Bucky Badger
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Bucky Badger |
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Bucky Badger in person during a football game at Camp Randall |
Bucky Badger is the official
mascot of the
University of Wisconsin–Madison. His full name is
Buckingham U. Badger and he attends all major sporting events for the
Wisconsin Badgers as well as hundreds of other events around Wisconsin every year.
Bucky the
badger was first drawn by local
Wisconsin artist, Art Evans in 1940. An actual badger from Eau Claire, Wisconsin was used at the first few football games that year but proved to be too fierce to be controlled properly and was retired to the nearby
Henry Vilas Zoo. Surprisingly, the school replaced the live badger with a live
raccoon named Regdab ('badger' backwards). In 1949, a Bucky head-piece was created and a contest was started to properly name the mascot. The winning entry was, of course, Buckingham U. Badger.
Bucky wears a
cardinal red and white Wisconsin
sweater along with a gruff look on his face (the costumed-mascot version is decidedly cheerier, with a beaming smile). Although in previous years the W on Bucky's chest was a standard even W, as seen in the listed photograph, currently a motion W is seen in the middle of his red and white sweater.
During sporting events, he is generally seen interacting with the
crowd, especially the rambunctious student section. For example, during
football games Bucky often directs
Section O to dance along with the
band's music or pretends to pick fights with certain students. He also has a history of playfully fighting other team's mascots like the
University of Minnesota's Goldy Gopher or
Purdue University's Purdue Pete. Although fighting is no longer allowed by NCAA mascots, Bucky still frequently interacts with other mascots through skits.
Bill Segal was the first costumed Bucky Badger. The original Bucky costume was introduced at a pep rally on Friday, November 11, 1949, before the next day's Homecoming game against Iowa (Wisconsin 35, Iowa 13). Carolyn (Connie) Conrad, a UW art student, designed the original chicken wire and papier mache head. Sagal, then head cheerleader, wore his regular cheerleader trousers and sweater and added boxing gloves.
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classic Bucky Badger, 1940-2002 |
The modern Bucky Badger logo was part of a group of "comic collegiate badger mascots" created by the Anson W. Thompson Company of Los Angeles in 1940. The company was one of several that manufactured decals and other logowear for universities. The Madison-based Brown's Book Store was the first to order the pose. Other bookstores in the area ordered other poses. (Brown's Book Store has since gone out of business.) The UW athletic department first used the logo on the cover of the 1948 Football Facts and Centennial Sports Review.
That image of Bucky was adopted and used by many local businesses in and around
Madison. In 1988 the University of Wisconsin formed a trademark licensing program to register the Bucky logo, which was opposed by local merchants. Ownership was decided in the case
University Book Store v. University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. The United States Patent and Trademark Office allowed the UW to register the marks despite previous third-party use on the grounds that the public identified the Bucky Badger logo with the University of Wisconsin.
In 2003, Bucky was given an update, with simplified lines and the "motion W" on his sweater. This might have been done in part to give the University a version of Bucky that was associated with the University alone, and had never been used in any other context.
Blind Bucky is sometimes used to represent the
University of Wisconsin Law School [
1].
While Bucky has existed in his current form since 1940, one NCAA mascot bears a strange resemblance to the famed badger. The
North Carolina State University "Strutting Wolf," a student designated logo designed in the 1970s, bears a remarkable likeness to Wisconsin's Bucky Badger.
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A quick comparison of the 1970s wolf and 1940 Bucky reveals a striking semblance. |
The students who portray Bucky Badger are all volunteers, despite rumors of full scholarships or financial reimbursement (as is the system in some universities). Every year tryouts are held to find the next students who will don the fur and represent UW-Madison. Tryouts include tests of dancing skills, expressiveness in suit, ability to work with props, and how many pushups you can do, as well as an interview and ability to write and perform an original skit.
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Bucky Badger History*
UW Badgers Website*
Photos of classic Bucky costumes from The University of Wisconsin Collection online database*The
UW-Madison Office of Trademark Licensing controls the Bucky Badger logo's trademark.
