Wisconsin Football: Badgers win April Fools pranks

Wisconsin football won the day on April Fools with a witty tradition change which gave Badgers fans all around a good chuckle.

Every college football fan base has something they call their own. Some quirk that makes their team’s games special. South Carolina has Sandstorm. Iowa has the wave to the children’s hospital. Texas A&M has the war hymn and the 12th man. Wisconsin has Jump Around.

The popular 90’s hip hop song has become a staple of game days at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturdays in the fall. When the fourth quarter ends the speakers begin to blare the familiar tune as the fans do as the song instructs — they jump.

The brouhaha is exciting, loud and quite literally shakes the stadium back and forth. The dangers caused by the fun have apparently caused so much concern that the weekly tradition was almost retired, or at least that’s what one satirical April Fools social media post from the university almost had some believe.

In excellent April Fool’s Day form, the Badgers’ supposed statement was overflowing with sarcastic and easily discernible tidbits of comedy. Richter scale complaints paired with the possible changeover to fourth quarter karaoke made it readily apparent this news was purely in jest. Wisconsin fans never had to truly come to terms with life after Jump Around and neither did the college football world.

For now Wisconsin returns to football. The Badgers will host their spring game on April 13 at Camp Randall Stadium. It’s probably a safe bet that the Badgers’ lighthearted retirement of their second half tradition won’t last much longer than a few weeks. Thank you college football for preserving the fan’s right to a little bit of crazy every now and then.