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From Where Come the Badgers?
By KarelD. Bicha
U'
NTIL its discontinuance in the late 1980's, a familiar scene had for decades unfolded in the environs of the University of Wisconsin's Camp Randall on days known locally as "football Saturdays." At the conclusion of their pre- game warm-up drills, the members of the Wisconsin squad departed the field for a locker room in the bowels of the stadium to receive technical instructions and a final dose of psychological stimulation. Subse¬ quently the team left the locker area and massed in a tunnel which exited onto the playing field. As the players then swarmed onto the gridiron, a voice on the public address system exulted, "Here come the Badgers!" This procedure was nearly as integral to the autumnal rituals in Camp Randall as the emotional rendition of Var¬ sity during the halftime ceremonies.
It is legitimate to inquire, however, who were the original "badgers" and from where did the namesakes of the Wisconsin athletes ultimately come? Virtually everybody conversant with Wisconsin history or folk¬ lore knows the answers to these queries. To wit: In the early days in southwestern Wis¬ consin, then a part of the Territory of Mich¬ igan, the predominant element in the pop¬ ulation consisted of prospectors for and miners of lead ore. Some of the early min¬ ers, who lacked the means, the material.
the facility, or the disposition to erect con¬ ventional frontier dwellings, created tem¬ porary living quarters by constructing dug¬ outs in the sides of hills or ravines. Some anonymous person (or persons) likened their behavior to that of the North Ameri¬ can badger (Taxidea taxus), a quadruped known to possess remarkable burrowing capabilities. This nickname, which may have had single or multiple origins, some¬ how stuck, quickly diffused, and within two decades of its origin had become synony¬ mous with residents of Wisconsin, irrespec¬ tive of occupation or locale.
This, at least, is the conventional wisdom on the subject. Illustrating its veracity, how¬ ever, leads the investigator along an eviden¬ tiary pipeline which is ludicrously tenuous.
The conventional wisdom regarding the origin of the term "badger" and its asso¬ ciation with Wisconsin derives largely from "tradition" rather than verifiable "his- tor)'." With a few notable exceptions, his¬ torical traditions encapsulate a sizable ker¬ nel of truth. In the course of their perpetuation, however, traditions normally acquire barnacle-like embellishments which modify but do not obliterate the original truth. Such was surely the case in the origin and development of "badger" as a descriptive term for a resident of Wis¬ consin.
Copyright © 1993 Ijy The State Historical Society of Wisconsin Alt rights of reftroduction in any form reserved.
121
Object Description
| Title | Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 76, number 2, winter, 1992-1993 |
| Article Title | Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 76, number 2, winter, 1992-1993 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | State Historical Society of Wisconsin |
| Series | Wisconsin Magazine of History ; v. 76, no. 2 |
| Format-Digital | xml |
| Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| Rights | © Copyright 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin) |
| Publication Date-Electronic | 2007 |
| ISSN | 1943-7366 |
| Identifier-Digital | vol76no020000 |
| Description | This issue includes articles on the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home and the origins of Wisconsin’s nickname as the “Badger State.” |
| Volume | 076 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Year | 1992-1993 |
Description
| Title | 121 |
| Page Number | 121 |
| Article Title | From where come the badgers? |
| Author | Bicha, Karel D. |
| Page type | Article home |
| ISSN | 1943-7366 |
| Identifier-Digital | vol76no020043 |
| Description | From Where Come the Badgers?: This article investigates the traditional explanation for the origin of the nickname, Badger State. It begins by reviewing the claim that prospectors and miners in territorial Wisconsin lived in dugouts in hillsides and ravines like the mammal called a badger, and concludes that this practice likely happened only selectively around the years 1825-1827. It then reviews a wide selection of contemporary publications, letters, diaries, and journals and finds a lack of conclusive evidence linking the practice and the nickname. It also points out that accounts of this etymology came largely from self-styled “old settlers” long after the fact, and concludes that while the accepted explanation may be sound tradition, it is not based on verifiable history. (11 pages) |
| Volume | 076 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Year | 1992-1993 |
| State/Province | wisconsin |
| Organization Name | university of wisconsin |
| Subject | Badgers; Nicknames; Football |
| Full Text | From Where Come the Badgers? By KarelD. Bicha U' NTIL its discontinuance in the late 1980's, a familiar scene had for decades unfolded in the environs of the University of Wisconsin's Camp Randall on days known locally as "football Saturdays." At the conclusion of their pre- game warm-up drills, the members of the Wisconsin squad departed the field for a locker room in the bowels of the stadium to receive technical instructions and a final dose of psychological stimulation. Subse¬ quently the team left the locker area and massed in a tunnel which exited onto the playing field. As the players then swarmed onto the gridiron, a voice on the public address system exulted, "Here come the Badgers!" This procedure was nearly as integral to the autumnal rituals in Camp Randall as the emotional rendition of Var¬ sity during the halftime ceremonies. It is legitimate to inquire, however, who were the original "badgers" and from where did the namesakes of the Wisconsin athletes ultimately come? Virtually everybody conversant with Wisconsin history or folk¬ lore knows the answers to these queries. To wit: In the early days in southwestern Wis¬ consin, then a part of the Territory of Mich¬ igan, the predominant element in the pop¬ ulation consisted of prospectors for and miners of lead ore. Some of the early min¬ ers, who lacked the means, the material. the facility, or the disposition to erect con¬ ventional frontier dwellings, created tem¬ porary living quarters by constructing dug¬ outs in the sides of hills or ravines. Some anonymous person (or persons) likened their behavior to that of the North Ameri¬ can badger (Taxidea taxus), a quadruped known to possess remarkable burrowing capabilities. This nickname, which may have had single or multiple origins, some¬ how stuck, quickly diffused, and within two decades of its origin had become synony¬ mous with residents of Wisconsin, irrespec¬ tive of occupation or locale. This, at least, is the conventional wisdom on the subject. Illustrating its veracity, how¬ ever, leads the investigator along an eviden¬ tiary pipeline which is ludicrously tenuous. The conventional wisdom regarding the origin of the term "badger" and its asso¬ ciation with Wisconsin derives largely from "tradition" rather than verifiable "his- tor)'." With a few notable exceptions, his¬ torical traditions encapsulate a sizable ker¬ nel of truth. In the course of their perpetuation, however, traditions normally acquire barnacle-like embellishments which modify but do not obliterate the original truth. Such was surely the case in the origin and development of "badger" as a descriptive term for a resident of Wis¬ consin. Copyright © 1993 Ijy The State Historical Society of Wisconsin Alt rights of reftroduction in any form reserved. 121 |