After the Kansas State Wildcats’ Week Zero loss to Iowa State, drama erupted involving the Kansas State quarterback, Avery Johnson family. On their way out of the game, Johnson’s father and brother got into a full-on brawl. The incident was recorded and quickly went viral, sparking discussions about other wild rivalry moments, including a notorious story between Texas and Baylor.
Avery Johnson Family Brawl Brings Back Wild Texas-Baylor Tale
After the 2025 edition of “Farmageddon”, Mark and Anthony Johnson, the father and brother of the Kansas State quarterback, were recorded outside the stadium in Dublin engaged in a full-blown fistfight and wrestling match.
Kansas State QB Avery Johnson’s father was in a fist fight with his other son in the parking lot after today’s lose😳 pic.twitter.com/CID3V8DjmD
— The Voice of Reason (@reasonlocker) August 23, 2025
College football rivalries are intense, and they can drive fans to extreme behavior, as seen with the Johnson family.
The incident prompted Drake Toll, host of the “Locked on Big 12” podcast, to recall some of the wildest moments in rivalry history.
Toll recounted a story from 1961, when, ahead of Texas’s matchup against in-state rival Baylor, Longhorns students kidnapped Baylor’s live bear mascot, tragically resulting in its death.
“The University of Texas students, on a game week against Baylor, came to Waco, killed the live bear mascot on campus,” Toll said. “Like we went from crazy, hey, we’re going to pour Dr. Pepper all over your stuff and in your convertibles, cause get it, Dr. Pepper to we’re going to kill your bear.”
It may sound too wild to be true, but it really happened. According to Baylor Magazine, ahead of the 1961 matchup between Baylor and Texas, Texas students kidnapped Ginger, the live bear mascot. After the situation spiraled out of control, they tragically ended up killing her.
“In the early morning of Nov. 10, 1961, University of Texas students took Ginger from her home in the Bear Pit,” Baylor Magazine wrote. “As they were leading her across campus, one of the UT students became entangled in Ginger’s rope and panicked, hitting the bear in the head with a wrench and killing her.”
It’s a tragic story, and the students responsible were only suspended from Texas, not expelled. They eventually raised money to repair the mascot’s enclosure and provide the school with a new mascot, but the sequence of events remains unbelievable.
Thankfully, it’s no longer 1961, and actions like that would not be tolerated in 2025. Still, it shows the extremes college football rivalries can drive fanbases to, making the Johnson family incident seem almost tame by comparison.
The Johnsons apologized for their actions following Kansas State’s loss, but given past incidents, it’s almost guaranteed this won’t be the last wild story to come out of college football rivalries during the 2025 season.
