The idea to use a live longhorn as the university's mascot is attributed to UT alumnus Stephen Pinckney who gathered $124 from other alumni to purchase a steer which they originally named "Bo." The animal made his first public appearance at the halftime of the 1916 Thanksgiving Day football game between Texas and archrival the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (later Texas A&M University). Popular accounts differ on how the name became "Bevo." One account states that after A&M students kidnapped the steer and branded it in large characters with the score "13-0" of the 1915 football game in which A&M was victorious, that UT students recovered the animal, and with branding irons changed the mark to read "BEVO" which was a near beer popular on campus at the time.