The Wake

The annual border battle between the Minnesota Gophers and Wisconsin Badgers brings out the best each state has to offer. Each team plays its heart out for the Paul Bunyan Axe, a hallowed symbol of the blood, sweat and tears expelled throughout the rivalry’s history.

But the players are not the only ones leaving their emotions out on the field. Gopher and Badger fans gather together each year happy to exchange hateful cheers, partake in some beer drinking and of course, watch quality Big Ten football.

This year’s game ended with Rhys Lloyd and rest of the Maroon and Gold streaking across the Metrodome carpet, ripping the axe away from the Badgers’ sideline. Lloyd drilled the game-winning, 35-yard field goal giving the Gophers a 37-34 victory in front of 59,543 crazed fans. And those draped in Gopher gear basked in the satisfaction of singing the Minnesota Rouser while Badger fans grabbed their red polyester coats and headed back toward the land of cheese.

The University of Minnesota is unique in the fact that so many students come here from Wisconsin. The football team is no different with Wisconsin natives like Ben West and Benji Kamrath from Appleton and Mayville respectively. The Badger-Gopher game means more for these guys playing against the team they grew up watching.

“If you’re from Minnesota, Iowa is the biggest game, but if you’re from Wisconsin, the Badger-Gopher game is the biggest,” said West.

There is a mix of students from Wisconsin that stay true to their Badger roots and others who are converted Gophers. Dan Boschke, a University student at the from Pewaukee, WI, cheered for the Badgers because he grew up rooting for the Red and White and his family, all Badger fans, was at the game. But Boschke experienced both the Gopher and Badger cheering sections.

“I sat in the Minnesota and Wisconsin sections and I think Minnesota was louder and got more pissed off when calls didn’t go their way,” Boschke said. “But I would have to say that the Badgers fans, who were mostly students, were drunker than the Gopher fans.”

Beer and bratwurst vender Nancy Toskey disagreed with his assessment. She said Badger and Gopher fans were equally rowdy and pretty much any college student was the craziest, no matter what school they were representing.

Sunny Chang, a student from Maple Grove, grew frustrated with the Badger fans’ ability to make so much noise despite being outnumbered by Gopher fans.

“The Wisconsin fans started taking over and they would start the ‘Let’s Go Badgers’ cheer and then the Gopher fans would counter with ‘Let’s Go Gophers’,” Chang said. “Our fans were jumping around, going crazy in one section but dead in others. The Badger fans were above me so it seemed like they were louder.”

Wisconsin fans occupied most of the upper tier of the horseshoe-like design of the Metrodome and the end zone where Lloyd had to attempt his game-winning field goal. That section supplied most of the pro-Wisconsin noise during the fourth quarter especially when the Badgers scored the tying touchdown with a little over one minute left in the third quarter.

So when Lloyd stepped onto the field for the kick, those fans began waving their arms and screaming in unison. But as the kick sailed through the uprights, the only cheers that could be heard came from the Maroon and Gold.

“I don’t know if the noise affected me because there were so many Badger and Gopher fans so I couldn’t really tell who was cheering,” Lloyd said. “I looked up and they (Badger fans) were waving trying to put me off and distract me but I don’t think it really affected me because I didn’t know where the noise was coming from. I just tried to do my own thing.”

Lloyd’s calm nerves under pressure put a finishing touch on a fairy tale ending for the seniors like Eli Ward, who played his last home game in a Gopher uniform. The fans’ last impression of Ward will be him leading the pack of his teammates around the Metrodome with the axe in his grasp.

“Our fans were great today and I wish we could get that kind of turn out for every game but we can’t depend on that,” Ward said. “We used the fans for a lot of momentum. They were like a 12th man out there.”

This annual border battle brings out the best in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Paul Bunyan Axe represents the blood, sweat and tears of not only the players but the loyal and crazed fans who show their support each year in this historic rivalry.