Every year Beloit College puts out their “The Mindset List,” it’s a list of things the entering freshman class knows about the world and what they’ve experienced in their lifetimes. For those of us past college this list serves as a yearly reminder of the “good ole days” and that we are just getting that much older. So, I thought it would be fun to see what this years entering freshman at Wisconsin have only known about the Badgers in their lifetimes. So, sit back, relax and enjoy making yourself feel old!!
First off, this class was mainly born in 1994, but some in 1995… just so that you have a reference point to this list. Personally, I found a few things on this list to be completely shocking.
The 2016 Badgers Mindset List:
– This generation has never known Barry Alvarez at any other institution but Wisconsin. The time at Notre Dame and Nebraska are distant memories at this point (Alvarez last was associated with a school outside of UW in 1989).
– Rose Bowls have become commonplace – they’ve seen 4 of them (possibly 5 if they were a New Years Day 1994 baby) from the Badgers. That’s almost half of the all-time Rose Bowl appearances (1953, 1960, 1963, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2011, 2012).
– Bowl Games period are a staple of the Wisconsin program. Since their birth the Badgers have only missed going to a bowl game twice (1995, 2001).
– Winning seasons in football are also commonplace as only the 1995 team (4-5-1) and the 2001 team (5-7) were losing years. In the decade before their birth the Badgers had experienced losing seasons in 8 of the 10 years.
– Wisconsin basketball has only experienced one losing season since this group came on to earth. However, not a single one remembers that losing season because it was their birth years (1994-95) as they went 13-15 in Stu Jackson’s final season in Madison.
– Dick Bennett was a coach only at Wisconsin and Washington State for them. They have no actual personal knowledge of him coaching at UW-Stevens Point or UW-Green Bay. Sure, they’ve read about his history there, but they never witnessed it actually happening.
– The Badgers have never had a baseball team in their lifetimes.
– Chances are most don’t remember a single Badger basketball game ever being played at The Field House. They were 3 or 4 when the Kohl Center opened for business in 1998.
– Badger football games have always been televised live. (remember the good ole days of listening on the radio and then staying up late to watch the replay on Wisconsin Public Television? I do, heck it was the only time as a young, young kid I stayed up past 10pm on the weekends)
– Finally, they don’t remember a time when Jump Around wasn’t played at Badger games. They were 3 or 4 as the tradition started in the 1998 season.
Hope we didn’t make some of you feel too old. Hell, I know I began to feel old when I could remember the controversy surrounding the cancellation of the baseball team and watching tape-delayed Badger games on WPT.
Don’t forget to check out my newest project – Delany’s Dozen here on the Bloguin network as we’ll be relaunching it with the next few days. For updates on that check us out on Twitter via the official DD account @DelanysDozen. Whlie there give this site a follow as well @MTBadgers.
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