So it was a bit surprising last Saturday when the Camp Randall crowd erupted in a chorus of boos as the Badgers, trailing 20-0 after a lackluster first half, went jogging off to the locker room.
My first reaction was to feel sorry for those college kids on the football team having to endure the humiliation. This wasn’t what they expected when they chose to play football at the University of Wisconsin, and I can’t imagine what was going through their heads as they left the field.
This is the place, after all, that proclaims to have the greatest fans, with you through thick and thin.
I actually can’t remember if the fans booed the team during Coach Johnny Coatta’s 21-game losing streak or Don Morton’s three awful seasons. I do remember a lot of grousing, jokes about the team’s play schemes, and the day a circus elephant relieved himself on the 50 yard line, as if to make a statement.
The crowds did dwindle, but the band and the antics of a guy called the Portage Plumber — and that elephant — seemed to be entertainment enough.