Sonny Seiler

Early life

Seiler graduated in 1950 from the Porter Military Academy, now the Porter-Gaud School, in Charleston, South Carolina. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Georgia (1956 and 1957), where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and the Gridiron Secret Society and a founder of the Order of the Greek Horsemen.

Career

Seiler practices law in Savannah, where he is a senior partner at Bouhan Falligant LLP. In 1973 he served as president of the State Bar of Georgia. He was featured in the true-crime book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil as the lawyer who defended antiques dealer Jim Williams in a murder case. Because of his and Uga's role in the story, Seiler was cast in the film of the book as Judge White, who presided over Williams' trial. He has since appeared in two other movies filmed in Savannah, The Legend of Bagger Vance and The Gingerbread Man.

His firm's office, Armstrong House, was featured, along with other locations in Savannah, in the original 1962 film Cape Fear, starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum.

Seiler is also interviewed in a book "Rebels, Saints & Sinners: Savannah's Rich History and Colorful Personalities," (Pelican Publishing 2002) by Timothy Daiss, in his chapter entitled "Corruption Savannah Style." In this chapter Seiler reflects on his early years as an attorney around the early 1960s and recounted the life of Savannah-political boss John Bouhan, a major political player in Savannah from the 1940s to late '60s. Daiss calls Seiler a "green attorney" at the time and not involved in politics himself but remembers the old political establishment.

"One of Bouhan's main strengths was his organization - staying in touch with people personally," Seiler is quoted as saying. "Those days it was worth being in politics because you could give jobs out. You were in control, could hire policeman, appoint officials."

Personal life

Cecelia, Seiler's wife of 59 years, died in June 2014 at the age of 80.

UGA mascots

Since the 1950s, Seiler and his family have owned and maintained the unbroken line of live mascots of the University of Georgia sports teams, English bulldogs known successively as Uga I - X.

The family received the first member of the line (today referred to as Uga I) in 1956, when Seiler was a second-year student at the University of Georgia School of Law and newly married to the former Cecelia Gunn. He was given the bulldog by a former beau of Gunn's, who intended to insult Seiler. The new puppy was said to be the grandson of a white bulldog who traveled with the Georgia football team to Pasadena, California, for the 1943 Rose Bowl.

On September 29, 1956, the Seilers brought Uga I with them to Sanford Stadium for the first Georgia Bulldogs football home game of the year, against the Florida State Seminoles. Dan Magill, the Sports Information Director for the UGA Athletic Association at the time, took notice of a picture of the dog from that game and suggested to UGA football head coach Wally Butts that Seiler have Uga attend subsequent games as the official team mascot. This began a tradition of Uga or one of his descendants being present at every University of Georgia football game, home and away.

His fifth successor, Uga VI, who, like his progenitors, was a pure white bulldog, maintained the tradition from 1999 until his death in 2008 at Seiler's Savannah home. Uga VII replaced Uga VI for the team's highly anticipated 2008 season; however, officials initially questioned the dog's readiness. Uga VII died on November 19, 2009, of congestive heart failure.

In its April 28, 1997 issue Sports Illustrated named Uga the nation's best college mascot. Uga has been the only dog allowed in the State building in Georgia, and summer 2006 was the 50th anniversary of the Uga line.