Featured in this week's Varsity Magazine, this article is part of a feature series celebrating Wisconsin's history playing Ohio State.
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin quarterback Brooks Bollinger fielded the request during a preseason Fan Appreciation Day prior to his senior year in 2002. Besides an autograph, he was asked if he could personalize a photo by acknowledging a family member who was a loyal Ohio State fan living in Columbus, Ohio.
It sounded innocuous enough.
Bollinger wrote, 'The Horseshoe. They built it. And we own it.'
Why not have a little fun with it? Who's going to see it beyond this guy and his brother?
Besides, he rationalized, "We are 2-0 there."
Bollinger had helped lead the Badgers to wins in 1999 and 2001 at Ohio Stadium.
As far as that autographed photo, he didn't think about it again until the week of the Ohio State game. Without warning, the words re-emerged: "The Horseshoe. They built it. And we own it." Multiple news outlets, including College GameDay, wanted Bollinger to comment. So did coach Barry Alvarez.
"Did you write this?" Alvarez inquired almost incredulously, because it was so out of character.
"I don't know, I guess," said Bollinger, shrugging his shoulders, a dead giveaway.
During the coin toss, it was also brought up by the Ohio State captains.
"They made some comments and we kind of laughed about it — they had some good guys," Bollinger said. "Some people tried to make it into bulletin board material. But it certainly wasn't my intention and it wasn't my style. I wasn't like Jamar Fletcher who liked playing that way."
Fletcher, an All-American cornerback, called out everybody.
"It was a little outside of my comfort zone," Bollinger conceded. "But it was true nonetheless."
In both of those wins at Ohio State, Bollinger rallied the Badgers from 17-0 deficits.
"Brooks was never intimidated," Alvarez said.
Why should he be? It was part of the culture and mentality that Alvarez had fostered.
"He'd tell you, 'When you're building a winner in this league, you have to build a team and a program that can beat Ohio State and Michigan," said Bollinger. "We always played those teams well. We didn't always win. But the general mentality of our team was that we loved playing those games.
"That also came down from the older guys — guys like Chris McIntosh, Ron Dayne, Donnel Thompson and Chris Ghidorzi. You can go down the list. We just looked forward to the opportunity," Bollinger said of being cast as the underdog against the traditional heavyweights in the Big Ten.
"We played them with a chip on our shoulder. Coach Alvarez loved being in that role. He'd say, 'So you don't think we're good enough? Well, let's line up and see what the scoreboard says at the end of the day.' They were always tough, physical, good football games with Ohio State."
Bollinger is the first-year head coach at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
"I can't remember what came up," he said, "but I was talking to my team last week and I was saying to our players, 'When you think about it, you can vaguely remember the victories. But I can still vividly remember those losses. They tend to stick with you."
Except for one; the 19-14 loss to Ohio State in 2002.
"I got hit in the head," said Bollinger, who left the game early, "and I was in La-La land."
In '99, he was in seventh heaven after rallying the Badgers to 42 unanswered points against the Buckeyes. The Badgers scored on six straight possessions. Tailback Ron Dayne had four touchdowns and 161 rushing yards. Bollinger, a redshirt freshman, opened a lot of eyes with his debut as a starter.
"When I grew up, they didn't have quite as many games on TV," said Bollinger, a Grand Forks, North Dakota native. "On Saturday morning and afternoons, I'd watched Michigan and Ohio State and some of their classic games. Great teams, great programs.
"To later have the opportunity to play against some of those storied teams and compete with them and beat them was a huge thrill. The win my freshman year was just a special game for all of us. Not only what happened that day, and the way it happened, but what it led to the rest of the season.
"It was the start of something pretty special."
The Badgers went on to win the Big Ten Championship and beat Stanford in the Rose Bowl.
"Ultimately, to be able to have that kind of moment on that stage, a late afternoon ABC game in the Horseshoe was very memorable," reflected the 36-year-old Bollinger. "And that magical run (seven straight wins after losses to Cincinnati and Michigan) made it extra special to me."
Now, he's hoping that Wisconsin's redshirt freshman quarterback Alex Hornibrook will get to experience what he did. Bollinger was first introduced to Hornibrook while he was serving as an assistant on Paul Chryst's coaching staff at Pittsburgh. Hornibrook originally committed to Pitt.
"I went into his high school (Malvern Prep) and talked with some of the coaches and learned more about what he (Hornibrook) was like," Bollinger said. "He came on campus for an unofficial visit with his dad and I remember thinking, 'Great dad, great kid, neat kid. He's got a good look in his eye.'"
It was the same look that Hornibrook had during his starting debut at Michigan State.
"It was just the way he carried himself and the way he processed things in pretty tough situations," Bollinger said. "Based on what I know about him, and obviously what I know about Paul (Chryst), these two are going to have some fun together for the next four years.
"I get excited when you have a kid who's wired like Alex — he has that mentality, those intangibles, and the willingness and ability to learn. And when you put him with a coach like Paul, it's going to be a real positive. Certainly, there's going to be some learning and growing. But it's going to be a pretty neat few years to watch how he develops."
Starting with Saturday's matchup against No. 2 ranked Ohio State.
"I don't think the feeling has changed," Bollinger said of accepting such challenges. "I'd like to say with the success and what has been built at Wisconsin, the national credibility and the legitimacy of our program over the last however many years, we're looked at differently from their end of the table."
The proof, he implied, will be in proving your mettle in such games.
He'll own that — along with that 2-0 record in the 'Shoe.
