Lucas: Time of Their Lives
October 29, 2014 | Football
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Oct. 29, 2014
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com
Madison, Wis. -- Long before earning his own letter, Jordan Fredrick dressed up for Halloween as a Wisconsin football letterwinner. He went as his dad, Craig Fredrick, a tight end for the Badgers in the early '80s.
"I wore his letter jacket," Jordan Fredrick recalled fondly, "and a mullet wig."
Feeling like he got "punked" at the time, Craig Fredrick, 55, offered a defense for the mullet.
"That was the look back then," he pleaded.
Upon further review of his son's costume, he conceded, "It was pretty hilarious."
Craig Fredrick's No. 37 jersey hangs in the closet alongside of Jordan Fredrick's No. 9 jersey.
"He loved the fact that he played for the Badgers," Jordan Fredrick said. "He's very proud of it. As we all are."
• • • •
Long before his first Rose Bowl, Sam Arneson wore an Independence Bowl sweatsuit to retro days in high school. It belonged to his dad, Dave Arneson, a tight end for the Badgers in the early '80s.
"I must have been one skinny guy," said Dave Arneson, 52. "It was tighter than hell on Sam."
The Badgers beat Kansas State, 14-3, in the 1982 Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana; the school's first win ever in a postseason game, so there was some historic value.
But what about that 1988 Crazylegs Classic T-shirt that keeps popping up in the wash?
"My dad is kind of a pack rat," Sam Arneson said with a smirk, "and saves a lot of things."
Dave Arneson's No. 85 jersey hangs in the closet alongside of Sam Arneson's No. 49 jersey.
"For me to be able to follow in my dad's footsteps," Sam Arneson said, "I know it has been pretty special for him."
• • • •
Homecoming transcends generations. When the Badgers take on the Maryland Terrapins in front of a Homecoming crowd Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium, it will mean different things to the alums and the players, the Old Badgers and the Boys, the Fredricks and the Arnesons.
"I'm not really sure how different it was for them back then (the '80s)," said Jordan Fredrick, a redshirt junior wide receiver. "Maybe it was a little more traditional than it is now. I'm sure it means something a little different (to the two dads). Right now, we just treat it as a game."
That would be the "next game" mentality. Except it carries more weight, he admitted.
"It's definitely a little more meaningful when it's Homecoming," he said. "A lot of people come back for Homecoming games that don't get a chance to come to a lot of our games. So it's an extra motivation to win and show the crowd what we can do -- to show everybody that we're a good team."
The Badgers tend to be very successful on Homecoming; they've won 8 of their last 10.
"As an athlete, as a player at this university, I don't think you really realize how important Homecoming is to the alumni," said Sam Arneson, a senior tight end. "Especially looking at my parents, I think they have a fond place in their hearts for Homecoming -- just getting to come back here."
Homecoming was seemingly more personal, more special in high school for the players.
"I'd say it was," confirmed Jordan Fredrick, who was never tabbed as the Homecoming King at Madison Memorial High School. "I wasn't that special. But it was special with the dance and everything."
Sam Arneson wasn't part of the court, per se, at Merrill High School. "We didn't have Homecoming Kings," he pointed out. "But I did escort one of the Queens my senior year."
There were other things to recommend about Homecoming, especially in a small community like Merrill. "You had the pep assembly," he said, "and the bonfire, which was a pretty cool tradition."
For the last four years, there has been no greater tradition in Madison than the Craig Fredrick/Dave Arneson "parents" tailgate that takes place before and after each home game. Located in the parking lots near and around the site of the old Jingles Stadium Bar, it has grown bigger and bigger.
"Freddy and I have gotten together on this and we kind of run the show," said Dave Arneson, who has extended an open invitation to the families of all the players. "We try to get the out-of-state people to come on over even if they don't park with us and even if they don't come every weekend."
Old Badgers tend to get sentimental on Homecoming, particularly these Old Badgers.
"All the games are special for us, but Homecoming is kind of a neat thing," Craig Fredrick said. "We have a lot of family members coming down for it. When they get a chance to watch Jordan play, it's a big deal. Homecoming is a lot different now for me having a son playing. The meaning is different."
Plus, you never know who you might run into at the Arneson/Fredrick tailgate.
"It's chaotic," Dave Arneson said, "but we're going to miss it when it's over."
Observed Jordan Fredrick, "I think they enjoy game day just as much as we do."
• • • •
Freddy and Arney.
Craig Fredrick was an all-state running back at Oshkosh West High School, where he played for his step-dad, Fred Kubsch. After one year at a Kansas junior college, he transferred to Wisconsin. He rushed for 176 yards in a varsity reserve game before moving to flanker and then to tight end.
In 1980, the 5-foot-11, 204-pound Fredrick caught only three passes, but two went for touchdowns against Iowa and Northwestern. As a senior, he was the backup tight end to Jeff Nault in an offense that revolved around the running, not the throwing, of quarterback Jess Cole.
Fredrick was part of a major turnaround as the Badgers went from Big Ten doormats to a seven-win team that upset No. 1-ranked Michigan, Purdue and Ohio State. The 1981 season was capped by an appearance in the Garden State Bowl, the program's first bowl trip since the 1963 Rose Bowl.
Dave Arneson was a sophomore when Fredrick was a senior. At Clintonville High School, Arneson was a quarterback and safety on a state championship team. When he got to Wisconsin, he was given a trial at linebacker -- he was assigned No. 90 -- before he was converted into a tight end.
Besides contributing on special teams, the 6-5, 220-pound Arneson, who switched No. 85, was the backup to tight end Bret Pearson, the second-leading receiver with 41 catches in 1984. That team had three players -- Al Toon, Richard Johnson and Darryl Sims -- taken in the first round of the NFL draft.
During his senior year, Arneson got to know a freshman quarterback who had led Platteville High School to a state title. Like Arneson, he would wind up playing multiple positions before settling in as a tight end. Today, Paul Chryst is in the midst of his third season as Pittsburgh's head coach.
Fast-forward to 2010.
In mid-April, Sam Arneson verbally committed to Wisconsin. In early July, Jordan Fredrick did likewise. Both made their decisions before the start of their senior year of high school.
Before either made it official, Dave Arneson put it best: "Craig and I won't be remembered for our stats as players. So it wasn't like the Badgers felt like they `owed' us something to recruit our kids, because they didn't. All of this really speaks to Jordan and Sam. They have enough talent and worked hard enough to gain people's respect. It wasn't because their dads played for the Badgers."
Jordan Fredrick had choices, scholarship offers from Iowa and North Dakota State.
"When Bret Bielema offered," Craig Fredrick recounted, "I told Jordan, `You need to sit back and think about a lot of things -- what you want to accomplish and what's the best situation for you. I think he knew right away. But I wouldn't let him commit until he had a chance to think about it for awhile. He said to me, `Dad, this is where I've always wanted to play.' I said, `OK, give him a call.'"
Dave Arneson kidded that Sam Arneson didn't have a choice.
"He knew where he wanted to go," he said. "Obviously, there was no other place."
Nonetheless, before Sam put his name on the tender, Dave told him, "This is not my goal, at all, this is not my dream. You have to make it yours. Some guys asked me, `Why did Sam commit so early (to Wisconsin)?' I said because that's exactly where he wanted to be."
• • • •
Over the last 10 days, Sam Arneson has been wearing Kansas City Royals gear around the locker room. Most of his UW teammates thought that he was jumping on the bandwagon; a frontrunner. Little did they know that Arneson's uncle is Mike Jirschele, No. 59, the third base coach for the Royals.
In the late '70s, the Badgers recruited Jirschele, an all-state quarterback at Clintonville High School. He was also a terrific infielder that was taken in the fifth round of the 1977 MLB amateur draft. Jirschele opted for baseball and signed with the Texas Rangers.
After an extended minor league career as a player -- 999 games with the Rangers and the Royals -- Jirschele got into coaching. Again, he was terrific at his craft. He won 1,205 career games. After 35 years in the minors, as a player and coach, he joined the Royals big league staff last October.
Jirschele was the manager of Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers the last 11 years.
"Most people would take their kids to Florida, to Disney," Dave Arneson said. "I told my kids when they were young, `We're going to Omaha.' That's where we spent a lot of time in the summer."
Sam Arneson remembered hanging around the ballpark and going to the zoo. "We have a large extended family," he said, "and we would get the whole group together and go there for a full week."
Sam's mother, Marge, is a Jirschele. Her dad, Don Jirschele, played football for the legendary Bear Bryant at Kentucky. "He's an old-school kind of guy," Sam Arneson said of his grandfather. "He's really sharp and he knows his stuff. It's really fun to hear those stories (about Bryant) from him."
Sam Arneson's paternal grandfather, Jim Arneson -- who was affectionately known to friends and family as Big Arney -- passed away when Sam was in sixth grade. "I didn't know him as well as I would have liked to," Sam said. "But I still have some fond memories of what I do remember."
Dave Arneson feels the same way. "When I see Robby Havenstein's grandpa (at the tailgates), I wish my dad could be there," he said. "I could see big Jim having a cocktail and living the dream."
That's what Dave and Marge Arneson have been doing with their kids. For three decades, Dave has been coaching at Merrill High School. He has been a football and track assistant. He's now the freshman coach. Marge, who was Sam's homeroom teacher, teaches special education at the school.
"My dad was kind of always right there with me, already incredibly supportive," Sam Arneson said. "He was always someone I could talk to after a tough game and someone to congratulate me after a good one. Same thing with my mom. She doesn't get enough credit. She's always been great."
While his dad would preach "hard work and tough-mindedness" when competing, his mom would bring a dose of "reality" into the big picture, especially off the field. "But she was a heckuva athlete herself, she's a Jirschele," Sam Arneson said. "She says I get my genes from her, not my dad."
• • • •
Craig and Jordan Fredrick try to have lunch together once a week at the Big Ten Pub, less than two blocks from Camp Randall. "We talk football, we talk life, whatever is current," Jordan Fredrick said.
Craig Fredrick doesn't want to suffocate him, though.
"I don't want to bother him," he said. "This is his deal. I've been through it already and he needs to have his college life. He wants to be his own man and take care of his own business."
But Pop does pick up the lunch tab.
"Exactly," said Craig Fredrick. "I pick up a lot of things.
"Just trying to save money," Jordan Fredrick laughed.
On how he tried to influence his son during his formative years, Craig Fredrick said, "By learning the game the right way. His work ethic is incredible and he's done a nice job handling adversity."
Jordan Fredrick has been understandably grateful, too.
"Through my frustrating times throughout my career, he has helped a ton," he said. "He has always had my back, which is big, and you kind of realize that more the more you talk about it. He has always been there for me, he has always supported me."
So has his mom, Andree. In fact, when Jordan Fredrick was still a high school prospect and selling himself to college recruiters by going from one summer camp to the next, from Minnesota to Iowa to North Dakota, it was Andree who accompanied him to Oregon for a Nike combine.
"She has always been there for me," Jordan Fredrick said. "She has been more of a neutral supporting cast, really. She's always explains the outside perspective of things. My mom makes me slow down and think about the surrounding environment."
Craig and Andree know their roles. "Her influence is a little different from mine, it's from the non-football side," Craig said. "She has done a lot of good things for Jordan. She has talked to him about being humble and keeping his school work up and focusing on getting his education."
The whole family has been supportive, including the granddads: Kubsch, who coached 35 years and played football at Marquette, and Ron Einerson, a Hall of Fame high school basketball coach who won 556 games over 37 years. The Ron Einerson Field House in Neenah was named in his honor.
"They've always been there for me," Jordan Fredrick said.
• • • •
Dave Arneson and Craig Fredrick talk on the phone every week.
"We talk about the game," Fredrick said, "and how the kids are doing."
"We talk about a lot of stuff," Arneson said. "We share our opinions."
The two families have grown very tight, the Fredricks and the Arnesons.
"Craig and my dad getting to spend that time together again is pretty cool," Sam Arneson said.
Depending on the rotation of the parents' tickets, which is always changing, it's possible that Craig Fredrick and Dave Arneson will be sitting next to each other for Saturday's game against Maryland.
"We're very biased on who should get the ball," said Dave Arneson.
"We kind of look at each other and we know what we're thinking," said Craig Fredrick.
The Old Badgers are thinking the same thing. Life is good watching the Boys play for the Badgers.
