COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A Brutus Buckeye statue on Ohio State University’s campus was damaged overnight.
According to police, the Brutus statue outside of College Traditions on West Lane Avenue was vandalized at approximately 3:15 a.m. Sunday.
College Traditions manager Kelly Dawes said the university and Columbus police are investigating.
“He’s a staple at our store, and there’s literally thousands and thousands of people who come by and get their picture taken with him,” Dawes said.
Thousands passed by College Traditions Saturday as the Buckeyes played another top-five match against Indiana, but it took just one person to destroy the fiberglass statue, spending nearly 10 minutes recording himself doing so.
“He took him down Lane Avenue, in the middle of the street, kicking and just, it was awful,” Dawes said. “It was awful, and then he picked him up and threw him down. He picked him up and he threw him against our Woody (Hayes) statue.”
Dawes said the statue is insured.
“I’m just hoping we can find out who did it and we can prosecute them because it’s just, it’s not right,” she said. “It was, it was brutal on Brutus.”
The vandalism comes during Michigan Week, the team’s last home game and regular season game of the 2024 campaign.
“For this to happen on our biggest week of the year coming up, Michigan week, it’s just really it saddens me,” Dawes said. “It’s hard to take.”
This is the second time since 2022 that Brutus was damaged. In January 2022, the statue was hit by a skidding car.
“He’s a lot worse off now than he was after the car, so I’m just hoping that they can restore him,” Dawes said.
According to the 2022 report, the shop acquired Brutus in 2008 as part of Brutus on Parade, an initiative by the university to raise money for the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library — known now as the Thompson Library.
