b FEATURE
UNMASKING
A MASCOT
Over the course of four years, Nate Hug lived anonymously as Ohio University’s Rufus, which took physical and mental tolls on his body and mind. BY ANDREW DOWNING | PHOTOS BY AMANDA PUCKETT
A
s he found his seat among the other students attending the first football game of the year in Peden Stadium, Nate Hug felt depressed. It wasn’t the pesky fall breeze biting at his face that made him feel sick to his stomach, but rather how being a fan at a football game felt like a foreign concept to him. “There used to be so many people that loved you and wanted to take pictures with you, but now you’re just another number or face in the crowd,” Hug says. Many of the people Hug refers to didn’t love him; they loved who he pretended to be. During his first four years as an undergraduate student at Ohio University, Hug acted anonymously as the school’s mascot, Rufus. Whether suiting up to face the “boos” of an away crowd hundreds of miles from Athens or traveling three hours to a small town in southern Kentucky to make an appearance at an alumni wedding, Hug has nearly seen it all through Rufus’ eyes.
BECOMING RUFUS
After attending a basketball game during freshman year with a fellow floormate from his dorm, Hug began to have visions of himself as the mascot. He had always been a sports fan but never developed a true passion for playing. While his friend attentively watched the basketball game, Hug instead followed the furry, energetic Bobcat costume that bounced throughout the stadium. Once the game ended, Hug returned to his room still filled with a new ambition he had never experienced before. He quickly reached into his university-provided desk and retrieved a marker. “I went home after the game and wrote on my white board of college goals, ‘Become OU’s mascot,’” Hug says. “All of my friends thought it was a stupid goal, but they supported me.” The next day, Hug contacted the head cheerleading coach and asked for information about becoming a part of the school’s mascot team. He was asked to attend the next practice to try out to act as Rufus. A regular athletic tryout involves a hopeful prospect completing strenuous drills and conditioning tests to prove himself or herself to the coaching staff. A mascot tryout is much different. Individuals are asked to perform a variety of improvised tasks with provided props. That exercise is followed by an interview that gets to the heart of why the mascot prospect is trying out for the position. The lengthy and in-depth interview aims to learn more about the person — a routine that may be employed due to an infamous altercation in 2010 in which a student dressed as Rufus tackled Ohio State University’s mascot, Brutus, during a regular-season football game between the two universities. Once the tryout was over, Hug was offered the position. “[I was] on top of the world. I felt as though I was now a celebrity on campus,” Hug says.
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backdrop | Spring 2015
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GAINING EXPERIENCE In a game of chess, each player is given two rooks — a piece that can only move horizontally or vertically around the board. In Hug’s first game as a mascot, there were also two “rooks.” In the mascot world, “rook” is short for rookie, a person who is not only expected to move horizontally and vertically but also diagonally, exuberantly and colorfully throughout the stadium in which he or she cheers. The typical mascot team usually consists of five or six people. Hug and his new partner were by themselves during his first game, unsure of what to do in the unfamiliar situation they had been thrust into. “We didn’t really know what to do. We talked to the cheerleading coach and were told how to transport the suit,” Hug says. “It takes a long time to get comfortable to be able to go out and actually do what they expect you to do.” But that game is hard for Hug to remember, like a combination of small fragments that are difficult to connect to form the bigger picture. “I’m kind of sad about that,” Hug says. “I’m pretty sure that I was pretty bad, but I really can’t remember.” Like anything new, becoming a mascot involves a learning curve. Transitioning from how one acts as a person to how one acts as a mascot involves more bodily expression. Most mascots are not able to show emotion or speak within their headpieces. Hug estimates that it took him around four to five months before he felt he was able to do the “character” of Rufus any justice. “You don’t just go in there and be Rufus,” Hug says. “You have to understand the character of Rufus. He’s that best friend that you love to hate, but he’s still rather innocent, and that’s what you appreciate about him.” When Hug first started performing at sporting events, there wasn’t much equipment in which to pack the suit. But one tradition remained among the members of the mascot team as the years went on. The idea of coming up with a funny excuse for what was in the luggage container was a way for them to keep their identities confidential, even after they had received adequate storage for their equipment. Among the many benchmarks of Hug’s career as Rufus, one that stands out most to Hug is his very first Blackout game for OU’s football team. As is Blackout tradition, fans were urged to wear black attire in support of the football team. Unbeknownst to the fans, the team would reveal the first-ever black jerseys in school history that night. With that unveiling, the oldest Division I football stadium in the MidAmerican Conference erupted with cheers that could have been mistaken for a small earthquake. “The amount of energy in the stadium was just immense,” Hug says. “It was a complete buzz.”
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