ANN ARBOR, MICH.—As the Wisconsin football team took the field Saturday, its only immediate source of fan support was the UW-Madison Marching Band lined up directly behind the Badger sideline, acting crazy as usual.
If the team looked high enough in the sky, however, it could see a long strip of red stretching across one of the end zones at the very top of the stadium. Occupying the top 10 or so rows behind the south end zone were familiar faces dressed in cardinal and white. The area was large enough to be heard across the capacity crowd of 111,058 fans when freshman P.J. Hill caught the first touchdown pass of the game, giving the underdog Badgers a 7-0 lead. It also became apparent that enough red jerseys were present throughout the stadium to spoil Michigan's ""Maize Out.""
""We drove eight and a half hours to get here,"" UW-Madison junior Robert Lincoln said at halftime.
Sure enough, Lincoln was among a large number of loyal Badger fans to brave the bad weather on the way to Ann Arbor to support a 14 point underdog.
Tornado warnings stretched across areas of Illinois and Indiana on Friday night when many were making the trip to Michigan Stadium. However, it was apparent the game was too important to miss for the UW fans who made the trip.
""I drove here because I'm from Michigan, but I go to Wisconsin and want the Badgers to win,"" Lincoln added.
With the Badgers tied 10-10 at halftime, most of the Wisconsin fans had high hopes for a big upset.
""We're at Michigan and we're tied,"" Lincoln said. ""We're tied in the Big House.""
Senior UW student Jonathan Mandell was found at halftime singing ""If You Want to Be a Badger"" on top of a railing to Wolverines' fans waiting in line for the bathroom below him.
""It really doesn't matter if we win or lose though because we are here,"" Mandell said. ""Come on, we're Badger fans.""
Mandell probably had the right attitude for a road trip in which the Badgers' chances at winning were slim and it seemed as though the rest of the fans wearing red agreed with the senior. Badger fans in the Wisconsin section and scattered across the stadium all participated in the usual dancing and singing that accompanies the Wisconsin band and it was clear that the students who made the trip had no intention of skipping ""Jump Around"" in between the third and fourth quarter, despite the song not actually being played in the stadium.
""We went through a monsoon, we went through a hurricane, we stopped at a Hooters, but we're here in Ann Arbor and we're going to win this game!"" Mandell said.
In the end, the Badgers couldn't hang on against the mighty Wolverines, but it was clear that the loss didn't ruin anyone's weekend. The Wisconsin faithful could be found all across the state of Michigan on their way back to Madison, including a group of students playing football in the parking lot of a Citgo gas station somewhere outside Kalamazoo, Mich.
Badger fans have been following the football team on road trips for years, continually proving there is more to college football than just the game.
And of course there was more rain on the way home.
