Elida alum shares experiences as OSU mascot
· Yahoo Sports
LIMA — It is safe to say Elida High School and Ohio State University alumnus Keaton Greeley is nuts about the Buckeyes, especially after embodying the spirit of the Scarlet and Grey as the mascot Brutus from 2012 to 2016.
Visit lebandit.lat for more information.
“I was a big Ohio State fan before I became Brutus,” the rotating equipment engineer at the Nutrien Lima nitrogen facility said. “Now I bleed it. Now I’m a part of it, and my family’s even more so in it.”
Greeley visited the Ohio State University-Lima campus Thursday to talk about his experience as the Buckeye mascot, which included witnessing the Buckeyes win the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship in 2015. Greeley took on the role while studying chemical engineering at the main campus in Columbus, a role he was able to win thanks to his experience as a Bulldog.
“When I was at Elida, I did all the sports,” he said. “I played football, track, swam (and was the) mascot. It was something I did on the side, but Elida would ask me, ‘Hey, do you want to go to one of these mascot camps?’ Believe it or not, there are Division I mascot camps. So I would go, and that’s kind of how the process started for me.”
While Greeley is now a mild-mannered engineer, as Brutus the Buckeye he was able to take on a different, more rambunctious persona.
“It’s about developing the personality of the character you’re trying to be,” he said. “It’s staying within character, interaction with people, interaction with kids. One thing that was always taught to me was that to do a really good job of being Brutus, all your actions need to be big. Are you able to be seen from the C Deck all the way up in the Shoe? Is that little 6-year-old able to see you?”
Even as he worked to entertain and excite the Ohio State faithful, Greeley also gained insights and learned lessons that have been helpful in his career, he said.
“It taught me how to handle pressure,” he said. “It taught me that if I could get in front of 100,000 people in a sweaty suit and do the flips and do all the things, I can do anything. I can be in this chemical plant and make hard decisions. I can be in those pressure situations because you do find those in my field where we have to make the right decision.”