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Jan. 1, 2000 SportsLine wire reports |
MADISON, Wis. -- Fresh off a New Year's celebration, Wisconsin residents had another reason to party Saturday: The Badgers became the first Big Ten team to win back-to-back Rose Bowls by beating Stanford 17-9.
"I couldn't be prouder of my team, my school and my alma mater," said 33-year-old Eric Steelmack, a 1992 University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate from Minneapolis, who celebrated by dancing a polka with his girlfriend.
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Steelmack was among the rowdy fans who watched the game at the Regent Street Retreat bar in Madison, where people sang the UW-Madison alumni song, "Varsity," and chanted "U-RAH-RAH Wisconsin."
No. 22 Stanford entered the game a 14-point underdog, but led 9-3 at halftime, briefly unsettling Wisconsin fans who considered a loss by their fourth-ranked Badgers next to impossible.
"I expected a blowout, but it was a lot closer than I thought it would be," said 22-year-old Wisconsin senior Elizabeth Severo, before downing a celebratory shot.
The Rose Bowl excitement gave Madison a party atmosphere for the second consecutive day.
Tracy and Geoff Smith were both wearing Wisconsin sweatshirts and sipping red Killer Kool-Aid from a plastic football cup as they watched the game at the Big Ten Pub in Madison.
"We wanted to be as close to Camp Randall as possible," said Geoff Smith, who came to Madison from Appleton. "I think people this year are -- if not as enthusiastic -- more enthusiastic. I think a lot of it has to do with the millennium. It's the Rose Bowl 2000!"
Dick Van Caster, 39, of Milwaukee, was decked out in a red floppy hat; a Badgers sweatshirt; red pants; a fake Badgers tattoo on his cheek; a rose and Wisconsin pins attached to his hat; red shoe laces and red-and-white Mardi Gras beads.
"We couldn't ride in his car without wearing something Badger," said his friend Dawn Golla, 29, a student in Milwaukee.
Marilyn Drager watched the Rose Bowl with her husband at the Clubhouse Sports Bar in Appleton. She said she and her husband have been following the Badgers since their son graduated from UW-Madison in 1988.
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| Wisconsin fans in Madison celebrate the Badgers' second consecutive Rose Bowl victory.(AP) |
Drager had a Bucky Badger stuffed animal on the table that played the Wisconsin fight song whenever Wisconsin scored and they gave it a squeeze.
Fans said Ron Dayne's Heisman Trophy win made this year's season special. Dayne, who set the major-college career rushing mark this season, became only the second player to win back-to-back Rose Bowl MVP awards.
"I wish the Packers could draft him because he's a very solid runner and he gives 100 percent every game, but he's not cocky about it," Geoff Smith said, referring to Wisconsin's other football passion in Green Bay.
Paul Najam, 20, a junior at UW-Madison, was grilling steak and bratwurst at his house with friends in preparation for the game.
"I don't think it's as big a deal this year as it was last year," Najam said. "The big thing this year was Ron Dayne winning the Heisman."
"Absolutely not!" protested his friend Rob Kanack, a 23-year-old postal worker. "I don't think it's less of a big deal. No way, dude! That's like saying Green Bay going to the Super Bowl two years in a row isn't a big deal."
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