In the months since the premeditated attack on Ohio State's mascot, Rufus has gone from flipping over Brutus to doing his own triple back flips before games.
Media coverage reached a national level after Ohio's mascot unexpectedly attacked Ohio State's mascot before the two football teams played Sept. 18. Since then, OU has worked to overhaul Rufus' image and restore positive public perceptions.
Efforts to keep a positive light on Rufus have extended back to 2008 when the program Rufus Reads was founded, but the task of improving the mascot's image has proved to be a struggle since the tackle heard around the country last fall.
Rufus Reads is an outreach program sponsored by the athletic department where student athletes travel around to local schools with Rufus and read to students in grades kindergarten through third.
It's kind of funny because since the event
the schools that we go to all the kids ask Rufus about it said Rachel Ramey, academic services coordinator. So we try to avoid it
and we just say that this is a new Rufus who doesn't portray any violence.
What we hope what this does is that it completely takes the whole spin off of the instance that has occurred, and people can actually see the good that the mascot does.
Now
instead of the rotation of Rufus
only one student fills the spot. Also
the cheerleading coach is now in charge of the mascot
whereas the marketing department was previously.
Ramey said that traveling to different events is difficult at times for the solo student
as Rufus is needed at many places.
The current Rufus started to work last October after the incident
said Dan Hauser
associate athletics director for External Affairs
