The Way Back: Bevo in Bronze

By Abigail Rosenthal in July | August 2023, The Way Back, TXEX on June 30, 2023 at 7:00 am | No Comments

The bronze longhorn statue is lifted onto the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center patio by crane.

One of the more recognizable statues on the Forty Acres is a bronze longhorn who stoically stands under a large oak tree on the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center grounds watching students, professors, and Texas Exes pass by. “With his fierce independence, courage, and stubborn endurance, the longhorn embodies the frontier spirit of the Texan,” the plaque near the sculpture reads.

The bronze beast was sculpted by former rancher and artist Jim Hamilton, who specialized in Western-inspired works and was selected for capturing “the wild range look” in his piece. Peter Coneway, BBA ’66, Life Member, Distinguished Alumnus, and his wife Lynn Coneway, BS ’67, Life Member gifted the statue to the Texas Exes.

“The heroic size longhorn will be six feet tall at the withers … This will be The Ex-Students’ Association’s longhorn for all time to come, and I hope it’s as exciting to you as it is to me that you will be making it possible,” then-Texas Exes Executive Director Roy Vaughan wrote to Coneway as the plans were being finalized.

The longhorn was placed on its permanent post by crane on Sept. 2, 1992. Three days later, the statue was dedicated before the first home football game of the season against Mississippi State. Now each year, he stands ready as gameday goers take photos or flash their own “hook ’em” in his direction.

CREDITS: Courtesy of the Texas Exes