The fur was flying even before the kickoff in the Ohio University versus Ohio State University football game when the Ohio Bobcat’s mascot Rufus attacked Ohio State’s mascot Brutus during the pregame warm-ups on Saturday.

Rufus attempted to take down Brutus as the Ohio State mascot led the home team out onto the field in front of thousands of Buckeye fans.

Brutus shrugged off the tackle and continued on into the end zone with the rest of the team.

However, Rufus would not give up the chase and followed Brutus into the end zone where he jumped on his back and wrestled him to the ground, where he proceeded to punch Brutus in the head several times.

The man inside Rufus, Brandon Hanning, said he became the mascot just to be able to tackle the Ohio State mascot, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Hanning is actually not an Ohio University student. He was enrolled at Ohio last year, but is currently enrolled at Hocking College, the report said.

Hanning has been banned from any further affiliation with the Ohio University athletic department.

Ohio’s athletic department sent an email to Ohio State stating they did not condone the actions of the mascot and regretted the negative effect of the mascot’s actions, the report said.

University of Wisconsin athletics spokesperson Justin Doherty said he has never seen another mascot do anything like what happened at the Ohio State game happen to Bucky.

However, he did say there was an incident, more than 10 years ago, involving Bucky and Michigan State cheer squad at a football game.

“There was a game a few years ago where a cheerleader knocked Bucky over,” Doherty said.

UW Athletics has a method in place to decide who gets to be UW’s mascot.

Doherty said there is a screening process for the students who want to be Bucky. He added they also have to go through a try out to make the mascot squad.

“The spirit squad takes a really good look at who gets to be Bucky,” Doherty said.

Ohio State won the football game 43 to 7.