Being one of the fortunate few (just ask Sports Illustrated’s Peter King) to be part of the student section at Saturday’s Nebraska-Wisconsin football game, it really made me think how lucky we are, as students, to be attending such a successful university.
Everybody knows about Jump Around between the third and fourth quarter of each football game, but I was especially proud – as were a number of my friends, based on their Facebook wall posts – of our rendition of “Build Me Up Buttercup.”
College football fans across the country got to hear a timeless classic belted out with true enthusiasm and love for their team. With just over six minutes to go in the game, drowning out advertisements by Southwest Airlines, Jeep and Aviva Insurance, even ABC announcers Kirk Herbstreit and Brent Musberger had to express their amazement about the crowd.
Thanks to the spirited performance by the Wisconsin faithful, I am compelled to recognize some of the great and not-so-great traditions throughout the rest of college football and how they stack up next to Madtown’s finest.
One such tradition is Tennessee’s Volunteer Navy on the Tennessee River and “sailgating” on Lake Washington outside Husky Stadium. Fans of both teams take advantage of a unique game day experience on the water, lining up boats across the water outside of each stadium.
Imagine if Camp Randall were off the coast of Lake Mendota. Potential thrives for all kinds of new pregaming activities.
One pregame tradition that seems a little ridiculous is Notre Dame’s weekly helmet painting. Each week, team managers meet to strip and buff the players’ helmets to remove the damage inflicted in the last game. While this might have seemed a prestigious tradition back in the days of Lou Holtz when the Irish were actually winning national titles, it seems a bit over the top to repaint the helmets each and every week for a team that is 2-11 in bowl games since 1995.
How about mascots? Bucky is a great mascot, and we should be proud to associated with a creature as fierce as a Badger.
But LSU has Mike the Tiger. I am not sure there is a more intimidating experience than to be an opponent walking into the visitor’s locker room at Tiger Stadium and seeing a real live tiger staring back at you as you enter. Then you have to actually face No.1 LSU’s defense, which is pretty scary itself.
Though Mike remains caged, Colorado Buffaloes mascot Ralphie the Buffalo seems less intimidating and more harmless. Ralphie is a female buffalo (smaller and less aggressive than males) that requires five handlers to control her romp around the field. Having escaped and knocked over her fair share of handlers in the past, it seems an unnecessary injury risk to allow such a large animal to run around the field.
Wisconsin tried to have a live badger on the sidelines back in 1940, but much like 2011’s Badger offense, it couldn’t be controlled and was retired as the mascot.
Perhaps the Buffaloes should follow suit.
Wisconsin’s marching band is just as famous for its music and choreography under the direction of Mike Leckrone as Wisconsin football is for its linemen and running backs. For Purdue, the most recognizable thing about its band is the Purdue Big Bass Drum, known as the World’s Largest Drum.
Again, I realize how lucky UW students are to be experiencing the amount of athletic success we have had over the past few years, rather than just looking forward to the pounding of a drum every Saturday.
My biggest kudos of the day, though, goes to Texas A&M for securing a trademark for the term the “12th Man” for their fans, even going as far as to battle the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks in a legal dispute in 2006. Aggie fans are among the most loyal and energetic fans across the country.
The 12th man tradition began at Texas A&M in 1922, as the Aggies were battling Centre College. The number of reserve players on A&M’s sideline began to dwindle, and head coach Dana Bible needed to reload.
Prior to the game, Bible had sent E. King Gill, a basketball player for Texas A&M, to work in the press box during the game. Bible summoned Gill down to the field and had him change into an injured player’s uniform under the stands. Gill never played, but nonetheless the tradition was born as A&M fans stand forever loyal and swear they are available to come in to the game any time they are needed.
The final tradition I will put under the microscope is Ohio State’s “Script Ohio.” It’s own tradition, like the UW Marching Band’s Fifth Quarter, showcases the entire band forming the word “Ohio” across the football field. First performed in 1936, the performance has garnered national acclaim.
Prior to the release of the EA Sports videogame NCAA Football 12 in July, Ohio State received the number two seed in ESPN’s SportsNation bracket vote to determine the best tradition in college football. I was pleasantly surprised when Nebraska’s touching of a horseshoe prior to exiting the tunnel before games defeated “Script Ohio.”
Apparently, videogame developers are behind the times, showing the same lack of respect for Wisconsin athletics that has existed among poll voters and BCS computers for quite some time. It shouldn’t have been that difficult to include a Jump Around tradition for Wisconsin, which didn’t even have a ritual on the bracket.
Whether it be Jump Around, “Build Me Up Buttercup” or the outstanding play of the fourth-ranked Badgers this year, it appears that Wisconsin is finally gaining some of the national notoriety it deserves as a top-flight athletic program and owner of some of the finest traditions in all of sports.
Brett is a senior majoring in journalism. Think there is a particularly good or bad college football tradition left off the list ? Let him know at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @basportz.
