UT's first mascot, a frightened 1,200-pound longhorn steer, was presented at the Texas vs. Texas A&M Thanksgiving Day game in 1916, which UT won 22-7. In writing about the game afterward, Ben Dyer, editor of The Alcalde magazine, referred to the steer as “Bevo.” How the name came to be remains a mystery, although theories abound.
Chemistry professor Eugene P. Schoch founded the first band at The University of Texas in 1900. Schoch recruited 16 students and provided them with $150 in used musical instruments purchased at Jackson's Pawn Shop in downtown Austin
Smokey the Cannon was built in 1953 by the University's mechanical engineering laboratory in answer to the traditional shotgun blasts heard at Texas-Oklahoma football games.
In 1955, Col. D. Harold Byrd, a former Longhorn Band member, purchased the drum from the University of Chicago for $1 because he thought Texas should have the largest drum in the world.
