And now... Uga VII

Two months after the passing of Uga VI, the world today got its first look at his son Uga VII (official name "Loran's Best"), who tomorrow will make his public debut as the latest in the University of Georgia's proud line of mascots as the school hosts its season opener against Georgia Southern.

Here he is in all his fuzzy glory!

Here's the story in The Red and Black about the newest entry in the Uga dynasty.

Look like a damn good dawg to me! :-)

EDIT 11:27 p.m. EST: So what happens when Sonny Seiler and his family are faced with the task of producing a new mascot? The Fayette Daily News asked the man himself about what it takes to breed the most famous college sports mascot in the world. I'm still laughing about his comment on sending up red and black smoke to signal Georgia fans that they have a new Uga :-P

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Video tribute to Uga VI

Uga VI was laid to rest at Sanford Stadium on the campus of University of Georgia last week. Uga VII has been picked already and will be revealed later this summer. Don't worry though: word is that the next to the throne is a pup sired by Uga VI, so the line that stretches all the way back to Uga I will continue.

In the meantime, there have been many tribute videos to Uga VI that I've found on YouTube. Here's one of them, accompanied by some classic Ray Charles music...

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Damn good dog: Uga VI has passed away

The first time I saw Uga VI was a bit of a shock. It came during me and Lisa's first year of dating (she was a grad student at University of Georgia) and after months of seeing the graven image of this stalwart bulldog idolized all over Athens, I thought Uga VI would be... bigger! But if there was any letdown it quickly passed after I saw Uga VI in person: this lovable mascot, along with owner Sonny Seiler (yup the one made famous by Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil if he wasn't famous enough already) heading up the University of Georgia homecoming parade in the fall of 2001. You'da thought he had just won Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club, with all the adulation he was getting.

That's when I realized something: that in a world gone mad, just a few weeks after 9/11, Uga - whichever dog is the one that holds the honor - was one of the few tangible symbols of something good and pure still left from what we like to think is the America that once was, and could still be again.

Uga VI had come to the throne after the retirement of his daddy Uga V in 1999. Seiler had hoped that Uga VI would be the mascot for one more season, before enjoying retiring after the tenure with the most wins for Georgia.

Uga VI died of heart failure on Friday night at the home of Sonny Seiler. He was just one month shy of his tenth birthday.

Per tradition, Uga VI will be buried next week in the southwest corner of Sanford Stadium, in the marble mausoleum devoted to all the bulldogs that have borne the Uga title. A successor will be named at a later date but there's little doubt that he will be one that Uga VI sired himself.

Farewell Uga VI. Like those before him, a damn good dog.

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