The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Bascom Hill turned into a warzone Monday night as a few hundred students duked it out at the annual Lakeshore vs. Southeast snowball fight — aka The Battle for Bascom.
Braving fierce wind and icy temperatures, the Lakeshore dorms made it out victorious as students sent snowballs hurdling across the battlefield.
This brutal battle started formally on Dec. 9, 2009 as an attempt to break the unofficial world record for biggest snowball fight. It was organized over Facebook, before more popular forums like YikYak, Snapchat college stories and Instagram were as popular as they are today.
Monday’s installment drew blood — literally. With the snowball fight taking place in the dark, sneak attacks were common. One student ended up bleeding from her eyebrow after being struck by an icy snowball, and numerous other students on Yik Yak confessed to other injuries such as broken noses and eye infections from dirty icicles thrown.
As history recounts, Lakeshore has a track record of winning these battles. At one point, Southeast residents broke into chants of “Lakeshore sucks,” and Bucky Badger even made an appearance, dodging salvos from both sides.
In the end, Lakeshore showed up, passionately defended their end of the hill and won, according to the amount of Lakeshore residents present and the lack of casualties on their end. The aftermath was solemn, as numerous students were mildly injured and the temperature was freezing.
Like Southeast residents say every year, ‘We’ll get 'em next time’ (Just like a win against Minnesota).
Nick Bumgardner is the managing editor of The Daily Cardinal. He previously served as features editor, and wrote for the state and campus news desks as a senior staff writer on rural issues, the 2024 presidential election and the UW System budget. He has written in-depth on labor policy, UW campus closures and local Madison persons of interest. You can follow him on Twitter at @nickbum_.
