Celebrate Brutus
September 26, 2025
Join us for the biggest birthday event ever
Celebrate our favorite mascot's 60th birthday with a huge party. We will attempt the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDSTM title for the largest gathering of people wearing conical party hats. (Hats will be provided!)
Join the fun at 5:30 p.m. (program at 6 p.m.) Wednesday, Oct. 29, in the south stands of Ohio Stadium.
Every participant will receive a special Brutus birthday hat, enjoy a cupcake and ice cream and join in singing Happy Birthday to our beloved mascot.
The event will build community and promote resilience. Celebrating good news, like a birthday, has benefits for both the sharer and the receiver.
This fun, family-friendly celebration is proudly sponsored by the Jeffrey Schottenstein Program for Resilience, the Nina and Ryan Day Resilience Fund, Ohio State’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and the Office of Student Life.
Let’s make history together while showing what Buckeye spirit is all about! Everyone in the Ohio State community, students, staff, faculty, alumni, fans and anyone who loves Brutus is invited.
Advance reservations are not required but will help us keep track of how close we are to setting the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDSTM title. We’ll also keep you up to date on the latest Brutus Birthday news.
Brutus Buckeye is one tough nut: he's a resilient representation of our Ohio State community. Resilience is important for our mental health (Weitzel et al., 2022), and is linked to experiencing positive emotions, which can have important effects for our ability to thrive as an individual and in social networks (Fredrickson, 2004). Researchers, clinicians, professors, administrators, coaches, and other members of the Ohio State community want to promote resilience both on- and off-campus. The Brutus Birthday event aims to bring people together to build community and foster resilience. Research shows that celebrating good news with someone else produces positive emotions on both sides (Peters et al., 2018). This means that it’s not just important to show up for someone when they are feeling down, but when they have a win, too! Even our weak social ties – classmates we sit next to in a lecture, acquaintances we might chat with on campus – can have an impact on our well-being (Sandstrom & Dunn, 2014). We hope that with this event, people will connect by celebrating this amazing milestone for Brutus. Building even our loose social ties makes our social bonds stronger and promotes resilience in our community.
References:
Epley, N., & Schroeder, J. (2014). Mistakenly seeking solitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 1980–1999. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037323
Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1367–1377. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1512
Peters, B. J., Reis, H. T., & Gable, S. L. (2018). Making the good even better: A review and theoretical model of interpersonal capitalization. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(7), e12407. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12407
Sandstrom, G. M., & Dunn, E. W. (2014). Social Interactions and Well-Being: The Surprising Power of Weak Ties. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(7), 910–922. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214529799
Schäfer, S. K., Supke, M., Kausmann, C., Schaubruch, L. M., Lieb, K., & Cohrdes, C. (2024). A systematic review of individual, social, and societal resilience factors in response to societal challenges and crises. Communications Psychology, 2(1), 92. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00138-w
Southwick, S. M., Bonanno, G. A., Masten, A. S., Panter-Brick, C., & Yehuda, R. (2014). Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: Interdisciplinary perspectives. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5(1), 25338. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.25338
Tugade, M. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). Resilient Individuals Use Positive Emotions to Bounce Back From Negative Emotional Experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(2), 320–333.
Weitzel, E. C., Löbner, M., Glaesmer, H., Hinz, A., Zeynalova, S., Henger, S., Engel, C., Reyes, N., Wirkner, K., Löffler, M., & Riedel-Heller, S. G. (2022). The Association of Resilience with Mental Health in a Large Population-Based Sample (LIFE-Adult-Study). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 15944. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315944
Windle, G. (2011). What is resilience? A review and concept analysis. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology, 21(2), 152–169. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959259810000420