The Wisconsin Badgers football team is the college football program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Badgers compete in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and are a member of the Big 10 Conference. Their home games are played at Camp Randall Stadium. They have a tie win-loss record of 575-451-53 and a winning percentage of 53%. The team’s name is a reference to the early history of the state of Wisconsin. Sometime in the early 1800s, prospectors came to Wisconsin in search of minerals, particularly lead. During the winter, the miners had to seek shelter within tunnels that were dug into the slopes and therefore lived like badgers. Its territory came to be known as the “Badger State”. Currently, as of 2008, the Badgers’ head coach is Breat Bielema, their offensive coordinator is Paul Chryst and their defensive coordinator is Dave Doeren.

Member of the Big 10

The Big 10 is one of the premier conferences in college football and is the oldest Division I college athletic conference in the country. It has a total of eleven members, including the Badgers with teams that are primarily found in the midwestern part of the US It includes Pennsylvania in the east and extends from Iowa and Minnesota in the west. Nine of the eleven big 10 conference schools are considered Ivy public leagues, including the University of Wisconsin. It enjoys the prestige of sporting and academic excellence. The conference competes in Division I of the NCAA. The member teams of the Big 10 compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly Division IA, the highest level of NCAA competition. Member schools are also members of the Institutional Cooperation Committee, an educational consortium. Despite the Big 10 name, there are 11 members, and Penn State joined in 1990. The Big 10 center is located in La Porte County, Indiana.

Badgers Various Incarnations

Over the years, various forms of badgers have represented the team as the school’s mascot. The current mascot is named Bucky, wearing the team’s cardinal and white colors in a letter jumper. This mascot was first drawn by artist Art Evans in 1940. The badger mascot had many names such as Buddy, Benny, Bobby, Bernie, and Bouncey. It was Art Lentz, then director of publicity for the athletics department, who brought the mascot to life. The badger mascot of yesteryear was known to be loud and out of control as it was a real live badger! The badger was known to go crazy and scare fans and players alike. It was decided for everyone’s safety that the badger was better off at the Madison Zoo and not at school or soccer games. The badger was then replaced by a tamer, but still no badger, a little raccoon aptly named Regdab (which was badger spelled backwards) posing as a badger in a raccoon coat. In 1949, Connie Conrad, an art student at the university, made a badger head molded from papier-mâché. Cheerleader and gymnast Bill Sagal wore the outfit during a homecoming game. A mascot naming contest was held, and the winning name was “Bucky,” pushing the soccer team to “cross that line.”