Costumed mascots are running amuck! Funny? Ignorant? Spiteful? Personally, I get no satisfaction or thrill from seeing grownups dressed as animals and fantasy characters running ludicrously on the courts and the fields of college and professional teams. Call me a Puritan if you like, but I prefer the entertainment of the competitive game without all the window dressing and sideshows. Nevertheless, mascots are employed as goodwill ambassadors for the teams. Also, they attempt to add spirit and pep for the teams. But do they?
Last Saturday, September 18, Rufus, the Ohio University Bobcat, took off on a dead run from the 15-yard line and tackled Ohio State's Brutus Buckeye at the 35 as Brutus and several cheerleaders led the Buckeyes onto the field. Moments later, as several Ohio State players kneeled on the goal line in prayer, Rufus attacked Brutus again in the end zone.
It was interesting that not one single player or security guard tried to break up the fight. Was this because everyone thought it had been staged or because people approved of over-sized, stuffed animals scuffling in a stupid match of survival of the fittest? Naturally, the goofy confrontation became the talk of the college football week.
The guy in the Rufus costume, Brandon Hanning, later told the Ohio University student newspaper he had tried out for the job with the explicit intention of assaulting Ohio State's Brutus this year – then dropped out of college after earning the mascot job. Hanning is currently a student at nearby Hocking College. And he is not sorry at all: “It was the whole reason I tried out (to be Rufus) last year,” he told The Post. “I knew we were going back to OSU this year, and I wanted to tackle Brutus." Hanning must have relished the claim of tackling legendary mascot Brutus Buckeye for some sick egotistical future bragging rights.
Predictably, Ohio University lost the game. Everyone knew that this mismatch against the powerhouse Buckeyes was going to be a blowout win for OSU. Still, the early season match-up benefited OU most, because of the exposure the Bobcats gained from playing OSU and the money the team made from the lopsided contest. So, even though OSU slaughtered "rival" OU for the 33rd consecutive time by the final score of 43-7, Rufus the Bobcat starred in the the underdog's highlight reel as making their "best tackle of the game." (Or should that be "pregame"?)
Of course, Ohio University was thoroughly embarrassed by the antics of their mascot. Jason Corriher, assistant athletic director for Media Relations, announced in a statement that the person involved in the stunt has been banned from any further affiliation with Ohio Athletics. Corriher stated,"The department does not condone this behavior and apologizes for the negative effects that this had on an intercollegiate event between two proud institutions," Corriher said in the statement. "This is not indicative of the quality partnership between the universities and reflected extremely poor judgment and sportsmanship."
Still, not all onlookers saw bashing Brutus as a problem."He's clearly a tenacious [compound adjective]. Kudos to him for being able to finally tackle someone he clearly does not like," said Ben Cortes, better known as Stanford's Tree. "But that said, I think mascots need to up their game. We can't just let random people get to the sidelines representing us. If someone had my tree costume on and just goes around tackling [Cal mascot] Oski, I end up looking like an aggressive [jerk]." (Andy Staples, "Fuzzy Friends Speak After Brutus Assault That Rocked Mascot World," sportsillustrated.cnn.com, September 23 2010)
Evidently, the violent behavior by mascots, either spontaneous or staged, is considered good, violent fun. Besides, most non-rivalry mascot fights are more scripted than the average WWE match. But, sometimes the mascots act from their own warped sense of sportsmanship and lose their heads.
3. Syracuse University (in New York) - Otto the Orange
4. Delta State - The Fighting Okra
5. Washington State - The Geoduck (a mollusk pronounced "gooey duck")
6. Wichita State - WuShock (a shock of wheat)
7. Scottsdale Community College - The Artichoke
8. Stanford University - The Tree
The Brutus Attack:
Oregon Duck Vs. Houston Cougar
2 comments:
There once was a mascot - Bobkitty,
It came, one day, to our city,
On Brutus it jumped,
But O.U., it was thumped,
And now I can write this short ditty.
I certainly never realized that formal rules of engagement existed to govern the behavior of college mascots, and thank goodness they do. However as an OU (and Kent State) alumni who has witnessed many lopsided defeats at the hands of the Buckeyes, something about this whole story just made me smile. This kid will live in infamily in the hearts and minds of some, and I think that was his point.
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