After being enrolled at UW-Madison for 126 semesters, over 63 years of attendance, Buckingham Badger, despite his overwhelming popularity, has yet to graduate or receive a degree from the university.
While many students require a “victory lap” year to complete their majors, no one has come close to Buckingham’s record. Having been in and out of almost every major on campus, Bucky has yet to complete any major, usually switching out once he hits the 400 level classes.
Professor Tommy Shultz has been teaching at the UW since 1970, and teaching Buckingham since that time as well. “He’s a good lad, but he never does his homework,” Shultz explained.
On any given weekend Buckingham can be found at nearly every UW sports event, rallies, speaker presentations, or alumni gala on or off campus. Due to his energetic spirit and complete dedication to everything UW, to many students on campus Buckingham has become a mascot of sorts. Speaking of her J202 class, “I saw Buckingham more often on shirts and hats than in class.”
Buckingham came in for an interview, but only replied by chuckling to himself, doing push-ups, and making a “W” with his fingers.
