Name-a-Day Calendar, October 29: Wisconsin Badgers
Page 357 of 365
Chosen in: 1889
Chosen by: It came naturally as an extension of the state’s nickname
The University of Wisconsin was founded in 1848, when Wisconsin earned statehood (the “–Madison” was tacked onto the end in 1971). Their football team kicked off intercollegiate athletics at the school in 1889, but the “Badgers” nickname predates both of these dates.
Southwestern Wisconsin is part of the lead-rich Driftless Area. Local Native Americans had been mining lead here for centuries. Then the white colonizers stepped in and started claiming that resource for themselves. In the early to mid-1800s, many white miners began digging makeshift dens near their mines. These dens served as temporary homes, as they were conveniently located and significantly easier to “build” than regular houses.
Some found this strange and compared these den-living miners to badgers: small, den-living animals native to the state.1 Despite this being meant as an insult, the miners themselves usually took it as a point of pride. Eventually, association with the badger became popular statewide, to the point that Wisconsin was already calling itself The Badger State not long after they achieved statehood.
When that 1889 Wisconsin football team took the field, their mascot was a live badger. Whether the team itself was immediately called the Badgers is somewhat unclear, but the nickname already referred to the state’s residents and was consistently being used in print within a decade, so I’d say it was probably used colloquially at least a little from the very beginning.
The “Badgers” nickname has remained to the present day and the badger was named the official state animal in 1957. The live badger mascot was quickly retired on account of being too ferocious, but that’s probably for the best, as Wisconsin today has one of the most recognizable costumed mascots in sports: Bucky Badger.
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This association is sort of backwards, as while miners retreated to their dens at night, badgers are nocturnal and arise from their dens at night.