Kentucky mascot fight brings Louisville’s crosstown rivalry to a boil

It's a staple of mascot performance for the furry-suited embodiments of different teams' fandom to face off in mock combat during a scheduled lull in a contest's action. A real fight is another matter.

Yet that's precisely what rabid prep basketball fans in Kentucky received on Tuesday night, when Louisville's crosstown rivalry between Louisville (Kent.) Male High and Louisville (Kent.) DuPont Manual High devolved into a massive brouhaha between the two teams' mascots.

As you can see in the video above, the mascot fracas began as a premeditated comedy piece but quickly got out of hand, with both the ram and panther pulling each other to the ground in a vice grip. Both mascots then engaged in an earnest bout of punch throwing despite the fact that they were likely only hitting a padded, stuffed suit.

The brawl, which took place at halftime, eventually required the intervention of some sort of supervisor, who was able to pull the two mascots apart just as overly enthusiastic members of the crowd began to spill on to the floor.

For total exposure, you can even get a second viewpoint of the brawl below.

Luckily, the on-court crowd was pushed back into the stands in time to start the second half, though the mascot fight sadly proved to be a rather accurate precursor to future fisticuffs which were allegedly exchanged between members of the two schools at the conclusion of the game.

For the record, Male won the contest by a score of 63-45, with D.J. Lambert scoring 13 points for the Bulldogs.

Unfortunately for Lambert and his teammates, that performance will almost certainly be superceded in the historical accounts of this game by tales of the mascot melee that unfolded before the third quarter even began.

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