Hundreds of University of Wisconsin students gathered on Bascom Hall for the first time since 2020 to participate in a schoolwide snowball fight called the Battle for Bascom on the evening of Dec. 1 after the City of Madison declared a snow emergency.
The reintroduction of the beloved student tradition came from an anonymous post on Yik Yak that got nearly 1,000 upvotes.
“Snowball Fight Announcement: Please Be Careful and Mature, 6p.m. tmrw, snow will be thrown! We are Badgers not Gophers! Have a safe environment where nobody goes home hurt,” the user said in the post on Yik Yak.
The first Battle for Bascom took place in December 2009 after students coordinated the event on Facebook to celebrate UW’s first snow-related closure in over 20 years, according to the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
The snowball fight is between current and past Lakeshore neighborhood residents who stand on top of the hill versus current and past Southeast neighborhood residents at the bottom end.
Students had over nine inches of fresh powder to fuel the snowball fight from the record snowfall that occurred Nov. 29 and the subsequent snow emergency, which continued through the snowball fight, according to UW News.
UW freshman Drew Scheps decided to attend the snowball fight after a friend invited him to take part in a UW tradition he had long heard about, he said in a text message.
“I probably had the most fun I have had all semester,” Scheps said in the message. “During the fight, I felt like a little kid and completely forgot about any responsibilities I had.”
Another post made on Yik Yak announced that the Lakeshore team was declared as the winners of the snowball fight, maintaining their undefeated record against the Southeast team in the Battle for Bascom.
Though the event announcement encouraged safety during the event, one student was seen leaving with a wound above her eye, and a number of posts on Yik Yak said students left with injuries after being hit with ice chunks rather than powder snowballs.
Overall, the snowball fight maintained a jovial enough atmosphere for a student to post on Yik Yak proposing a rematch, which received 249 upvotes from fellow students.
“After it was all done, I was genuinely happy and in a great mood,” Scheps said in the message.
