Over the course of three months this autumn, three duos of reporters for the CBS collegiate sports network CSTV are traveling across the nation to report on more than 40 college football games. One team, Matt Meyers and Mike Ogle, are stopping at 16 games around the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East. Naturally enough, they started their trip in Madison last weekend, when the Badgers opened their season against Washington State.
During their two-day visit, the pair stopped by the UW Memorial Union Terrace, a ride around town with the cheerleading squad's Bucky Wagon, and ended with a visit to Camp Randall for the game. After describing an encounter with visiting WSU fans at State Street Brats in a report during their first day in town, Meyer wrote about one of the city's most renowned landmarks:
I have seen a lot of college campuses, and Union Terrace at Memorial Union is the coolest on-campus social facility I've seen. Whenever I go to a new college town that I like I always think, "I really wish I were still in college." Nothing has made this emotion stronger than seeing Union Terrace. Seriously. UW students, do not take this for granted, particularly when you consider that Wisconsin winters probably render Union Terrace useless roughly 75 percent of the school year.
Gameday brought a second report, this time from Ogle. In addition to commenting on the pre-game scene outside Camp Randall and the game itself, he also noted the Badgers' new home uniforms. "There must be a leak at Camp Randall Stadium though who tipped off EA Sports because we were told the Badgers are sporting the red-on-red in its new NCAA game," he wrote. "Either that, or it's just a lucky mistake."
Ogle's primary focus, however, was on the student section at the north end of the stadium. He wrote:
Without question though, the feature attraction of gameday in Madison is the much ballyhooed student section at Camp Randall Stadium. We had heard a lot about it before coming, and it certainly lived up to the hype. Taking up the entire North end zone of the 80,321 capacity building, the students' enthusiasm doesn't wane from kickoff to the famed Fifth Quarter, in which the band plays on the field for 20 minutes after the game while the students dance and sing along....This action is captured in a 138-second mini-doc
They can speed up, slow down, reverse or split the wave on command. They bow in a "We're not worthy!" manner when Barry Alvarez makes an appearance. They holler many chants that aren't fit to print. And more than anything they love, and we mean LOVE, their oldies music, which was a fun change of pace from most sporting venues where you hear a lot of jock anthems. I mean, how often do you hear "Runaround Sue" at a football game? On top of that, the students sang along. Dion (as well as The Belmonts) would be so proud. Overall, the stadium soundtrack made us feel like we were on the set of Animal House (Wait'll Otis sees us! He loves us! Otis, my man!). In a particularly boisterous mood up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the students continued singing "Build Me Up Buttercup" in unison for another full verse when the band stopped playing as game action resumed.