Mascot Fights: Rufus Bobcat, Brutus Buckeye, and the Best Battles Ever

Last weekend, Rufus the Bobcat decided that since Ohio University was about to get pounded by Ohio State, he was going to take matters into his own hands.

Rufus charged Brutus Buckeye and attacked him right in the middle of the field. It was a big controversy and shown all over the Internet and ESPN. This isn't the first time mascots have gone toe-to-toe, and hopefully, it won't be the last.

Inside you'll find a recap of the events this past weekend and some of my favorite mascot fights on the
Internet.

Brutus Vs. Rufus: The Fight

I'm not sure if we should be giving Rufus an A for effort or an F for his awful execution.

When someone clearly doesn't want to waste his time fighting you and you still end up looking silly at the end of the tussle, you know you messed up big time. Not only that, but on the first attempt, he lost his head after Brutus hit the truck stick and floored Rufus.

Considering he was carrying a flag as he did that, color me impressed.

Brutus Vs. Rufus: Premeditation

While a fight between two mascots is strange enough, adding to the intrigue is the fact that the person who was Rufus that day, Brandon Hanning, had planned the whole thing out.

In fact, it's the only reason he tried out to be Rufus, saying that he saw the schedule and wanted to attack Brutus. Shouldn't people be questioning his sanity?

It's a sad state of affairs in your life when you're consumed with attacking a mascot.

Brutus Vs. Rufus: Aftermath

Ohio University quickly banned the 19-year-old Hanning from being apart of any school activities, despite the fact that he's not even enrolled at the school.

When did we start outsourcing our mascots to private contractors? I think that may be the weirdest thing in this whole story, that Ohio University opened up its mascot trials to non-students. Was there no one on campus that was qualified to dress up in a costume?

This whole thing bothers me immensely.

Brutus Vs. Rufus: Reaction

After the incident, the person who played Brutus that day went to the Internet and tried to clear up exactly what happened before the game.

He explained that he didn't beat up on Rufus because the Big Ten has strict rules about the behavior of mascots, and had he given Rufus the beating he deserved, he probably would have lost his job and it would have been his last game as Brutus.

I must say, I commend the show of restraint we got from Brutus. If it were me, I'd have a hard time controlling my temper if a guy I didn't know tried to attack me for no reason.

However, these next mascots didn't control their tempers. Here are some of my favorite mascot fights.

No. 6: The Oregon Duck Vs. Benny Beaver

I must say, I'm not impressed at all with this fight, but a rivalry does put it on this list.

It's almost like a hockey fight, where the two guys grapple and jostle for position before finally making one quick move, falling to the ground and stopping the fight.

If two mascots are going to go at it, then I want more effort than that. The fans who paid their hard-earned money deserve a better showing than that weak display. Step it up, guys. I know it's a rivalry and you don't want to come out on the losing end, but make a move.

Either way, great theater, bad fight.

No. 5: Sparty Vs. The Pitt Panther

This fight stinks, I won't lie.

First off, there's props with the boxing gloves, so that's a point off right away. Not only that, but it looks like they don't even know what they're doing out there.

The one redeeming quality to this is the pretty sweet suplex that Sparty pulls off near the end of the video. Good form, just poor execution. With those muscles and that performance, it's clear Sparty is nothing more than a workout warrior.

However, since I am a Penn Stater and Pitt came out on the losing end, I'm putting this on the list.

No. 4: Bucky Badger Vs MSU Cheerleader

Bucky Badger thought it would be funny and cute to parade around with the Michigan State flag. Wrong.

As he was in the middle of his glorious sprint around the sidelines, a Spartans cheerleader comes out of nowhere and delivers a Goldberg-like spear to the Badger, sending him crumbling to the ground and security comes in to help break up the fight.

Now that's school spirit. I'm sure when Bucky wakes up with bruised ribs, he'll regret doing that with the flag.

No. 3: The Oregon Duck Vs. Shasta

The Oregon Duck is back on our list and I'm pretty sure he has some anger management issues.

The duck took offense to Houston's mascot Shasta mocking his tradition of doing pushups after a score, and he decided to take it to the streets and run up on Shasta and beat the living crap out of him in front of the entire stadium.

This gets extra bonus points for not only the taunt, but then thrusting his groin in Shasta's face. When you forget that there are kids in the stands, that's a win in my book.

No. 2: Vic The Demon Vs. Chief Brave Spirit

I put this up here not because it's two college football heavyweights going toe-to-toe, but for how awesome this video is.

The whole style of it, like how it's one of those shows where they show people trapped in hot air balloons stuck in trees or someone who was involved in a bad wreck at a race track is just brilliant. I've never felt like mascot fights mattered so much in my life.

Also, I'm fascinated by this code of ethics that mascots have. Is there anything that means less to us but means more to the people doing it than being a mascot? I think not.

No. 1: Seymour D'Campus Vs. Big Al

This is the top fight on the list just because it's such a long drawn out fight and it's essentially a WWE wrestling match on the sidelines of a football game between Alabama and Southern Miss.

Seymour dropped Big Al with a Stone Cold Stunner and then taunted him on top of that. Then they're throwing each other into fences like they're outside the ring and they're even hitting each other in the head with foreign objects on the sideline.

Of course, Big Al took the advantage with the Rock Bottom before Seymour countered with a modified Pedigree. The two fought to a no contest and as good ol' JR, Jim Ross, would say, that was quite the slobberknocker.

I can't believe all of that seriously happened with two mascots.