PERSONALITIES
Fans Go NUTS
Brutus Buckeye symbolizes Columbus for many residents and visitors By Chloe McGowan Photos courtesy of Ohio State Athletics and Ray Sharp
WHETHER FOR A student, alumni or avid sports fan, Brutus Buckeye – mascot for The Ohio State University – is a face few can forget. Fewer than 100 Ohio State students have “donned the head” of the university’s mascot since his first appearance during the 1965 Minnesota game, says Ray Sharp, head mascot coach for the OSU Athletic Department. And despite several redesigns and costume changes in that nearly 60-
6
cityscenecolumbus.com | July/August 2022
year period, the spirit of Brutus remains the same. “There’s a certain magic that Brutus is able to portray,” says Sharp, who was Brutus from 2011-2013. “He has this natural ability – when you do kind of tap into that and bring that to life – to really just very easily make people happy.” Humble Beginnings However recognizable on the field, Brutus didn’t get his start in OSU Athletics, says Tracy Stuck, director of com-
munity partnerships and innovations. Ray Bourhis, a member of the Ohio Staters student organization, came up with the idea as a student project in 1965 and enlisted the help of his then girlfriend, Sally (Huber) Lanyon, to create the mascot. “If you think about the birthplace of Brutus Buckeye, it was on the lawn of the Pi (Beta) Phi house on 15th and Indianola,” Stuck says. The first Brutus was gigantic and carefully crafted out of papier-mâché. Due to the time period and lack of security at
