Photog Hooked by Steer That Charges Bulldog in Meeting of Football Mascots

Before the 2019 Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, someone decided it would be a good idea to have Texas Longhorns mascot Bevo the longhorn steer meet Georgia Bulldogs mascot Uga the bulldog. Bevo decided to charge Uga at first sight, and photographer Nick Wagner unexpectedly found himself in the way.

As you can see from the ESPN video above (starting at about 1:30), Uga’s handler reacted to the steer’s aggressive charge and quickly pulled the bulldog away to safety. Wagner, who was shooting for the Austin American-Statesman and crouched next to Uga, wasn’t as lucky.

Here’s a third angle of the charge:

While he was only grazed by the 1,600-pound Bevo’s 58-inch horns, the hooking left marks across the photographer’s back.

Here are photos Wagner posted to Instagram showing the closeup he got of Uga and what his back looked like in the aftermath of the incident (which was captured by AP photographer Rusty Costanza):


“It was all fun and games until a steer hooked me,” Wagner writes.


“All of a sudden, people start running, I hear some clamoring in the background, I turn around and I see Bevo’s horns coming toward me,” Wagner tells KVUE. “I was like, all right, it’s time to go.

“I didn’t even feel the back pain that I’m feeling today until I sat down to edit, the game was over and the emotions were draining out. It’s a fairly good scratch, a fairly good memento.”

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