Student Snapshot
Brian Bunting: The Persona behind Brutus Buckeye

By Joan Slattery Wall, OSU College of Engineering

Ask Brutus Buckeye what it’s like on autumn Saturdays in Ohio Stadium, with the marching band, cheerleaders, football players and 105,000 screaming fans, and he’ll need to take a minute to figure out how to explain it.

“Oh, I just got chills,” he says.

Well, technically, that’s not what Brutus says. After all, he isn’t allowed to talk. (It’s a mascot rule.)

But even Brutus’ alter ego, Brian Bunting, an industrial systems engineering junior now in his second year as the university’s mascot, has trouble expressing how it feels to be the face of Ohio State on game days.

“Running across the field, you can’t hear anything. You’re right next to the band, but you can’t hear them. To be such a central role on a game day Saturday is unbelievable,” he says. “The emotions are hard to describe. You always remember how it feels, but it’s impossible to put exactly into words.”

What he can put into words easily is the dedication he has for representing Ohio State’s people, tradition and excellence.

“I feel whenever I am Brutus, I’m representing everybody that’s come through this university, everybody that’s here right now and everybody that’s going to come through here,” he says. “We have great academic programs, great athletic programs, great facilities, some of the best students and some of the best faculty. That’s one of the greatest things that drives me, is thinking about what the mascot represents not to me but to other people.”

The connection Bunting makes with people, in fact, is one of the things he enjoys most about being Brutus.

“Through the program I’ve met a retired colonel who now works at the Pentagon. I’ve gotten to know Coach (Jim) Tressel. Some of these are opportunities nobody else can get,” he says. It’s also made him aware of the connections all Ohio State students have.

“Ohio State alumni are great if you want help or you need help,” he says. “People know if you came out of this university, regardless of what program, you know things. I can go anywhere and say, ‘I went to Ohio State,’ and it starts a conversation.”

When he’s not Brutus, Bunting keeps busy with his studies and duties as an Army ROTC member. He has definite ideas about the career path he’d like to take.

“Right now I’m thinking I’ll do the 20 years in the military, retire and then start a second career somewhere, like work for a defense contractor,” he says.

He’d like his military career to include flying a helicopter, a wish solidified on ROTC training exercises in a Blackhawk.

“I remember hearing the rotor turning, hearing the engine and flying all over the place. It was a lot of fun. They were putting the Blackhawk to the test,” he says, recalling how his engineering background made him intrigued about the helicopter’s operation. “It was like, yeah, I’m flying. This is what I want to do.”

Nothing, however, will keep him from serving as Brutus until he graduates.

“The whole thing is crazy, really,” he says. “It sort of feels like a dream. The whole thing is an insane experience.”