The DUMBEST BUSINESS DECISION in Wisconsin Football HISTORY | 1981 Garden State Bowl

[@martincaidin4166]

I was a student at UW in the 80's. We had finals on a Sunday every year I was there.

[@mkepioneet]

2:53 it should be noted that until the 1972, the Big Ten had a rule that no team could participate in a bowl game that wasn't the Rose Bowl Game. So even say, Minnesota in 1962 went 6-2-1 (5-2 B10) and finished the season #10, by rule, they couldn't play in a bowl game.

[@CyberchaoX]

They also had a rule that a team couldn't go to the Rose Bowl in consecutive years. So if you go 8-3 (7-1 Big Ten) and go to the Rose Bowl, and then the next year, you go 11-0? Sorry, no bowl! And most of the other conferences had similar rules. A 6-4 Nebraska team once went to the Orange Bowl because 10-0 Oklahoma had been in the Orange Bowl the previous year as a two-loss team, and Oklahoma didn't play in a bowl. Then again, the final poll was before the bowls then.

[@bryanvogt3371]

Actually, the rule wasn't changed until 1975, and only because Bo Schembechler loudly complained. His Michigan teams went a combined 30-2-1 the previous three seasons, but weren't allowed to play in a bowl game.

[@mkepioneet]

@@bryanvogt3371 interesting! I just did a quick Google search. That makes more sense

[@bryanvogt3371]

@@mkepioneet You might want to watch the "Tiebreaker" documentary on Big Ten Network

[@8avexp]

Michigan State won back-to-back Big Ten titles in 1965-66. They went to the Rose Bowl after the 1965 season, but couldn't go the following year because of the no-repeat rule. Purdue got the nod and beat USC, 14-13.

[@arcticphoenix2789]

Kind of interesting that you decided to cover Wisconsin on this channel. As someone from Wisconsin, I love the vid and content.

[@daBEAGLE1017]

I recognize a snow bird.

[@makethebestofwhatsstillaro425]

Schools would buy larger quantities of tickets than they needed in order to get invited to more prestigious bowls in the future. It was a long term strategy.

[@chrisnietupski1586]

Exactly. The premise of this is story is completely uninformed and misguided.

[@cjpreach]

When I was in college, there was NO WAY I could have afforded a road trip half way across the country just to watch a crappy bowl game.

[@CTubeMan]

This unofficial Jaguar Gator 8 historian will remind everyone you made videos about the following: 1. How the CarQuest Bowl tried to use ticket sales promises to dissuade West Virginia from playing in that bowl at the end of the 1995 season. 2. How Vanderbilt overcharged fans for ticket prices in 2004. That game was against…wait for it…Tennessee!

[@chrisguardiano6143]

This is very similar to when Arsenal made the final of the now defunct UEFA Cup Winner's Cup (a competition for the cup winners in European countries) in 1995 which took place in Paris. UEFA gave Arsenal 20,000 tickets to give to supporters. It should be pointed out that with the exception of the previous year's final which Arsenal was in, attendance for the Cup Winner's Cup final had gone down in the past decade. However despite the fact that the distance between London & Paris is a short 2 hour train trip through the Channel Tunnel, Arsenal only sold 7,500 tickets. This was because of three things. One Arsenal jacked up the rates on most of the tickets they were given, making it unaffordable for the average supporter to attend, especially when you factor in the price of the train ticket. In addition, UEFA at the time banned clubs from selling tickets through tour groups, making it impossible for supporters to go through a third party that could sell the tickets at a cheaper rate. Lastly, this final was taking place on a Wednesday night making it difficult for fans to attend since many of them would have to make sure they got back to London before work the next day. Not only did Arsenal have to pay UEFA for the tickets they didn't sell (like with this story), they also lost to Zaragoza 2-1 in the final itself thanks to a last minute long distance 40 yard goal in extra time.

[@joboots007]

Dave McClain had the Badgers on the right track in the early 80s,ultimately leading 2 their 1st bowl win the next year (beating K-State in the Independence Bowl). But going into the ‘86 season,McClain was befelled by a fatal heart attack at 48 which stunned the UW community & sent the program into a downward spiral that wasn’t solved ‘til Barry Alvarez arrived!!!!

[@PAGoTribe1963]

I did not know that. Thanks for sharing that.

[@mrmoose6619]

Grand scale stupidity... What Wisconsin fan would have expected to be in a bowl at that time. The Garden State Bowl was basically invented to fill a date at the new Giants Stadium and hopefully get Rutgers (who actually had good records at the time, but was playing mostly teams that would end up in 1-AA/FCS) or Temple who was similarly pretty good, but playing a mixed strength schedule at the time. This eventually turned into the Kickoff Classic played in the beginning of the season, which was a good move...

[@raymondhopwood9393]

Plus, they moved it to Atlanta.

[@chrisp679]

That’s not the same thing.

[@timkaczmarowski8151]

ah yes the kickoff classic, then there got to b too many "classics" at the begining of the year and they said knock it off with classics and they got rid of them all, wisconsin got pounded by syracuse in one of those in the 90s

[@kellypringle9815]

I am wondering why did Wisconsin had finals on Sunday. Did they know that people go to church on Sundays, and there's a little thing called the NFL. Why was there a bowl game on a Sunday anyway? I hope that this game was at night.

[@aaronholcomb237]

The Packers were playing the Saints in New Orleans on that day.

[@andrewbeilke502]

I was at this bowl game. my cousin was a freshman for the Badgers. this game was cold in the mid afternoon early evening if I remember correctly. Reggie White was a Vol. didn't know much about him back then. For the Badgers, it was a magical year. Beating Michigan at home for my first Badger game and later Ohio State. then making a bowl game. you can't ask for much better. I was also at the Independence Bowl and saw Bucky win it's first Bowl game ever a year later.

[@marcus813]

Wisconsin didn't know about the concept of underpromising and overdelivering. I wonder if Wisconsin had another bowl invitation that wouldn't have conflicted with its final exam schedule. With that said, who the hell runs school exams on a Sunday?!

[@johncate9541]

The Garden State Bowl was, as he suggested, kind of a "booby prize" of a bowl. It was the Weedeater Bowl before the Weedeater Bowl was a thing. I think the only team who ever played in it that was happy to was Rutgers. Tennessee ended up there because they lost to a 3-8 Kentucky late in the season. (And weren't any good--they went 8-4 with a negative point differential and beat a 1-AA team by three points.) In other words, if Wisky was there, it was likely because it was their only bowl option, and when you hadn't been in a bowl since 1962, you took what you could get.

[@quentin9287]

UW still runs exams on Sunday and other odd days. I have an exam on Halloween this year!

[@marcus813]

@@quentin9287 Halloween is on a Monday in 2022, though.

[@quentin9287]

@@marcus813 im aware, Halloween is just a rough day for an exam

[@kurtgreaser8439]

@@quentin9287 Especially at UW big party school.

[@jmed412]

One reason for Wisconsin not making many bowls was that the Rose Bowl did not allow the Big 10 to except any other bowl invites

[@veggieoilerfan2940]

Wikipedia didn’t say what the payout was for the 1981 Garden Bowl. It did mention that the 1980 Garden Bowl paid each team $400,000. I don’t know if the 1981 game had similar payouts.

[@bigapplebucky]

I forget how I got my ticket for that game, but probably through the alumni. I was a recent grad of UW and living on Long Island and went with a group.

[@jeremy28135]

I wonder if the guy who sued the Jets & Giants for calling themselves New York despite playing in NJ's Meadowlands/Met Life Stadium, cited the Garden State Bowl evidence in his case 😂

[@mdoerty13]

The drive was actually longer as the US had a 55 mph speed limit at the time. So at a minimum, it was a 17-hour drive. Also, for the record, this was the last Garden State Bowl.

[@UserName-ts3sp]

people go the speed limit? lmao

[@daBEAGLE1017]

On Wisconsin

[@mikem9856]

The newspaper article says the tickets were only $12 - nothing close to what you pay today for a bowl game.

[@carlosbond5062]

One thing to keep in mind; in the 70s and 80s teams had to buy their way into games. They had to tell bowl officials they would guarantee more tickets than they thought they could sell just to get invited to the game. School officials knew they would lose money but would commit just to be able to get to a bowl game. There are lots of 7-4 teams, and not very many bowl slots, in those days. Wisconsin probably had to buy their way in and didn’t know when they might get back to a bowl game. A lot of programs did the same thing.

[@timkaczmarowski8151]

yep cable tv was in its early years ergo less bowl games

[@mrmonty86]

I want a piece of that cake.

[@KWCline91]

🍰

[@stevenvitte]

🍰🍰

[@NevadaLamb]

Same

[@anthony0358]

I read an article in sports illustrated (as a side note) all these bowl games are non profit organizations. I don’t know if it’s changed since I read the article. This video is spot on! Excellent job as always. I went to the 1979 Garden State Bowl, it was freezing. I think this was a last year we had the bowl?

[@mrmoose6619]

1979 would be Temple's Game. That would be the last time a local team would be in the bowl... unless you consider Navy to be local (less than 4 hour drive).

[@chriskay1449]

ESPN pretty much owns all the non NY6 bowl games now.

[@raymondhopwood9393]

The Peach Bowl in Atlanta (now the Chik-Fil-A Bowl) was originally a game played for charity, and drew dismally small crowds. When they dropped the charity, they started drawing larger, if not sell-out crowds. Go figure.

[@erc6943]

I think I could do the 100 cakes thing. Any half decent bakery is going to have at least 3 ovens. Now if I’m making these cakes from scratch then I have no chance, but I make the calculated decision to pivot and cut corners a little and go to the store and buy 17 boxes of cake mix. I find a recipe to make the cake mixes a little better with some simple ingredients and measure out those ingredients 17 times. Then I get to work. Each box will make like 2 cakes. Two per oven, three ovens. Each set of 6 cakes takes about an hour, but the 45 minutes they’re in the oven is prep for the other batches and icing the ones that are already out. Given 6 cakes an hour, let’s say that the guy came in at like 4pm for the order. That means if I pull an all nighter I can get 102 cakes by around 9am. This guy wants 100 cakes. He can’t really be super picky about the quality unless they’re REALLY terrible.

[@akeffo]

Never overestimate the thought process of UW administrators.

[@yourboyken7871]

"Who does Final exams on a Sunday?" *Laughs from experience* D':

[@bigapplebucky]

A few years earlier they decided to move first semester finals from January to December. Getting a 16 week semester schedule with 10 days of finals at the end required that unwieldy scheduling. Since then the start of the school year was moved up to make scheduling easier.

[@cody6009]

As a Wisconsin Badger fan and resident of Wisco I'm happy you covered older Wisconsin content, because 2022 ain't looking like our year 😂

[@scourge8097]

You're HAPPY he made a ridiculous video about a 1981 bowl game when they ordered too many tickets and made it seem WAAAY more dramatic than it was? They made 400K for the game. They had to spend a few K to pay the money back. What a strange video and reply...

[@cody6009]

@@scourge8097 only strange for you not fot me I find it interesting and enjoyed it. Besides it is much better then what's happening right now with how bad the team is.

[@timkaczmarowski8151]

@@cody6009 bring on the mayonnaise bowl!!!! we just got eligible!!!

[@bdautch20]

At 10:10, Randy Wright getting EVISCERATED.

[@mkepioneet]

Not to spoil part of the video, but LMAO at the thought of UW-Madison instructors giving accomodations to students that would go to the game because that assumes that every instructor there gives a shit about their students beyond identifying future grad student workers

[@timtebowsleftarm5368]

Much dumber: Hiring Don Morton

[@KWCline91]

Yeah, not the incident I was thinking of. Watching these JaguarGator8 videos makes me think I’m in an advanced calculus class than basic math. Still, another great video.

[@pronkb000]

I thought this would be the time in 2000 or '01 when the University was caught Photo-shopping a Black student into a picture of the student section for the cover of the program.

[@renodangle]

The dumbest business decision in Wisconsin football history was hiring Don Morton as head coach. “Veered” them right into mediocrity

[@timkaczmarowski8151]

don morton sucked donkey balls

[@aaronholcomb237]

Morton was hired from Tulsa at the time my sister attended the school. Ironically, she would end up marrying someone from Wisconsin.

[@ericcarlson2166]

What's your point?