dewlapped English bulldog became Georgia's mascot in 1947. First there was Butch, then Mike, and then Uga I and sons.
Tech and Virginia must find a way not to be so hokey and cavalier about their football mascots. Wouldn't an Uga or Bevo make for a more zoo-like atmosphere in Blacksburg and Charlottesville?
I learned long ago what a tough mascot can mean to a program. I went to Kentucky. Consider the football tradition there. The mascot must be Roadkill the Wildcat.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. Bevo, the mascot forby CNBthe Texas Longhorns, has been as big a part of Texas football as
Earl Campbell and Darrell Royal. 2. Uga V, the mascot for the
Georgia Bulldogs, may have more ferocious breath than it does bite,
but it is a real mascot. color. 3. AP. Uga the Bulldog is one of the
top mascots in college athletics, while Virginia's Cavalier and
Virginia Tech's Hokie don't even rate, according to this columnist.