Windup for Wisconsin

Friday, Sept. 7, 2007 | 7:30 a.m.

On the poll

Wisconsin, which shares the No. 5 ranking with Oklahoma in the Associated Press college football poll, is the highest-ranked team ever to play UNLV at Sam Boyd Stadium. Here is how the Rebels have fared at home against other ranked teams:

Date Result

12/1/84 No. 10 SMU 38, UNLV 21

11/26/94 No. 11 Kansas State 42, UNLV 3

11/29/80 No. 12 BYU 54, UNLV 14

9/7/01 No. 16 Northwestern 37, UNLV 28

10/23/99 No. 19 BYU 29, UNLV 0

9/29/01 No. 20 BYU 35, UNLV 31

9/2/82 No. 19* BYU 27, UNLV 0

11/10/84 UNLV 26, No. 20* Cal State-Fullerton 20

8/31/02 No. 25* Wisconsin 27, UNLV 7

*Ranking in coaches' poll; unranked by AP.

Series history

UNLV and Wisconsin have met seven times since 1985 - three times in Las Vegas - and the Badgers hold a 5-2 edge in the series:

Year Site Score

1985 Madison Wisconsin 26, UNLV 23

1986 Las Vegas UNLV 17, Wisconsin 7

1996 Las Vegas Wisconsin 52, UNLV 17

1998 Madison Wisconsin 52, UNLV 7

2002 Las Vegas Wisconsin 27, UNLV 7

2003 Madison UNLV 23, Wisconsin 5

2004 Madison Wisconsin 18, UNLV 3

Big draw

Three of the six largest UNLV home football crowds in Sam Boyd Stadium history have involved Wisconsin:

Attendance Opponent Year

42,075 Wisconsin 2002

40,091 Wisconsin 1996

37,179 UNR 2006

34,287 Hawaii 2003

32,601 BYU 2001

32,207 Wisconsin 1986

Lights out

One of the more memorable games in the UNLV-Wisconsin series took place in 2002 and has since been dubbed the "Blackout Bowl."

With the Badgers leading 27-7 and 7:41 remaining in the nationally televised game, a power outage knocked out the lights at Sam Boyd Stadium. After waiting 20 minutes for the power to be restored , UNLV head coach John Robinson and Badgers head coach Barry Alvarez agreed to end the game.

That decision sparked conspiracy theories among some gamblers who had wagers on the Badgers because a little-known Las Vegas sports book rule requires football games to go at least 55 minutes to be considered official. Because the game was called after 52:19, local sports books voided all wagers on the game.

Despite complaints of sabotage, it was learned the next day that the outage was caused by equipment failures from splices within a cable and a burnt module at the stadium. A Nevada Power spokesman said the failure could not have been caused by human intervention .

Honoring Wiesner

Before Saturday's game, UNLV senior tight end Chris Butler will be recognized as this year's recipient of the Tom Wiesner Award and will wear the Tom Wiesner jersey throughout the season.

The award, created in 2002, is voted on by the UNLV coaching staff and senior class and honors the senior player who "best exemplifies Wiesner's courage, enthusiasm, dedication and toughness."

Wiesner, a three-year letterman for the Badgers' football team from 1958 to 1960, was a successful Las Vegas businessman, politician , and UNLV and Wisconsin booster and was the person most responsible for bringing the two programs together to play for the first time in 1985. Wiesner died in 2002 after a battle with leukemia.

Butler is the returning starter at tight end for the Rebels. He was a 2006 Academic All-Mountain West Conference honoree and is a member of the 2007 Rebels Leadership Committee.

Learn it. Know it. Live it.

It figures to be played so often Saturday that the you'll be humming the tune all weekend. So, as a public service, here are the lyrics to the Badgers' official fight song, "On Wisconsin:"

On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!

Plunge right through that line!

Run the ball clear down the field,

A touchdown sure this time.

On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!

Fight on for her fame

Fight! Fellows! Fight, fight, fight!

We'll win this game.

On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!

Stand up, Badgers, sing!

"Forward" is our driving spirit,

Loyal voices ring.

On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!

Raise her glowing flame

Stand, Fellows, let us now

Salute her name!

U is also for Underdog

"I think what that does is it gives hope to underdog teams in general. I think you can point directly to that and say, 'Look what you can accomplish if you do the right things, do the things it takes to win, believe you're going to win and make it happen.'

"One of the things we felt going into the season is we have a lot to prove and this is another one of those situations. People, going into the season, didn't give us a lot of respect and people right now don't give us a lot of respect about our opportunity and chances to win this game. We have something to prove and this is a classic example that ties right into that."

UNLV head coach Mike Sanford, on Appalachian State's upset of Michigan last weekend in Ann Arbor. UNLV is a 24-point underdog at home to Wisconsin on Saturday.

The Badgers and the people and events they've touched, from A to Z

A is for Alvarez as in Barry, the former Wisconsin coach and Notre Dame coordinator UNLV should have hired when it settled for Jim Strong.

B is for Bucky Badger, the cuddly Wisconsin mascot whose 5 - by - 7 picture fetches $11.50 on the Internet.

C is for Camp Randall Stadium, where 78,043 spectators sat in stunned silence on Sept. 13, 2003, when UNLV beat the Badgers 23-5.

D is for Dayne as in Ron, the former Wisconsin battering ram who is the leading rusher in Division I-A history.

E is for Evans as in Lee, Wisconsin's career leader in pass receiving yards.

F is for the Fifth Quarter, which is what Wisconsin fans call their famous postgame party.

G is for Granddaddy of all the bowl games, the Rose Bowl, which Wisconsin last won in 2000.

H is for Hirsch, whose Crazylegs put Wisconsin on the football map in the 1940s, and for Hellmuth as in the poker champ Phil, who bluffed his way through finals at Wisconsin.

I is for interceptions, which Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi kept throwing against the Rebels - when he wasn't being sacked - in 2003.

J is for Jamaal as in Brimmer, the Rebels' All-American defensive back who tormented Sorgi and the Badgers on a soggy Wisconsin Saturday.

K is for Ken as in Bowman, the Packers' Super Bowl center who learned how to block at Wisconsin.

L is for Libonati as in Daren , the Sam Boyd Stadium director whose 30-yard field goal put UNLV ahead of Wisconsin to stay in 1986.

M is for Madison, birthplace of the Badgers and The Onion, the satirical newspaper founded by two Wisconsin students in 1988.

N is for Nunnely as in Wayne, the interim coach who led the Rebels to a 17-7 upset of Wisconsin in 1986 and was interim no more.

O is for "On Wisconsin" the famous fight song that has been adopted by more than 2,500 schools.

P is for power failure, which prevented Wisconsin from covering the spread at Sam Boyd Stadium in 2002.

Q is for quick kicks, which usually are a waste of time.

R is for Richter as in Pat, the former Wisconsin split end and athletic director whose No. 88 has been put into mothballs.

S is for sudden death, when former Wisconsin great Alan Ameche scored a touchdown for the 1958 Baltimore Colts in the "Greatest Game Ever Played.

T is for Toon as in Al, the Jets' sticky-fingered receiver who played at Wisconsin.

U is for upset, as in UNLV 17, Wisconsin 7 in 1986, and UNLV 23, Wisconsin 5 in 2003.

V is for Vander Kelen as in Ron, the Wisconsin quarterback who led the Badgers on a furious fourth-quarter comeback against USC that came up just short in the 1963 Rose Bowl.

W is for Wiesner as in Tom, the late UNLV booster who scored Wisconsin's only touchdown in the 1960 Rose Bowl and was instrumental in these teams getting together.

X is for Xavier as in Harris, who caught one pass for 14 yards in Wisconsin's 42-21 victory against Washington State last week. (Sorry, X is tough.)

Y is for Yom Kippur, the day on which ex-Wisconsin fullback Matt Bernstein, a k a "The Hebrew Hammer," rushed for 123 yards in a 16-3 victory against Penn State in 2004.

Z is for Zucker, as in Jerry, the Wisconsin alumnus who picked the right year to direct a spoof (Airplane!) on disaster movies in 1980.