Profile: Bucky Badger
Athlete, Ambassador, Actor:
Who is Bucky Badger? You could say he has split personalities.
The wily mascot for the University of Wisconsin has claimed Ada and Appleton as his home town. He's a newcomer to the UW's Spirit Squad, and he's a veteran in the job. He has majored in medicine, and in botany. He skates, and he dances.
At least six UW students share the role of Bucky each year. Tryouts for the job are rigorous.
Bucky is an athlete and a silent actor, a comedian and a goodwill ambassador. The mascot cheers on UW sports teams – football, volleyball, wrestling, softball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's hockey, men's and women's soccer – and makes appearances at additional university and community service events.
Bucky works with props, cheerleaders and children. His wardrobe includes a Santa hat, cape and Halloween mask. He always wears a cardinal and white striped sweater with a “motion W” on the front of it.
It is typical for Bucky to be booked for at least 600 university events per year, and sometimes more than one person assumes the role. Consider UW football, where three of the Buckys show up and perform – one at a time, of course.
That's because Bucky does one push-up per point scored by the Badgers, after each score and while wearing all-concealing headgear, which weighs 35 pounds. The toughest push-up challenge, so far, was Wisconsin's 83-20 win over Indiana in 2010.
He's Movie, Video, Hall of Fame Material:
The movie “Being Bucky” was a hit at the 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival, earning the Best Documentary Award. The title has since become available on DVD. “Seven guys in one head” is how the movie's producers describe it.
The movie “began as a documenting of the bizarre and demanding tryouts to become a member of the Bucky Badger team,” says the Facebook page for “Being Bucky.” It grew into “a story about the seven students who share the honor of representing Bucky, what they’re like as human beings, and how that’s different from, and the same as, how they are when they’re Being Bucky.”
More recently, “Bucky” became a verb and campus dance video, as in “Teach Me How to Bucky,” a spoof of “Teach Me How to Dougie,” a 2010 hip-hop release by Cali Swag District.
More than one article has been written about how stinky the Bucky head gets because of the sweat of all this exercise.
The Kiplinger Report in 2007 stated that it costs $250, in addition to $100 per hour and expenses, to hire a Bucky Badger. The mascot shows up at community festivals to wedding receptions.
Bucky was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2006. Other Big Ten mascots are Brutus Buckeye (Ohio State), Goldy Gopher (Minnesota), Herbie Husker (Nebraska), Herky the Hawk (Iowa), the Nittany Lion (Penn State), Purdue Pete (Purdue), Sparty (Michigan State) and Willie the Wildcat (Northwestern). Indiana, Illinois and Michigan have nicknames (Hoosiers, Fighting Illini and Wolverines, respectively) but no mascots.
Bucky Badger Trivia:
Bucky's complete name is Buckingham U. Badger. He was born Oct. 2, 1949.
Bucky's earlier names included Benny, Bernie, Bobby, Bouncey and Buddy. When the mascot was Bennie, he was paired with a girlfriend, Beulah, in yearbook sketches but never appeared as a sports team cheerleader. In the 1980s, Becky Badger made a brief appearance.
An attempt to replace Bucky with a cow mascot, Henrietta Holstein, was thwarted in 1973.
The first Bucky, in the 1890s, was a real badger but it escaped from a cage more than once and was deemed too hard to handle, so the animal was moved to Madison's zoo.
The first human Bucky was Bill Sagal, a UW cheerleader-gymnast. His costume included a paper mache head.
The Bucky Badger logo has been a trademark since 1988, and usage is heavily monitored by the UW. The logo got a makeover in 2003.
Who is Bucky Badger? You could say he has split personalities.
The wily mascot for the University of Wisconsin has claimed Ada and Appleton as his home town. He's a newcomer to the UW's Spirit Squad, and he's a veteran in the job. He has majored in medicine, and in botany. He skates, and he dances.
At least six UW students share the role of Bucky each year. Tryouts for the job are rigorous.
Bucky is an athlete and a silent actor, a comedian and a goodwill ambassador. The mascot cheers on UW sports teams – football, volleyball, wrestling, softball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's hockey, men's and women's soccer – and makes appearances at additional university and community service events.
Bucky works with props, cheerleaders and children. His wardrobe includes a Santa hat, cape and Halloween mask. He always wears a cardinal and white striped sweater with a “motion W” on the front of it.
It is typical for Bucky to be booked for at least 600 university events per year, and sometimes more than one person assumes the role. Consider UW football, where three of the Buckys show up and perform – one at a time, of course.
That's because Bucky does one push-up per point scored by the Badgers, after each score and while wearing all-concealing headgear, which weighs 35 pounds. The toughest push-up challenge, so far, was Wisconsin's 83-20 win over Indiana in 2010.
He's Movie, Video, Hall of Fame Material:
The movie “Being Bucky” was a hit at the 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival, earning the Best Documentary Award. The title has since become available on DVD. “Seven guys in one head” is how the movie's producers describe it.
The movie “began as a documenting of the bizarre and demanding tryouts to become a member of the Bucky Badger team,” says the Facebook page for “Being Bucky.” It grew into “a story about the seven students who share the honor of representing Bucky, what they’re like as human beings, and how that’s different from, and the same as, how they are when they’re Being Bucky.”
More recently, “Bucky” became a verb and campus dance video, as in “Teach Me How to Bucky,” a spoof of “Teach Me How to Dougie,” a 2010 hip-hop release by Cali Swag District.
More than one article has been written about how stinky the Bucky head gets because of the sweat of all this exercise.
The Kiplinger Report in 2007 stated that it costs $250, in addition to $100 per hour and expenses, to hire a Bucky Badger. The mascot shows up at community festivals to wedding receptions.
Bucky was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2006. Other Big Ten mascots are Brutus Buckeye (Ohio State), Goldy Gopher (Minnesota), Herbie Husker (Nebraska), Herky the Hawk (Iowa), the Nittany Lion (Penn State), Purdue Pete (Purdue), Sparty (Michigan State) and Willie the Wildcat (Northwestern). Indiana, Illinois and Michigan have nicknames (Hoosiers, Fighting Illini and Wolverines, respectively) but no mascots.
Bucky Badger Trivia:
Bucky's complete name is Buckingham U. Badger. He was born Oct. 2, 1949.
Bucky's earlier names included Benny, Bernie, Bobby, Bouncey and Buddy. When the mascot was Bennie, he was paired with a girlfriend, Beulah, in yearbook sketches but never appeared as a sports team cheerleader. In the 1980s, Becky Badger made a brief appearance.
An attempt to replace Bucky with a cow mascot, Henrietta Holstein, was thwarted in 1973.
The first Bucky, in the 1890s, was a real badger but it escaped from a cage more than once and was deemed too hard to handle, so the animal was moved to Madison's zoo.
The first human Bucky was Bill Sagal, a UW cheerleader-gymnast. His costume included a paper mache head.
The Bucky Badger logo has been a trademark since 1988, and usage is heavily monitored by the UW. The logo got a makeover in 2003.