Bascom Hall, University of Wisconsin
This coming Saturday, the football team at Rutgers University will travel to play the University of Wisconsin.
Before You Go. Milwaukee and Green Bay are on Lake Michigan. Madison is not. It's on Lake Mendota, but is considerably inland from the Great Lakes. It's still a bit north (and a lot west) of New York and New Jersey, but wind blasting in off a Great Lake is not going to be a factor.
It's not Green Bay, but it is still Wisconsin. It gets chilly in the autumn, let alone in the winter. Since this will be late October, the weather could be an issue. Although the game will be indoors, you still have to get to it.
The Wisconsin State Journal website is predicting the mid-40s for Saturday afternoon, and low 30s for the evening. Bring a Winter jacket.
Madison is in the Central Time Zone, an hour behind New York. Adjust your various timepieces accordingly.
Tickets. There's a reason Madison is called "Mad City." It's a party town, and every football game is a party. It's going to sell out. Even though the entire stadium, including the end zones and the upper deck, is $80.
Getting There. Downtown Madison is 950 land miles from Times Square, and Camp Randall Stadium is 945 miles from HighPoint.com Stadium. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there. But Madison isn't that big a city. There's a reason, beyond geographic identification, it's known as Dane County Regional Airport, and not as an International Airport. United Airlines does offer nonstop service between Newark and Madison, but only 1 such flight per day. Otherwise, you would have to change planes in Chicago. It would cost nearly $900.
Amtrak does not go to Madison. Milwaukee, yes; Madison, no. Greyhound goes to Madison, but it costs as much as $606 round-trip, but it can drop to $362 with advanced purchase. The station is at 700 University Avenue, right about where downtown (to the east) meets the campus (to the west).
If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won’t need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is the key.
I-90 becomes a beltway around Chicago. Stay on it, even after it begins heading northwest again, across the Illinois-Wisconsin line, to Exit 142A. Take U.S. Route 18 West to Exit 263, John Nolen Drive, along the shore of Lake Monona, the smaller of the 2 lakes in Madison. That will bring you into downtown. Make a left onto North Shore Drive, and then a right onto Regent Street, and that will take you to the campus and the stadium.
If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, 2 hours in Illinois, and about an hour in Wisconsin. That's about 16 hours and 15 minutes. Counting rest stops, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Chicago, it should be no more than 21 hours, which would save you time on Greyhound, if not on flying.
Once In the City. Madison, a.k.a. "Mad City," was named for James Madison, 4th President of the United States and "the Father of the Constitution." Founded in 1848, it has about 255,000 people, making it the 2nd-largest in Wisconsin behind Milwaukee. The metropolitan area has about 600,000. The city is about 79 percent white, and blacks, Hispanics and Asians each make up about 7 percent.
The State House, with Lake Mendota in the background
The Wisconsin State Journal is now the only daily paper in town, having bought out The Capital Times, which is now "printed" daily online, but only in actual print 2 days a week. The Cap Times has been renowned as one of the last bastions of truly liberal media in America.
Wisconsin -- from the Miami tribe's word for the bank of the river, meaning "It lies red" -- gained Statehood on May 29, 1848, and the University of Wisconsin was founded a few weeks later, on July 26.
The University of Wisconsin System is extensive. In addition to the main campus in the State capitol of Madison, and in the State's biggest city of Milwaukee, they have campuses granting 4-year degrees in Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Parkside, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout, Superior and Whitewater; and "University of Wisconsin Colleges," granting 2-year degrees, in Baraboo/Sauk County, Barron County, Fond du Lac, Fox Valley, Manitowoc, Marathon County, Marinette, Marshfield/Wood County, Richland, Rock County, Sheboygan, Washington County and Waukesha.
As Wisconsin is the Badger State, UW's teams are called the Badgers. Notable athletes in sports other than football include:
* Baseball: Addie Joss, Harvey Kuenn, Jim O'Toole, Paul Quantrill. Unfortunately, also former Commissioner Bud Selig. Also Lewis Wolff, who owns the Oakland Athletics and MLS' San Jose Earthquakes.
* Basketball: Christian Steinmetz, Michael Finley, Devin Harris, and Hall of Fame coaches Harold Foster of Wisconsin, Harold Olson of Ohio State and Everett Case of North Carolina State.
* Hockey: Chris Chelios, Brian Mullen, Pat Flatley, Curtis Joseph, Tony Granato, Scott Mellanby, Dany Heatley, Devils Stanley Cup winners Bruce Driver and Brian Rafalski, Rangers Stanley Cup winner Mike Richter (no relation to Pat Richter), and 1980 U.S. Olympic Gold Medalists Mark Johnson (son of UW and Pittsburgh Penguins coach "Badger Bob" Johnson), Bob Suter (also his brother Gary and Bob's son Ryan).
* Horse Racing: Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
* Olympic Gold Medalists: Alvin Krazenlein, sprinter, hurdler and long jumper, 1900; Eric Heiden, speed skating, 5 Gold Medals and a world record in each race, 1980; Carie Graves, rowing, 1984; Carly Piper, swimming, 2004; Beau Hoopman, rowing, 2004; and Gwen Jorgensen, triathlon, 2016.
* Sports Journalism: Jim Armstrong and Andy Katz.
Wisconsin graduates in other fields include:
* Acting: Fredric March, Don Ameche, Agnes Moorehead, Uta Hagen, Gena Rowlands, Tom Wopat, Daniel J. Travanti, Joan Cusack, Seann William Scott. Also producers David Susskind, David and Jerry Zucker, Rick Berman, Michael Mann, Tom Rosenberg, Andrew Bergman, Steven Levitan.
* Music: Jerry Bock, Boz Scaggs, Steve Miller, Pat McCurdy.
* Literature: Delmore Schwartz, Lorraine Hansberry, Joyce Carol Oates, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and bell hooks.
* Science: Computer pioneers Howard Aiken, John Atanasoff; naturalist John Muir, Hoover Dam engineer John L. Savage, and astronaut Jim Lovell.
* Business: Harley-Davidson founder William S. Harley, his co-founder's son William H. Davidson, and Campbell's Soup executive and Spaghetti-O's inventor Donald Goerke.
* Journalism: Arthur "A.C." Nielsen, Robert Bartley, Edwin Newman, Haynes Johnson, Lowell Bergman, Jeff Greenfield, Chris Bury, David Maraniss, Joan Walsh, Michele Norris, Greta Van Susteren, Jane Brody, Rita Braver.
In politics, representing Wisconsin unless otherwise stated:
* Governors: Robert and Philip La Follette, Oscar Rennebohm, Francis McGovern, Nils Boe of South Dakota, Charles Herreid of South Dakota, Russell Peterson of Delaware,John Reynolds Jr. (son of a State Attorney General), Warren Knowles, Lee Dreyfus, Vernon Thomson, Gaylord Nelson, Patrick Lucey, Charles Robb of Virginia, Richard Lamm of Colorado, Tommy Thompson and Jim Doyle.
* Senators Robert La Follette Sr. and Jr., Nelson, Robb, John Spooner, Richard Pettigrew of South Dakota, Paul Husting, Thomas Walsh of Montana, Alexander Wiley, Wayne Morse of Oregon, S.I. Hayakawa of California, Russ Feingold and Tammy Baldwin.
* Cabinet officers: Secretaries of the Interior Thomson and Julius Krug; Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Wilbur Cohen; and Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter.
* Also: Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge; conservative activist Paul Weyrich; and Lynne Cheney, wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who attended UW as a doctoral student, but got his undergraduate degree from the University of Wyoming.
* In fiction, UW graduates include Harry Crane on Mad Men. But not Donna Moss on The West Wing: She dropped out.
Going In. The address of Camp Randall Stadium is 1440 Monroe Street, about a mile and a half west of downtown. Bus 3 or 6 will get you there. If you drive in, parking is just $5.00. Camp Randall was a Union Army training camp during the American Civil War, named for the Governor of Wisconsin, Alexander Randall. The State bought the site in 1893, and the University's football and baseball teams began playing there in 1895, calling it Randall Field.
With the Wisconsin Field House behind the south end
A permanent 11,900-seat Camp Randall Stadium was built there in 1917, making it the oldest stadium in the Big Ten. The only older stadiums in major college football are at Georgia Tech (1913), Mississippi State (1914), the University of Cincinnati (1915) and Mississippi (also 1915).
Most of the stadium, though, it a bit older than that. It was expanded to 20,000 in 1921, 38,000 in 1926, 45,000 in 1940, 51,000 in 1951, 63,000 in 1958, 77,000 with the addition of an upper deck (but only on the west side) in 1966, and the present 80,321 in 2005. The field is aligned north-to-south, and has been artificial since 1968, one of the earliest to switch to the plastic stuff. (Tennessee beat it by a few days.)
On October 30, 1993, Wisconsin beat Michigan 13-10, for their 1st win over the Wolverines in 12 years. At the final gun, students charged the field, but guardrails stopped them. The fans behind them didn't know this, and some people were crushed against the rails until they gave way, and some got trampled.
It became known as the Camp Randall Crush, and remains the closest any North American sports facility has come to an incident like England's 1989 Hillsborough Disaster since the 1920s. No one died, but 73 people were hurt. Changes were made, and when Wisconsin beat then-Number 1-ranked Ohio State in 2010, a similar rush occurred, but only 1 person sustained a minor injury.
From 1986 to 1999, the Green Bay Packers played 12 preseason exhibition games at Camp Randall, because it had a larger seating capacity than either Lambeau Field (since expanded) or Milwaukee County Stadium (since demolished). The stadium also hosts Wisconsin's high school football State Championships, and hosted the Camp Randall Hockey Classic on February 6, 2010: UW's me's hockey team beat Michigan 3-2, while their women's team beat Bemidji State of Minnesota 6-1.
Concerts at Camp Randall have included Pink Floyd in 1988 and 1994; Genesis in 1992; U2 with Big Audio Dynamite and Public Enemy as supporting acts in 1992; and the Rolling Stones supported by Bryan Adams, Blind Melon and Lenny Kravitz in 1994.
Next to the south end is the Wisconsin Field House, which opened in 1930. It was home to UW's men's basketball team until the Kohl Center opened in 1998, and its women's basketball team from its 1974 beginning until the opening of the Kohl Center. It still hosts UW vollyeball and wrestling, and the State Tournaments for high school boys' and girls' basketball and high school wrestling.
Wisconsin hockey was played at the Dane County Coliseum from 1967 to 1998. Now named the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Alliant Energy Center, it still stands at 1919 Alliant Energy Center Way, 2 miles south of downtown and 3 miles southeast of the campus. Bus 13 from downtown.
Elvis Presley sang there on October 19, 1976 and, in one of his last concerts, on June 24, 1977. He also sang in Wisconsin at the Mary E. Sawyer Auditorium in La Crosse on May 14, 1956; the MECCA in Milwaukee on June 14, and 15, 1972, and the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena in Green Bay on April 28, 1977. (The Beatles played the MECCA on September 4, 1964.)
Wisconsin basketball and hockey moved into the 17,230-seat Kohl Center in 1998. It was named for Herb Kohl, the former U.S. Senator and owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. 601 W. Dayton Street, 8 blocks east of Camp Randall.
Before the 1939 institution of the NCAA Tournament, the Badgers' men's team was recognized as National Champions in 1912, 1914 and 1916. They won the NCAA Tournament in 1941, and have also made the Final Four in 2000, 2014 and 2015. They've won 18 Big Ten titles, plus 3 Conference Tournaments. The women's team has never won a title.
The hockey team, now coached by Tony Granato, and formerly coached by Bob Johnson, has reached the hockey version of the Final Four, the Frozen Four, 12 times, most recently in 2010, and won 6 National Championships: 1973, 1977, 1981 (the 1st 3 under Badger Bob), 1983, 1990 and 2006. Badger Bob's son, Mark Johnson, is the coach of the women's team, has led them to 10 Frozen Fours, including the last 5, and the 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011 National Championships.
The Pizza Stand
Camp Randall’s one and only pizza stand is located on the 3rd level concourse on the north side near section P. This is where you can get personal pan pizzas.
-Foods/Drinks in this section: Personal Pan Pizza, Bottled Water, Bottled Soda.
Camp Randall’s one and only pizza stand is located on the 3rd level concourse on the north side near section P. This is where you can get personal pan pizzas.
-Foods/Drinks in this section: Personal Pan Pizza, Bottled Water, Bottled Soda.
The Grill Stand
In this stand, you will find all of your grilled favorites. There are four of these stands located approximately on each corner of the stadium. (Two are on the 3rd level concourse, near sections R and W. One is located by the press box in section FF, and the other one is located in section A.)
-Foods/Drinks in this section: Cheeseburgers, Hot Dogs, Brats, Nachos, Bottled Water, Bottled Soda, Lemon Chill.
In this stand, you will find all of your grilled favorites. There are four of these stands located approximately on each corner of the stadium. (Two are on the 3rd level concourse, near sections R and W. One is located by the press box in section FF, and the other one is located in section A.)
-Foods/Drinks in this section: Cheeseburgers, Hot Dogs, Brats, Nachos, Bottled Water, Bottled Soda, Lemon Chill.
The Regular Concession Stand
Standard ballpark items are sold here, which are sprinkled everywhere throughout the stadium.-Foods/Drinks in this section: Soda, Bottled Water, Hot Drinks (Seasonal), Hot Dogs, Brats, Popcorn, Peanuts, Jumbo Pretzels, Candy, Nachos.
And you thought the TV show set in Milwaukee was called Happy Days because it was set during the 1950s? Nope: It was because of the food! Why do you think they all hung out at Arnold's?Standard ballpark items are sold here, which are sprinkled everywhere throughout the stadium.-Foods/Drinks in this section: Soda, Bottled Water, Hot Drinks (Seasonal), Hot Dogs, Brats, Popcorn, Peanuts, Jumbo Pretzels, Candy, Nachos.
Team History Displays. Wisconsin was awarded the National Championship in 1942. They've won 14 titles in the league now known as the Big Ten Conference, including the 1st 2: 1896, 1897, 1901, 1906, 1912, 1952, 1959, 1962, 1993, 1998, 1999 and 2010. There is no display for any of these titles in the fan-viewable areas of the stadium.
If you've being paying attention, you'll notice a discrepancy: In 1942, they were National Champions, but not Conference Champions. That season, they went 8-1-1, but 4-1 in the Big 10, their loss coming away to Iowa. They beat Ohio State, then ranked Number 1, at home, but Ohio State played more conference games, and finished 5-1. Neither team went to a bowl game: It wasn't until the 1946 season that the Big 10 Champion was invited to play the Champion of the league now known as the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl.
Wisconsin has been to 29 bowl games, including in the last 17 seasons. They've won 15 of the 29, which is amazing, considering they never won a bowl game until the 1982 Independence Bowl. They've won the Rose Bowl in 1994, 1999 and 2000 (but also lost it in 1953, 1960, 1963, 2011, 2012 and 2013). They won the 2017 Cotton Bowl and the 2018 Orange Bowl, but have never played in the Sugar Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl.
The Badgers have retired 6 numbers: 33, 1999 Heisman Trophy-winning running back Ron Dayne; 35, 1955 Heisman-winning running back Alan Ameche; 40, 1942 receiver Elroy Hirsch; 80, 1940s 2-way end Dave Schreiner; 83, 1940s quarterback Allan Shafer; and 88, 1960s receiver Pat Richter.
Dayne, a native of Pine Hill, Camden County, New Jersey who helped the New York Giants reach Super Bowl XXXV, is still the all-time Football Bowl Subdivision leader in rushing yardage. Ameche, a.k.a. "the Horse," was a distant cousin of actor Don Ameche, and later scored the winning touchdown in overtime for the Baltimore Colts against the Giants in the 1958 NFL Championship Game. Hirsch, known for his running as "Crazy Legs," starred in the NFL for the Los Angeles Rams, helping them win the 1951 NFL Championship. Richter was an All-Pro for the Washington Redskins.
Crazy Legs Hirsch, still the most popular player in Wisconsin history
Shafer died from injuries sustained in a 1944 game. A few months later, Schreiner was killed at the Battle of Okinawa. Both their numbers were posthumously retired.
In addition to Hirsch, Schreiner, Ameche, Richter and Dayne, the Badgers have had these figures elected to the College Football Hall of Fame: 1890s running back and placekicker Pat O'Dea, 1910s tackle Bob Butler, 1920s tackle Marty Below, 1940s running back Pat Harder, and 1980s defensive tackle Tim Krumrie; and coaches Phillip King from the 1890s and Barry Alvarez from the 1990s and 2000s. Hirsch and Richter both served as the school's athletic director. Statues of Richter and Alvarez stand outside the stadium.
From 1932 to 1960, Wisconsin's biggest rival was Marquette University, as they were the only NCAA Division I schools in the State. But the Badgers dominated, going 32-4, and the Milwaukee-based Catholic school, now best known for its basketball program, dropped their football program after the 1960 season.
Ever since, Wisconsin's biggest rival has been neighboring Minnesota, and it's even more intense in hockey than it is in football. They've played since 1890, and every year since 1907, making it the longest uninterrupted rivalry in FBS.
Minnesota led the rivalry for most of its history, even after they stopped being a college football power following their 1967 Big 10 Co-Championship. But Wisconsin has won the game the last 14 years. Their 31-0 win in Minneapolis last season finally gave them the overall edge, 60-59-8. They will play each other again on November 24, Thanksgiving Saturday.
This rivalry is unusual for another reason: It has not 1, but 2 trophies. The 1st was the Slab of Bacon. Introduced in 1930, it is a piece of black walnut wood with a football in the middle. Inscribed on the ball is a letter which, depending on how it's hung, can be either an M for Minnesota or a W for Wisconsin. The word "BACON" is carved at both ends, so it can be read right-side-up no matter which team has won and "brought home the bacon."
Somehow, this trophy was lost in 1943, after Minnesota won. I should say, "lost," because, when it was found in a storage closet at Camp Randall in 1994, someone had kept inscribing game scores on it through 1970. It's not known why it was stopped then. Maybe the UW employee who did it was fired. At any rate, the Badgers still have the trophy.
They still have it because it was replaced by another trophy. In 1948, Paul Bunyan's Axe was introduced, in honor of the legendary giant lumberjack of the Upper Midwest. The scores of the games are inscribed on its 6-foot-long handle. On the blade, the side with Wisconsin's victories is red with white lettering, while the side with Minnesota's wins is old gold with red lettering, matching each school's colors.
Bucky Badger joining Wisconsin players and fans with the Axe
The tradition is as follows: If the team that won the Axe last year wins it again, they run to their own sideline, pick it up, carry it around the field, and then use it to pretend to chop down the goalposts; if the team that lost last year's game wins it, the Axe holders must let them winners run to their sidelines and take it.
(UPDATE: Through the 2019 season, Wisconsin leads Minnesota 61-60-8.)
Stuff. Bucky's Locker Room, named for the mascot, is located in the southeast corner of the stadium. The University Book Store is at 711 State Street, with the Memorial Library across State Street to the north, and the University President's House across Fitch Court to the west. A block to the east of the Book Store, at 610 State Street, is the Under Armour Brand House, another place selling lots of Badger gear.
In 2014, Don Kopriva and Jim Mott published On Wisconsin! A Celebration of Football, Basketball, and Other Badger Sports. In 2007, the DVD The History of Wisconsin Football was released.
During the Game. Wisconsin fans, as you might expect in America's foremost brewing State, like to drink. If this were UW vs. Minnesota, and you were wearing Minnesota gear, you might be in trouble. If this were a Packer game and you were wearing Chicago Bears or Minnesota Vikings gear, you might be in trouble. If this were a Brewers-Cubs game, and you were wearing Cubs gear, you might be in trouble. But this is Wisconsin vs. Rutgers, so you'll probably be safe.
On October 6, 2017, Thrillist compiled a list of their Best College Football Stadiums, the top 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Camp Randall came in 12th, saying, "This giant stadium -- still situated on the same footprint it had when it was just an 11,000-seater -- feels far more intimate than the capacity might suggest."
An hour before home kickoffs, the Badger Band performs a pregame concert at Union South, 1308 W. Dayton Street, 3 blocks east of the stadium. They play "Chorale #1," and then imitate the sound of a skyrocket -- hiss, boom, ahhhh, whistle -- to announce a joke to the spectators. (During the game, they use the skyrocket sound to call attention to several things, including the prelude to a song.)
Then they play 2 choruses of "On Wisconsin," one of the most familiar college football fight songs. They follow this with a short version of the opposing team's school song, play "The Bud Song" (an old Budweiser jingle, altered to say, "When you say Wis-con-sin... you've said it all!" -- ironic, since Budweiser is a beer not headquartered in Wisconsin), and one more rendition of "On Wisconsin," before heading to the stadium.
At the beginning of the 4th quarter, the tuba players line up single file and march around the stadium concourse, playing songs like "Semper Fidelis," "The Beer Barrel Polka," and "On Wisconsin." In 1971, Crazy Legs Hirsch, then the athletic director, banned the march. There was such a protest to it that he reinstated it the next year.
Also during the 3rd and 4th quarters, the stadium's scoreboard operator plays the House of Pain song "Jump Around" through the loudspeakers. This tradition began in 1998, and, as with the tuba march, it was temporarily stopped. At the 1st game of the 2003 season, the 4th quarter began, and the students, realizing that "Jump Around" hadn't been played, started jumping around anyway. An entire section turned around, pointed their middle fingers at the press box, and chanting, "Fuck the sound guy!"
But it wasn't a mistake: It was a conscious decision by University officials, afraid that the jumping would damage the 86-year-old stadium. A protest was launched, and so the University hired a structural engineering firm to examine the stadium. They determined that the jumping was no threat to the stadium's structural integrity, and the song was once again allowed.
The familiar image of a badger wearing a red letterman's sweater with a W for Wisconsin on it was first drawn in 1940, and, after experimenting with a live badger which proved too difficult to control, a costumed version debuted in 1948. A contest was held to name him, and the winning entry was "Buckingham U. Badger," or "Bucky" for short.
Bucky Badger, Aubie the Tiger at Auburn, and YouDee the Blue Hen at the University of Delaware were the 1st 3 college mascots inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame, in 2006. The only college mascots to have followed them are Brutus Buckeye at Ohio State, Lil' Red at Nebraska, the Nittany Lion at Penn State, and Smokey the Coonhound at Tennessee -- so that's 7, 4 of them among the 12 in the "Big Ten."
They don't do this at football games, apparently, but at basketball games, there's a section of Wisconsin students known as the Grateful Red, wearing tie-dyed T-shirts reminiscent of fans of the band The Grateful Dead.
In 1969, new band director Michael Leckrone worked with Hirsch to create the postgame event known as The Fifth Quarter. At the end of the game, win or lose, the scoreboard operator changes the 4 under "QTR" to a 5, and the show begins. They play "On Wisconsin," "The Bud Song," "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (a.k.a. the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey), "The Chicken Dance," "The Beer Barrel Polka," "Tequila," Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby," and concludes with "Varsity," the school's alma mater.
If Wisconsin wins, the band members turn their hats around backwards, and wear them that way throughout the 5th Quarter, "looking back at the victory."
After the Game. Milwaukee has some rough neighborhoods, but Madison is safe. You should be fine on your way out.
Mickie's Dairy Bar is known for having the best breakfast in town, but is not a postgame option, as it closes at 2:30 every afternoon. 1511 Monroe Street, across from the south end of the stadium. Dotty Dumpling's Dowry is the classic "Mad City" bar, and is known for its burgers. 317 N. Frances Street, right about where the campus area begins to turn into downtown, about halfway between the stadium and the Capitol.
If you visit Milwaukee during the European soccer season (which we are now in), the best place to watch your favorite club is Cooper's Tavern, at 20 W. Mifflin Street, across from the State Capitol.
Sidelights. Madison is 77 miles west of Milwaukee, 138 miles southwest of Green Bay, 146 miles northwest of Chicago, and 270 miles southeast of Minneapolis. Baseball preferences are toward the Milwaukee Brewers, with the Chicago Cubs a distant 2nd. The Green Bay Packers are easily more popular than any other NFL team. However, Chicago has the edge in the other sports: The Bulls over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Blackhawks over any NHL team, and the Fire over any MLS team.
There are currently 2 minor-league baseball teams in Wisconsin, both in the Class A Midwest League, 3 steps below the majors. The Beloit Snappers (their logo is a turtle) play at Harry C. Pohlman Field, 2301 Skyline Drive in Beloit, 50 miles southeast of Madison and 75 miles southwest of Milwaukee. And the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers play at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, in Appleton, 106 miles northeast of Madison, 106 miles north of Milwaukee, and 32 miles southwest of Green Bay.
In 2019, USL League One will begin play as American soccer's 3rd division. One of their teams will be in Madison, although it hasn't been named yet, currently using the corporate name "Madison Pro Soccer." They will play at Breese Stevens Field, a 5,000-seat stadium built in 1926, previously known for minor-league baseball. 917 E. Mifflin Street, east of downtown. Several buses can reach it, including 6, 14, 15 and 27.
* Museums. Madison has several, most of them downtown: The Wisconsin Historical Museum, 30 N. Carroll Street; the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, 30 W. Mifflin Street; the Madison Children's Museum, 100 N. Hamilton Street; the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State Street; and the Chazen Museum of Art, at 750 University Avenue.
Further from downtown is the Wisconsin Science Museum, 2300 S. Park Street, 2 1/2 miles south. Bus 5. And you'll need something to put on those ethnic sausages, so why not check out the National Mustard Museum, , complete with a tasting bar, at 7477 Hubbard Avenue, about 7 miles west of downtown. Bus 70 or 71.
Wisconsin, let alone Milwaukee, has never produced a President -- although, in 2012, Congressman Paul Ryan was the Republican nominee for Vice President, and he's still young by political standards, so he could run for President in the future.
Unfortunately, with the La Follette family having lost its prestige as its founder, old "Fighting Bob," recedes further into the past (he died in 1925), the best-known Wisconsin politicians have been Ryan and Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose pursuit of Communist agents in America turned up exactly zero, and whose lies therein got him censured by his fellow Senators in 1954.
Wisconsin was the location of 3 famous nostalgia-based TV shows: Happy Days, airing 1974 to 1984, but set from 1955 to 1965, in Milwaukee; that show's spinoff, Laverne & Shirley, running from 1976 to 1983, and set in Milwaukee from 1957 to 1964, before moving to Los Angeles for 1965 to 1967; and That '70s Show, airing 1998 to 2006, but set from 1976 to 1979, in fictional Point Place, a name that may have been based on the real town of Stevens Point, but said to be a suburb of Green Bay.
The Dairy State/Badger State was also the location of the 1990s CBS drama Picket Fences, set in the small town of Rome, which is the name of a real town in Wisconsin; the 1990s ABC sitcom Step By Step, set in a fictionalized version of a real Wisconsin town, Port Washington; and the longtime CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, set in Genoa City, which is the name of a small town on the Wisconsin-Illinois State Line, but, on the show, we are led to believe it is a much larger city.
At 284 feet high, the spire atop it makes the State Capitol the tallest building in Madison. The tallest building in Wisconsin is the U.S. Bank Center, formerly the First Wisconsin Center, at E. Wisconsin Avenue & N. Van Buren Street in downtown Wisconsin. Opening in 1973, it is 601 feet high.
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Madison, "Mad City," is one of America's favorite college towns. This makes the University of Wisconsin one of Americans' favorite colleges to attend, or even visit. As they say, "We've never lost a party!"
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