Dawg Days: A Fall Weekend In the Life of Uga X
ATHENS - 3:26 p.m, 34 minutes till kickoff. The red jersey goes on. Across his chest, similar to Superman’s signature S, the felt G is displayed. His spike collar goes on along with his leash.
Charles Seiler, the owner and handler of the Uga family, picks him up out of his kennel and places him on the pavement of the parking lot right outside the Tate Student Center preparing to walk him into Sanford Stadium.
It’s game time for Uga X, lovingly known as Que.
“Charles—he moves,” said Swann Seiler, Charles’ sister. “There’s no stopping him. He just goes.”
Charles Seiler is usually kind about stopping for photos. Not right now, though.
He moves at a fast-paced speed walk that Que keeps up with. They pass through the gate with no issue. No bag search, no tickets or passes to show to security. Que takes care of that. He serves as an all-access pass to Georgia Athletics.
But as they enter the stadium, the masses of fans begin to take notice.
“There he is!” Someone exclaims.
People clear a path for the Seiler family and their dog as they head towards the field. They get out of the way, but the fans, in swarms, strut alongside them snapping photos and taking videos like members of the paparazzi trying to get a shot of one of the Kardashians.
They’re finally able to shed the crowd once they get onto the field. Still, Que can’t escape the TMZ-like attention. Fans with sideline passes ditch watching Georgia’s pregame warmups for UMass to take pictures of the dog. Still, Charles Seiler has a non-stop trajectory to the Dawg house, the home of Que and the Ugas before him inside Sanford Stadium.
Que arrives at his home in the northeast corner of Sanford and gets situated with his bowl of water and bag of ice.
To those in the stands, it looks like Que’s weekend is just beginning. In reality, it all started a few days ago for him.
Thursday:
It’s a relatively quiet day for Que. Hanging out in his room back in Savannah, Charles Seiler will come in and begin to get Que’s gear ready for the upcoming trip. He gathers two leashes, two collars, three jerseys, Que’s food, water and his bowl. Sometimes, rarely, there are complications with Que’s gameday gear. That’s why Charles Seiler is always prepared with extra supplies.
He loads it into an old red duffle bag, the same bag the Seiler family has been using since the mid-1980s to carry Uga’s supplies.
At this point, Que knows what’s up. He knows what it means when Charles Seiler messes with that bag. They are heading out for Athens soon. Que will look up from his nap with one eye open and give what Charles Seiler describes as a, “We going?” like look.
They don’t leave that night, but Que knows they are departing soon.
Friday:
The Seilers try to leave their place by 11 a.m. on Friday. They load Que up into his kennel in the back of the Victory Red “Uga Mobile,” a custom-built Chevrolet Suburban made specifically for Uga and the Seiler family.
They rarely stop on the trip from Savannah to the Georgia Center in Athens, which welcomes Que and the Seiler’s with open arms. That isn’t how it always was, though. Decades ago, the Seilers were forced to sneak Uga into the hotel through a back door to avoid detection due to the hotel’s policy on pets. Now, the Georgia Center not only allows him, they even gave him his own room (although it is currently being renovated).
When they arrive Friday afternoon, they aren’t there for very long. Only enough time to put stuff away and get situated. Generally, Que has some event to attend Friday evening. It can be a trip to one of Georgia’s academic buildings like the Terry College of Business or something similar.
Tonight, before the UMass game, Que is going to the UGA bookstore for Alumni night. A little before 5 p.m. the Seilers pull between the bookstore and the Miller Learning Center. Retractable rope barriers are set up to form a line towards Que, who sits in the back of the car inside of his kennel with the gate open.
As they realize who’s there, people walking by start to gravitate towards Que. Those same people begin to text and call their friends, telling them of the celebrity appearance on campus.
Kids, students, normal fans filter in through the night to get their picture taken with the famous dog. Even families dressed in holiday attire show up so they can have Que star in their annual Christmas card, something that is a very common occurrence for the Ugas and the Seilers.
“People do that all the time,” Charles Seiler said with a laugh. “The funniest thing is when they dress like that in the middle of August, and it’s 100 degrees and they come out and they have sweaters on and we go, ‘Christmas card?’ and they say ‘Yeah.’”
These events are usually calm and problem-free. Yet there are some issues that Charles Seiler has to look out for.
“You see that bag?” Seiler asked. “Yeah, That’ll set him off.”
The bag? Some Chick-Fil-A that someone had gotten at the Tate Center. It just so happens to be Que’s favorite meal. It can get him so riled up that Charles Seiler has the people in line set their food to the side before they get up to Que.
“He knows it,” Charles Seiler said. “He can tell the bag, he knows the smell, he can hear the rapper, and he just loves it. If he could, he’d eat that every meal.”
Grilled and regular nuggets, sandwiches torn into tiny pieces, almost all products Chick-Fil-A Que loves. Only on special occasions does he get it, though. Generally after an event and always after a football game.
Sadly for Que, this event wasn’t enough to get him some fried chicken. Maybe if it were in the spring, but with a game the next day, he will have to wait until then.
“He doesn’t get a treat today,” Charles Seiler said. “Even though he thinks he might.”
Saturday:
Charles Seiler doesn’t have the same intensity that Kirby Smart does, but they do share one thing—a desire to stick to a schedule.
With different kickoff times and varying conflicts, this can be hard to do with Que.
This weekend, Laura Rutledge of SEC Nation is coming to their hotel room to do a bit with Que. The crew wanted to capture what it was like to see Que get ready for a game—the bath, putting on the jersey, feeding him. She came in at about 8:00 a.m. and Que finally got to eat around 9 a.m., a little later than he usually eats.
It might not seem like a big deal, but stuff like that can throw Que, “into a little bit of a funk,” according to Charles Seiler. Either way, he has to carry out with his day.
After they’re done there, Que is transported by golf cart to the set of SEC Nation on the other side of campus in front of the Special Collections Library.
He did his thing, appeared on set, pulled Rutledge over and was rolled back over to his room at the Georgia Center. Que’s given a little time to rest. In no time he’s loaded back into the Uga Mobile and is Sanford bound.
The Seilers pull into the Tate parking lot at 2:46 p.m. They open the back up and allow tailgaters to take photos with Que again. It takes a minute to realize who exactly is in the back, but once the fans do they begin to flock to the car.
Event staff arrives from the stadium to help make sure everything goes smoothly with Que. They stand to the side of the car making sure that there is a reasonable radius between the crowd and Que.
“Do you see him in there? Oh my God, do you see him?” A younger girl said.
Many more make comments similar to that. Parents get photos of their kids with him, then have their kids take photos of them with Que because, well, they want one, too.
Then, in the four-minute span between 3:26 and 3:30 p.m., Que is rushed from the Uga Mobile to his air-conditioned sanctuary inside Sanford Stadium.
He gets only a minute of peace before he is brought out to around the 40-yard-line to be shown off to the 92,746 people in attendance. On the jumbotron with his tongue out, Que receives a roaring applause. Maybe not comparable to the likes of Jake Fromm or Rodrigo Blankenship, but rivaling the amplitude of some of Georgia’s other starters.
Que begins the game inside the Dawg house. While the crowd chants the beat of Seven Nation Army behind him, Que is in the opposite mood. Like a sleep-deprived student trying to stay awake in lecture, he can only keep his eyes open for so long. You would think most of a mascot’s energy would go towards the game. Not with Que. With all the effort he’s put into the weekend already, the first half of the game is actually a good break for him. Sure, people still stop by to get photos with him during the game, just at a much less frequent pace.
Really, for most of the first half, Que is pretty calm. He leaves to walk around on the sideline once, and only for a minute at most.
Come the second half Que is a little more upbeat. With the sun down and the temperature going down with it, he is starting to feel more energized.
“He’s a lot better mascot when it’s cooler,” Charles says.
You can see it in his face, too. His eyes are open, his tongue is out. He looks happier and more awake than he did to start the game. Instead of hiding in the back of the Dawg house, Que is now sitting towards the front with his head and paws hanging out the door.
Seldom in the second half does he leave his post. One of the few occasions he does is to start the fourth quarter. Charles Seiler picks him up and puts him on the stage with Hairy Dawg and a student section hype-man to get a picture in front of the lit-up crowd.
The picture with Uga and Hairy Dawg is a great photo op, but a rare one, according to Charles Seiler. The relationship between Hairy and the Ugas varies by dog, and always takes time to develop if it ever does. Uga VI once had an encounter with the bodiless-head of Hairy, something that setback the relationship between the two for at least a little bit.
With Que, he’s still warming up to Hairy. He isn’t quite on good terms (If you couldn’t tell by the photo) yet, though it has gotten better and continues to get better Charles Seiler said.
After, he goes back to exactly where you would assume—the Dawg house. You can tell he’s reverting back to his earlier mood as his eyes start to droop again. He doesn’t know how much longer is left in the game, but he “knows he’s going to eat soon,” Charles Seiler says, which gives him enough excitement to get through.
As the clock hits zero, Charles Seiler leashes Que back up.
This is the home stretch. A little bit longer, and he’ll get his Chick-Fil-A.
As if they were players on the team, Charles Seiler and Que stroll around the field as UMass and Georgia players converse. As the UMass players head back to the away locker room, some see Que and have the same thought that many Georgia fans have when they see him—How many opportunities do I have to get a photo with one of college football’s most famous mascots? So, they stop, pet Que and have photographers take their photos with him. Even a member of UMass’ coaching staff was able to shake off the 66-23 loss quickly enough to get a photo with the opposing team’s mascot.
After the players are gone, it’s a straight shot from mid-field to the Uga Mobile. Charles Seiler tries to pick up the same pace he does pregame, though he is more generous to stop for photographs now. First, it’s the entire cheer team, followed by individual photos with cheerleaders at midfield. Then, it’s a group of kids, a young couple, some more individuals, all in about five-yard intervals.
When they get to the west end zone, the parents of players who are waiting for their kids to come out from the locker room start to drift towards Que. They know their son will be waiting for them when they come out, but Que won’t.
He gets some photos taken in the end zone and exits out the gate in the southwest corner of the field. From that point, there’s no stopping. Charles Seiler brings back the speed he had earlier in the day and books it to the car. When he and Que arrive at 7:18 p.m., the car is on, the trunk is open and the kennel is unlocked. Que is undressed and loaded into the car that leaves moments later.
His treat is near. Everything he’s been working towards these past two days. All he has to do is endure the short trip back to his hotel room.
Finally, his time has come. Except there’s one thing: Today Que isn’t getting Chick-Fil-A. He’s getting Five Guys.
It isn’t his favorite. It’s a distant second place to some nice fried chicken. But after the long two days, Que is alright with taking a silver medal, because to him, that silver medal still tastes pretty damn good.