Looking back 15 years ago when Rufus the Bobcat fought Brutus the Buckeye: OSU vs OU rematch on Saturday

The last time these two teams played each other, things got physical. Of course the Buckeyes walked away with the win in 2010, but it was the fight between the mascots that got the nation’s attention. While the Buckeyes won 43 - 7 at home, it was the Ohio University mascot who really took the spotlight in Columbus, Ohio.

In the video below, you can see that the OU Bobcat mascot Rufus went after Brutus prior to the game. The fight was not staged. Poor Brutus had no idea he was going to be attacked by Rufus. The OU student inside the mascot costume was Brandon Hanning, 19 at the time of the attack. Hanning was interviewed by ESPN after the conflict and confessed he had been planning it for over a year.

“Yeah! I didn’t know exactly how it would happen, but that was the whole reason I tried out for the Rufus job,” he told the ESPN reporter. “I told my friends about it when I tried out. That was it. They thought it would be awesome.”

Hanning admitted that he had attacked another mascot before taking out his rage on Brutus the Buckeye. Before this, I actually got in a fight with the Buffalo mascot. He’s a bull. I started it. I was thinking I should go ahead and try out tackling another mascot. I brought a red square cape thing, like in a bullfight,” he said. “He was just playing around, acting like he was charging me. I tackled him and put him on the ground. It was pretty funny. No one got upset because it wasn’t Ohio State.”

The incident had consequences for Hanning, who faced disciplinary action from Ohio University. “Ohio told me to never attend another one of their athletic events. Which is fine by me. I don’t even go to school anymore. I lived about 10 minutes away from campus growing up. So I’ll still be a fan. I just won’t go to their games.”

Despite the punishment, Hanning got some good feedback from fans and even OU players. “I had a couple of players tell me they thought it was pretty funny. The athletic people in charge, they didn’t like it,” he told ESPN. “Some people said that I deserve to have a statue built and put somewhere. The most hateful thing was someone saying I would probably be killed, and thanks to ESPN for giving out my name and where I go to school. I’m not really worried about that.”

We’re not sure if there will be another attack on Brutus the Buckeye on Saturday, but we’re sure the Ohio State mascot will be better prepared this time, just in case.

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