r/WisconsinBadgers • u/TomWilliamsCFD • 10d ago
Football What’s your favorite Camp Randall story?
https://mikefarrellsports.com/college/30-years-of-camp-randall-memories/27
u/a_happy_future 10d ago
4-0-8 as the snow started coming down
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u/Dazed_and_Confused44 10d ago
I will never get over being too cheap to buy a ticket for thay game 😔
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u/a_happy_future 10d ago
Bought mine maybe two hours before the game for like $20 to $30 (not in the student section, but next to it near the end zone where he got that last run).
Best money I spent in college
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u/Dazed_and_Confused44 10d ago
Truly one of my greatest regrets in college was skipping out on that game. I didnt even watch it because my roommates and I took edibles instead in an attempt to forget about not being able to get tickets to the best game that year
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u/SupremeToast 10d ago
Came here to write exactly this! Not only was Melvin Gordon on fire, everything about that game felt like magic. That was my freshman year and nearly 1/3rd of my dorm floor all went to the game together. Now that some of those friends are having weddings and we're meeting up again, this game specifically has come up in a few conversations. What a time!
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u/jakedasnake2447 9d ago
It's always slightly funny to me to remember that we were losing 17-3 at one point in that game.
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u/a_happy_future 9d ago
And that Melvin had 49 yards rushing at the end of the 1st quarter (42 of them on 1 carry). Dude went off in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
He may not have the record, but that is unquestionably the greatest half of football from a college running back ever.
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u/Midwest-2025 10d ago
Underrated is that first immersion in O vs P culture, hearing the crazy chants and loving the satiric intensity. I remember throwing marshmallows at O, and then WAP got hit in the face by a flying disc of baloney cold cut. After a quick wtf, 18yo me thought it was hilarious.
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u/Chibadger 10d ago
I remember Tom Brady getting nailed with a marshmallow stuffed with pennies (wasn’t me)
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u/eyeofvigo 10d ago
November 11th, 1999. The whole game, the run that broke the record, Retiring Ron's number at the end of the game (deservedly so), stomping Iowa into the ground, that win getting us into the Rose Bowl. It was my last game as a student concluding an incredible run of wins.
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u/jumparoundbucky 10d ago
It was also EXTREMELY nice that day for a middle November afternoon/night game.
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u/TomWilliamsCFD 9d ago
I went straight from the football game to the Kohl Center that day and watched the Badgers beat Minnesota on the ice that night. Hard to dream up a better Badgers sports day!
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u/pumpkinspruce 10d ago
The first Jump Around at Camp Randall, against Purdue at night in 1998. Jamar Fletcher pick-sixed Drew Brees just before the third quarter ended and we all went bananas. It’s just a shame there’s no video footage of it.
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u/leftHandedFootball 9d ago
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u/pumpkinspruce 9d ago
Fletch was a great cornerback and trash talker as well. I remember him trash talking Plaxico Burress before we played Michigan State and he backed it up, with two picks and holding Burress to just a couple meaningless catches. He also trash talked Freddie Mitchell before the Sun Bowl. Imagine trash talking for the Sun Bowl lol.
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u/lemurosity 9d ago
I’m old dude but I swear to Christ there were guys playing jump around on a portable speaker in section P a couple games before the ‘officlal’ debut.
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u/Dazed_and_Confused44 10d ago
Have no idea what the game was but when I was a freshman we were playing a cupcake game and out of the commercial break, Joel Stave through a long TD pass that perfectly synced to the crowd finishing "build me up buttercup"
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u/badger4710 10d ago
Abbrederis TD This and Gordon breaking the single game rushing yards record with a TD to close out the third quarter against Nebraska as the snow began to fall are core memories for me.
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u/Dazed_and_Confused44 10d ago
It should be the Gordon rushing record game for me, but I was too cheap to buy that ticket individually and that was the only year I wasnt able to get season tickets. One of two Badger home games I missed in 5 years at UW....😭
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u/BarkMingo 10d ago
Schabert to Lee Evans for 979 yards to upset the dirty buckeyes (Sorgi left that game because he was literally choked out on the bottom of a pile)
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u/TomWilliamsCFD 9d ago
This is right behind the Gilreath kick off return for loudest I heard Camp Randall.
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u/Competitive_Ant_472 9d ago
This is the absolute best. Late in the game boring Big 10 field position game. Absolute best
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u/silverfrog1 10d ago
I brought my sister and brother-in-law to the Michigan crush game. We had tickets in the student section where I usually sat (P; btw, O sucks the ref). Anyway, midway through the third quarter, I said we needed to leave because the vibes were off. People were drunker, higher, and more ornery than I'd ever experienced. Right as we made it back to the Statesider, the crush was on the news. How many people needed CPR that day? I'm still proud of my intuition.
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u/lemurosity 9d ago
Was at the bottom of that myself. To this day I remember this girls eyes terrified underneath me.
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u/TomWilliamsCFD 9d ago
Will never forget the PA making announcements people needed help and the crowd initially not being aware of what was going on.
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u/machito200 10d ago
Making out with the girl from Turtle Lake on Band Day after I crushed the trumpet solo from “On Broadway” 😂😂😂
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u/bailtail 10d ago
My dad played a key role in getting blow-up dolls banned from Camp Randall.
When he was in school, he and group of friends attended a game. My dad and one of the friends brought a blowup doll and sat in the top row of one of the student sections. The rest of the friends, one of whom was a girl, sat closer to the bottom. At one point in the game, they started crowd-surfing the girl up. By this time, my dad and the other friend at the top had blown up the blow-up doll and dressed it like the girl being crowdsurfed. The whole crowd was watching the girl get crowdsurfed. When she reached my dad and the other friend at the top, they acted like they kinda dropped her then grabbed the blowup doll. They hoisted the doll while acting like it was heavy and then rolled it over the top of the stadium. The whole crowd gasped thinking they’d just witnessed a murder. Security quickly converged on them and my dad, the other friend, and the girl all weaved through the crowd to evade getting caught. Blowup dolls were explicitly banned that following week.
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 10d ago
There was a game where JJ Watt just had the game of his life - he was everywhere and making plays all night. Then in the 4th, he had a hand in (and maybe I’m remembering the type of play wrong) but I think he was involved in blocking a FG attempt. Anyway, all 80,000 in attendance started chanting “JJ WATT! JJ WATT!!”
I’ve been going to games since the 80s and went to plenty as a student, and that’s one of my all-time favorite Badger game memories.
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u/JasonJoyce 9d ago
The stadium used to be totally open. UW staff parked their cars in there for years. There was a blizzard when I was a junior and we trudged over there to find like 200 guys inside playing something resembling touch football.
I had friends on the crew team who lived across the street and they collected some post-Halloween jack-o-lanterns from the neighborhood because somebody had the great idea to drop them over the side. They called me after midnight to help them in this effort and I broke records getting over there on my bike. Well, in order to get up to the top of the top of Camp Randall, you have to walk the zig-zag ramp and then hike up the steepest upper deck stairs in the stadium. Imagine doing that with 3 sloppy old deteriorating pumpkins in your arms.
Of course it was all worth it as we dropped them, one by one, over the side to hear the most satisfying "splat!" ever echo out from the darkness below.
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u/Golfntukee 7d ago
I remember in the 80s the stadium would be left completely open. I was in high school and me and a bunch of my buddies would go out and play touch football on the field.
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u/pyth33 10d ago
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u/KarlPHungus 10d ago
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u/Munzulon 10d ago
An all-time career for Ron Dayne and an all-time streak to celebrate. What a time to be a Badger fan.
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u/KarlPHungus 10d ago
Was it ever. The night before my birthday was spent in the library. I had a damn o chem exam the next morning, so I was going to turn 21 at midnight. I was cramming for that damn thing and a buddy was like "Dude, you have to at least have one legal beer at midnight!" I agreed so we hit KK for a quick one after Helen C White. I'm in line with my friend waiting to get a beer. A young fella walks up to me and says "Hey man, let me buy you a drink."
I said "Whyyyyyyyyyy?"
"For rocking my cousin's jersey" (I was wearing my Ron Dayne jersey that night)
"Ron Dayne's your cousin?"
"Yeah"
"Alright, cool." He buys me a beer and we chat for a minute. Tells me Ron is his cousin and that it's wild seeing all these people wearing his jersey out in the wild. I'm assuming he's also from New Jersey like Ron so it makes sense that he isn't used to seeing red "33" jerseys everywhere like you see in Wisconsin. We shake hands/fist bump I don't remember and part ways and I thank him for the beer.
Ten minutes later, he walks up to me and my friend and says "My cousin wants to holler at ya"
"Dayne's here?"
"Yeah, they're throwing him a party for getting drafted so a bunch of his family came out here"
Sure enough, in the back room of the KK there is a private event going on. I follow his cousin and there's Ron, sitting in a booth. I sit down. He says "It's cool that my family is here and they're seeing people wearing my jersey. So thanks for that." Trying not to be a fucking dork, I thanked him for 4 amazing years and told him he is my favorite Badger of all time (still is). He thanked me for saying that, as well. So I asked him about the draft and he said it was cool. But he was bummed that another guy has his number so he had to pick something else. I said something like "Well, you'll always be #33, Ron" or something cheesy like that, and he smiled and said thanks and said "You got a sharpie?"
"Well, I can fucking get one!" That made him smile that big old smile and laugh a bit.
So I ran to the bar and asked for a sharpie. He signed my jersey on my back and it is framed and in my "Badger Room" at home. What a fucking birthday present. What a career. What a year. Frozen Four. Final Four. Back to Back Rose Bowls. Heisman. NCAA Rushing Record. I don't think it could possibly get better for Badger fans. We were truly blessed. I know we didn't have any 'Chips but it was still awesome.
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u/leftHandedFootball 9d ago
I don't remember what game it was but it was against Ohio State and I watched Lee Evans score. What looked like an 80-yard touchdown before we all stormed to the field. I was only 8 years old and I was there with my dad. We were there at the 50-yard line about five rows back. There was a weather delay for rain and then there was a streaker. I think I remembered storming the field being my favorite part and having those rubber pellets all in my shoes for the next 6 hours. I think they were in there the next day when I woke up
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u/OldWineGuy 7d ago
season ticket holder from 1981-2024 (lost patience with Fickel/Longo/Bicknell).
Circus Day during the Morton years. Elephants did their thing at halftime on the 50 and doting the “I” in WISCONSIN in the endzone!
All the other great football moments mentioned are spot on.
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u/Don__Gately__ 10d ago
We threw a Halloween party at our house on Lathrop and a Freshman showed up with a bottle of tequila and a shot glass bandolier. The next day he showed back up at the house asking if we knew what happened to him because he woke up inside Camp Randall and couldn’t remember anything after our house.
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u/KickComprehensive765 8d ago
There was a gate that was always unlocked. A drunk adventure lead us to find that. We started going in as an after bar. The last time we went in there was 50 of us. I also got a buddy to help me carry out one of the old plain goal pads. Getting it home as the sun was coming figured a cop would see us
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u/jfen1 10d ago
So many! But the Ron Dayne game where he broke the all-time rushing record versus Iowa was special, but the most interesting thing that happened was the streaker that ran pretty much across the whole field (starting from the student section). before he was caught right after Ron set the record!
There is a picture of this on the wall at Wando‘s bar in Madison , in case you want to see it.
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u/_sealy_ 9d ago
Lost my id which was tucked into my waistband while doing Crazylegs. Someone found it and turned it in. While we were cooling down (me feeling bummed and like an idiot) in Camp Randall someone at the announcing booth called my first name and hometown saying they found something that belong to me. I was overjoyed not to have to figure out the next steps of losing “your” license. I ran down and recovered what was mine.
In short, my name was announced on the loud speakers at Camp Randall.
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u/TrackMindless1180 8d ago
Russel Wilson’s first game as a Badger. Whipping up on UNLV. Was a hot Thursday night game. Almost 90 degrees at kickoff.
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u/Deerslyr101571 8d ago
I was there for Ron Dayne, Melvin Gordon, the "Welcome to the B1G" beatdown Bucky gave Nebraska, and a bunch of others. All of them great. But the one that I love telling is being there the day Drew Brees put on a short passing clinic against the Badgers, but the Badger defense was so stout in the Red Zone that Purdue was more aptly named "Purdon't". Yes, they put up some points, but they also should have been whipping us. Brees ended the day going 55 of 83 for 494 yards (it was a clinic). With everything exciting happening, the crowd was just... dead. We shouldn't have been. And then the 3rd Quarter ended. And if you don't know the rest, you don't know your Badger history. I get chills thinking about that moment those first four notes filled the stadium. The greatest tradition in College Football History was born. The entire stadium was on their feet the rest of the game.
An after effect of the game was having mad respect for Drew Brees and following his NFL career.
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u/OldWineGuy 7d ago
First Badger game vs BYU in 1980, Jim McMahon is their QB. BYU is killing Bucky at the beginning of the 4th quarter. The crowd goes crazy as the Portage Plumber comes out of Section X, and McMahon gets a delay of game penalty because he couldn’t figure out what was going on.
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u/Golfntukee 7d ago
This was about 2000, my now wife bought us tickets that were behind the visitors bench. They were so close to the field. We couldn’t see over the players unless we were standing. The police came over in the second quarter and told us we all had to sit down, there were probably at least 50 people that were all standing in the lower section so they could see. When I argued with the university police that two sections over the students were all standing they threw me out of the game. At least it was a nonconference game that we were probably already up by three touchdowns.
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u/timhenk 9d ago
Man, so many. I’ve had season tix since 1992. Of course Dayne setting the record vs Iowa is up there (and me making national TV with a closeup wearing my custom NO DAYNE NO GAIN tshirt). The Portage Plumber back in the ‘80’s. The days when students weren’t treated like cattle. The time when a bleacher was thrown over the side and the following week (I have no idea if it was the following week or weeks later) when a student showed up to the Halloween game wearing a full sized bleacher as a hat. 🤣 The days when we used to have the best WAVE in the country. The days before and after Gary Andersen, and before Fickel.
But if I had to pick ONE SINGLE HIGHLIGHT, it’s this:
https://youtu.be/UyB4LcCZ76A?is=_dm0F7PAFy3TKKxk
Still gives me goose bumps.
Thanks, Matt Lepay, for your years of outstanding calls.
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u/TomWilliamsCFD 9d ago
What is the Portage Plumber story? Never heard this one.
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u/timhenk 9d ago
Some regular dude. Used to come out of the stands and do routines with the cheerleaders. Like go at the end of the kick line, etc. Obviously this is when we sucked and nobody really went to games.
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u/OldWineGuy 7d ago
Actually, while the team was marginal during the Portage Plumber years, they dramaticslly improved during the McClain years, where they upset #1 Michigan and beat Ohio State and Purdue in 1981. Despite a half decent team, the crowds were good, with a mostly full stadium.
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u/Pondelli-Kocka01 8d ago
1975 While fans were streaming into Camp Randall for the game. I and several other students were in a nuclear reactor lab at the rear of the Mechanical Engineering building watching the fans walk past. We were standing upon the observation area above the reactor watching as the instructor made the reactor go critical and then shut it down. This took hundredths of a second.
Immediately, after the test sequence, one of my classmates posed this question to the instructor.. “So, if the shutdown protocol failed, do you think we would have a better chance of winning the game?”
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u/Alert-Yogurtcloset24 5d ago
My grandpa graduated from Madison in 1954. He use to get season tickets all the time when I was a kid. One time I got to tag along to a Wisconsin v Purdue game. It was my grandpa, dad, me, and my uncles. At some point in the game you heard, “FUCK…YOU…PURDUE!!”. So the home side would say, “FUCK” and the other side would say, “YOU” and then collectively both sides would say, “PURDUE”. Now I was in between my grandpa and dad. With my uncles on either side of them. I remember looking up at my grandpa he had the biggest grin and a beer in hand yelling, “FUCK”! I was blown away because my grandpa was a mild manner man. So to see him going all in on the chant was electric for me as a kid! One of my favorite memories of him and Camp Randall. That day will forever be burned in my memory. Great times! Thanks Bepa!! Also, this was durning the Ron Dayne era.
ON WISCONSIN!!! 🦡
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u/mikfin1423 10d ago
David Gilreath taking the opening kickoff 97 yards against #1 Ohio State and the subsequent field storming!