Celebrate Brutus

July 30, 2025

Join us for the biggest birthday event ever

Celebrate our favorite mascot's 60th birthday by attempting to set a record for the biggest birthday party. 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 also feature an inspiring message about how celebrating and uplifting others can boost your mental health.

This fun, family-friendly celebration is proudly sponsored by the Jeffrey Schottenstein Program for Resilience, the Nina and Ryan Day Resilience Fund and the Office of Student Life. Let’s make history together while showing what Buckeye spirit is all about!

No advance reservations needed; bring your neighbors and kids.

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