Sonny Seiler, patriarch of Georgia football's Uga mascots, dies at 90

Sonny Seiler looks on from the sideline during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Georgia Tech, Nov. 28, 2015, in Atlanta. Seiler, an attorney who owned the University of Georgia's famed line of “Uga” bulldog mascots and served as lead defense counsel in a notorious case that was chronicled in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” died Monday, Aug. 28, 2023, in his hometown of Savannah, Ga. He was 90. (AP Photo/Brett Davis, File)

Frank “Sonny” Seiler, an attorney who owned the University of Georgia’s famed line of “Uga” bulldog mascots and served as lead defense counsel in a notorious case that was chronicled in the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” died Monday. He was 90.

The university announced that Seiler died in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, after a short illness.

The “Uga” tradition began in 1956 when Seiler and his wife, Cecelia, brought their English bulldog to the season-opening football game at the request of then-coach Wally Butts.