Uga VII may be laid to rest before Saturday's Kentucky game

By Chip Towers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Athens -- There is a chance Uga VII will be laid to rest at Sanford Stadium before Georgia kicks off against Kentucky Saturday night. If so, however, it will not be a public ceremony.

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Brant Sanderlin, bsanderlin@ajc.com Uga VII, or "Uga VI's Loran's Best," passed away suddenly Thursday morning at his home in Savannah. The 4-year-old English bulldog had served as Georgia's mascot for nearly two football seasons.

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"That's one of the options being considered," UGA sports communications director Claude Felton said Friday. "They could do it before the game. But whatever they do it's not going to be a public ceremony. We'll know more later."

In the meantime a process to select the mascot that will become Uga VIII from Uga VII's lineage of heirs will be initiated soon.

The Bulldogs are scheduled to kick off against Kentucky at 7:45 p.m. Saturday night. The gates at the stadium do not open to the general public until two hours before kickoff.

All of Georgia's mascots are interred in a mausoleum built into the southwest corner inside Sanford Stadium.

The latest in UGA's 54-year line of English bulldog mascots, "Uga VII's Loran's Best," passed away suddenly Thursday morning due to heart problems. He was only 4.

There will be no live mascot on the sidelines for the Kentucky game. Sonny Seiler, whose family has overseen the line of mascots since 1956, said an interim dog will be in place for the Nov. 28 game against Georgia Tech and the bowl game.