The punch that killed Wisconsin boxing
Don’t want the New Badger Partnership? Fine, just give UW the funding it needs OPINION
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A history of UW’s most prolific program and the death that destroyed it
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University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Thursday, April 21, 2011
Commission approves street drinking at Mifflin By Taylor Harvey The Daily Cardinal
The Madison Street Use Commission unanimously decided Monday to grant final approval to the Majestic Theater in sponsoring this year’s Mifflin Street Block Party. For the first time ever, those of legal age are permitted to drink on the streets within the event zone. Madison Police Officer Carl Gloede said he hopes this will “change an event that has traditionally had serious alcohol problems and other issues into a more positive event.” Beer, water and food vendors will be located throughout the event zone to generate revenue to cover the event and taxpayer
costs. One live music stage will be located on Mifflin Street in between Bassett Street and Broom Street. Performances will begin at 11 a.m. and end at around 7 p.m. City officials said they hope the live music scene will draw people out of the houses and backyards and onto the street. “There is a strong feeling within [Capitol Neighborhoods Inc.] to try and have a more positive experience focused on entertainment rather than drinking,” CNI representative Scott Kolar said. Madison city officials said mifflin page 2
ASM OKs shared governance after passing latest legislation By Anna Duffin The Daily Cardinal
The Associated Students of Madison passed legislation Wednesday declaring the group has the right to make shared governance decisions alongside faculty and staff. Last week, members of the Wisconsin Union Council objected this legislation, saying it would give ASM too much power. “This is not ASM consolidating power, this is students having a voice on campus.” Sarah Neibart representative asm
Representative Sarah Neibart and other members of ASM said the legislation was not intended to give ASM power, but to allow students to make a difference in
decision-making. “This is not ASM consolidating power, this is students having a voice on campus,” Neibart said. Also at the meeting, the council passed the creation of an ASM Sustainability Committee. According to Representative Carl Fergus and Neibart, who proposed the implementation of the committee, the Sustainability Committee will address issues concerning environmental sustainability and bring together groups on campus that focus on these issues. “I think the whole idea of this committee is to be a place where students can give an official voice to things on sustainability issues,” Fergus said. Student Council also passed changes to the eligibility requirements for groups to receive funding from the Student Services Finance Committee at the meeting. asm page 3
‘bucky you can drive my car’
Grace Liu/cardinal file photo
JoAnne Kloppenburg announced her intent to pursue a statewide recount of the state supreme court election results. The GAB said the recount may start as soon as April 25.
Kloppenburg requests recount in court race By Ben Siegel and Scott Girard The Daily Cardinal
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg announced Wednesday she would seek a statewide recount of the results of the April 5 election. “It is right for me, it is right for my campaign, it is right for my supporters, and it is right for the people of Wisconsin,” Kloppenburg said. Last week’s tallies put Kloppenburg 7,316 votes behind incumbent Justice David Prosser, a margin slim enough to allow for a recount to be conducted at the expense of the state. The margin of difference was .488 percent, falling within the .5 percent threshold required for the state to foot the bill. Following Prosser’s victory, members of his campaign urged Kloppenburg not to ask for a recount, claiming the process would be a costly drain on the time and resources of the state. Stern words from Prosser’s campaign continued Wednesday
in response to Kloppenburg’s announcement. “We learned something this afternoon from JoAnne Kloppenburg … The only way she can achieve her nakedly political goal is to do one thing: challenge and disenfranchise thousands of Wisconsin citizens who exercised their right to vote April 5th and believed this election over,” Prosser campaign spokesman Brian Nemoir said in a press release.
“[A recount] is right for the people of Wisconsin.”
JoAnne Kloppenburg candidate wisconsin supreme court
One person in the crowd of Kloppenburg supporters at her press conference Wednesday agreed with the Prosser campaign. The man
repeatedly heckled her about the costs of a recount, but Kloppenburg ignored the comments. Kloppenburg had until Wednesday to file a recount request with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the state agency that presides over election disputes. “We have been preparing for a recount since election night,” GAB director and general counsel Kevin Kennedy said in a statement. “We anticipate the recount will begin the week of April 25.” Official state recount procedure indicates canvassers from counties with disputed results will conduct the recount, though Kloppenburg specifically requested a special investigator to examine the results from Waukesha County. Votes from Waukesha County were initially omitted from a tally due to a clerical error, the correction of which swung the election from Kloppenburg to Prosser.
State will investigate sick notes given out at Feb. protests
Brett Blaske/the daily cardinal
Students and Bucky participated the Jump Around and Drive building Wednesday. The event was sponsored by the Wisconsin Consulting Club.
The Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing and the Medical Examining Board opened investigations into medical excuses written by eight medical professionals for protesters at the Capitol in February. The DRL sent out a press release Wednesday to explain the decision, and said 11 individu-
als had been asked to explain themselves following complaints the DRL received. However, a panel made up of three MEB members determined only eight of the 11 cases warranted further investigation. The panel determined the other three individuals did nothing wrong, according to DRL
communications director David Carlson. According to the release, a more extensive investigation process will determine if any illegal actions occurred. At the end of each investigation, it will be decided whether any disciplinary action is necessary, Carlson said in the release.
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”
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tODAY: partly sunny hi 54º / lo 35º
Biddy addresses grad students’ NBP worries
An independent student newspaper, serving the University of Wisconsin-Madison community since 1892 Volume 120, Issue 129
2142 Vilas Communication Hall 821 University Avenue Madison, Wis., 53706-1497 (608) 262-8000 • fax (608) 262-8100
By Alison Bauter
News and Editorial
the daily cardinal
edit@dailycardinal.com
Chancellor Biddy Martin answered student and staffs’ questions on the New Badger Partnership in Mitchell Theater Tuesday, and addressed graduate students’ concerns specifically. Some graduate students in the audience said they felt the New Badger Partnership could be a good business decision for the university but, according to Casey Schmitt, “from a graduate student’s perspective, we’re more concerned with education.” “I’m not sure where my place is in a market-driven system,” said Schmitt, a graduate student in communications arts. “I feel like I’m expendable.” Drawing on her own time in UW-Madison’s graduate program, Martin said she understood Schmitt’s concerns. “You need to have the best faculty in the country to work with, otherwise you wouldn’t be here,” said Martin. “If we don’t have more flexibility … your great faculty are going to leave, and young faculty aren’t going to come here.” Martin also said she shared some graduates’ concerns about future wages when Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed collective bargaining bill becomes law. She assured graduate students even without the force of law
Editor in Chief Emma Roller
Managing Editor Parker Gabriel
News Team Campus Editor Kayla Johnson City Editor Maggie DeGroot State Editor Ariel Shapiro Enterprise Editor Alison Dirr Associate News Editor Scott Girard Senior News Reporter Adam Wollner Opinion Editors Dan Tollefson • Samantha Witthuhn Editorial Board Chair Hannah Furfaro Arts Editors Jeremy Gartzke • Todd Stevens Sports Editors Mark Bennett • Ryan Evans Page Two Editor Victoria Statz Life & Style Editor Stephanie Rywak Features Editor Stephanie Lindholm Photo Editors Ben Pierson • Kathryn Weenig Graphics Editors Dylan Moriarty • Natasha Soglin Multimedia Editors Erin Banco • Eddy Cevilla • Briana Nava Page Designers Claire Silverstein • Joy Shin Copy Chiefs Margaret Raimann • Rachel Schulze Jacqueline O’Reilly • Nico Savidge Copy Editors Corrine Burgermeister, Rachel Rubenstein
Business and Advertising business@dailycardinal.com Business Manager Cole Wenzel Advertising Manager Nick Bruno Senior Account Executive Mara Greenwald Account Executives Matt Jablon • Anna Jeon Mitchell Keuer • Becca Krumholz Emily Rosenbaum • Daniel Rothberg Lizzie Stevenson • Shinong Wang Sun Yoon Web Director Eric Harris Public Relations Manager Becky Tucci Events Manager Bill Clifford Art Directors Jaime Flynn • Claire Silverstein Copywriters Dustin Bui • Bob Sixsmith The Daily Cardinal is a nonprofit organization run by its staff members and elected editors. It receives no funds from the university. Operating revenue is generated from advertising and subscription sales. The Daily Cardinal is published weekdays and distributed at the University of WisconsinMadison and its surrounding community with a circulation of 10,000. Capital Newspapers, Inc. is the Cardinal’s printer. The Daily Cardinal is printed on recycled paper. The Cardinal is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. All copy, photographs and graphics appearing in The Daily Cardinal are the sole property of the Cardinal and may not be reproduced without written permission of the editor in chief. The Daily Cardinal accepts advertising representing a wide range of views. This acceptance does not imply agreement with the views expressed. The Cardinal reserves the right to reject advertisements judged offensive based on imagery, wording or both. Complaints: News and editorial complaints should be presented to the editor in chief. Business and advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager. Letters Policy: Letters must be word processed and must include contact information. No anonymous letters will be printed. All letters to the editor will be printed at the discretion of The Daily Cardinal. Letters may be sent to opinion@ dailycardinal.com.
Editorial Board Hannah Furfaro • Miles Kellerman Emma Roller • Samuel Todd Stevens Parker Gabriel • Dan Tollefson Samantha Witthuhn • Nico Savidge
Board of Directors Melissa Anderson, President Emma Roller • Cole Wenzel Parker Gabriel • Vince Filak Janet Larson • Nick Bruno Jenny Sereno • Chris Drosner Ron Luskin • Joan Herzing Jason Stein © 2011, The Daily Cardinal Media Corporation ISSN 0011-5398
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behind unions, the university would still bargain “in good faith” with graduates. “What you’re making [as a salary] is ridiculous, and we at the university … know we won’t be able to keep you at this rate,” Martin told teaching assistants. Schmitt said although he was still skeptical, he appreciated the response. “Today, [Martin] did add bits to the discourse I hadn’t seen come up before,” Schmitt said. The chancellor also stressed the importance of maintaining the university’s commitment to diversity, saying undergraduate initiatives and performing arts programs such as First Wave, Posse and PEOPLE would still “be held as high priorities.” When answering those who questioned the New Badger Partnership’s potential to pass in the legislature, Martin was optimistic. “I don’t think we have the votes we need right now,” she said. “But I think [the New Badger Partnership] has a good chance of passing.” Martin said she sent out e-mails to students and staff hoping that those in favor of the partnership could help dispel misinformation. “The e-mails are not meant to imply that you have to agree [with the New Badger Partnership],” Martin said. “They’re meant to imply that if you do agree; help.”
Wisconsin Democrats ask Walker to retain SeniorCare Wisconsin Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C wrote a letter to Gov. Scott Walker Wednesday urging him to not go forward with his proposed changes to the prescription drug program SeniorCare in the biennial budget. U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Ron Kind, D-Wis. and Gwen Moore, D-Wis., said the SeniorCare program has been “extremely successful and popular” because it is simple and saves taxpayers money. “The SeniorCare program is a popular, cost-efficient program,” the letter read. “We urge you to not push forward with your budget proposal to alter the program.” Under Walker’s plan, the 91,000 seniors participating in the program would be required to first enroll in the federal program Medicare Part D—which subsidized the cost of perscription drugs—when applying for SeniorCare.
mifflin from page 1 this year’s new conduct plan and model will be taken into consideration for future Mifflin Street Block Party planning, but did not project how the event will be run in years to come. Mayor Paul Soglin said he hopes the Mifflin Street Block Party will be discussed by Common Council. “This is such a break from what we’ve had in the past,” Soglin said. “Given how signifi-
The lawmakers said this change in the program “would effectively remove the many benefits that seniors like about the program such as quick enrollment, straight-forward benefits, and a generous drug formulary.” Walker’s proposal would require approval from the Department of Health and Human Services if it passes. In the letter, the Democrats said they would ask Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reject the proposal if it goes that far. These four Democrats are not the first lawmakers to ask Walker to leave SeniorCare intact. State legislators, including Republican state Sens. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac, have also publicly stated their opposition to Walker’s proposal and have pledged to preserve the program. —Adam Wollner cant this is, this is a change of policy which very frankly should have gone to City Council.” The annual meeting held by Verveer and event sponsors will be on April 25 to further discuss the Mifflin Street Block Party with Mifflin Street residents. The block party will also feature a performances from many artists and DJs including F. Stokes, Shinobi Ninja, STEEZ, Dirty Disco Kidz, DJ Radish and DJ Pain 1 & The Cranberry Show.
hi 51º / lo 45º
dailycardinal.com/news
Thursday, April 21, 2011
friday: rainy
‘earth’ to uw-madison
Kathryn Weenig/the daily cardinal
A UW-Madison student asks a question at an Earth Day event at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. WID held a series of panels to discuss current issues in the environment.
UW-Madison alum receives Pulitzer Prize for report on medical mystery U W- M a d i s o n alum Kathleen Gallagher received a Pulitzer Prize Monday for a report on doctors’ diagnosis of a young boy’s previously unknown disease. Gallagher and her team of four other journalists from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed physicians’ work in a series of videos, graphics, photos and stories. Gallagher’s report focused on doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin who conducted tests and analyzed Volker’s DNA to find a diagnosis.
The Pulitzer judges called the series a “lucid examination of an epic effort to use genetic technology to save a 4-year-old boy imperiled by a mysterious disease.” Four-year-old Nicholas Volker suffers from an unknown disease that caused deterioration of his digestive system. Gallagher graduated in 1981 from the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism. She now works as a business reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covering investments and Wisconsin’s life sciences.
dailycardinal.com/news
Thursday, April 21, 2011
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Journalism professor urges narrative writing for science Pulitzer Prize-winning UW-Madison Journalism Professor Deborah Blum discussed the process of writing a successful scientific book through a journalistic lens at a Go Big
Read lecture Wednesday. Blum said there is a stigma that scientific books only explain scientific issues in a non-narrative way. She said this year’s Go Big Read book, Rebecca Skloot’s
grace liu/the daily cardinal
UW-Madison journalism professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Deborah Blum gives a lecture as part of Go Big Read.
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” is an exception because it addresses a specific scientific issue in a narrative way. Chancellor Biddy Martin created The Go Big Read program last year to generate conversation among students by selecting one book annually to be included in the curriculums of select classes. Skloot’s book is about the preservation Henrietta Lacks’ 60-year-old cancerous cells for research. The book focuses on the controversy of bioethics and whether Lack’s cells belong to research doctors or her family members. Blum said authors should write in a narrative way to enhance interest and reading pleasure for the reader. Blum said she believes Skloot’s characters create a narrative journey by giving their individual perspectives on the Lack situation. She said this is a strategy authors use to focus the reader’s attention on specific important aspects of the story. Blum commended Skloot’s ten-year dedication to writing the book, but cautioned future authors from devoting too much of their lives to one project. “You have to force yourself not to let the book become you,” Blum said. —Kelly Kallien
kathryn weenig/the daily cardinal
Future ASM graduate student representative Nneka Akubeze spoke during open forum at an ASM meeting Wednesday night.
asm
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SSFC member Rae Lymer said the changes would help prevent confusion regarding groups’ eligibility. “Overall, this is to address a lot of the issues we have been having with [Student Judiciary] and also to make requirements more specific,” Lymer said. Representative Andrea Nichols said she fears the changes would raise segregated fees for students. Lymer said the changes would not affect segregated fees, but change what is incorporated in the budget.
According to Lymer, some of the changes would more clearly define members of student groups on campus and clarify what counts as “direct service.” ASM will take a final vote on all of the items from Wednesday’s meeting next week. Also at the meeting, ASM voted down the Campus Services Fund. According to SSFC Chair Matt Manes, the CSF would allow ASM to provide students with services they deem necessary. Other ASM members, however, said the proposal was too rushed to pass.
opinion dailycardinal.com/opinion
Thursday, April 21, 2011
view Cardinal View editorials represent The Daily Cardinal’s organizational opinion. Each editorial is crafted independent of news coverage.
state legislature: put up or shut up
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t is fair to say the New Badger Partnership has ruffled some feathers across the state. Members of other Wisconsin state universities have said the plan to break UW-Madison from the UW System will hinder its ability to properly function. The campus far left has called the plan an attempt to privatize the university. State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, has made it his mission to stop the initiative, announcing Tuesday his quest to remove the New Badger Partnership from the upcoming budget proceedings.
Nass and Vos can proceed with their shortsighted pandering, but if that’s the path they choose to take they better be prepared to show us some cash.
None of these complaints have proven particularly credible— especially those from Nass, considering he would likely oppose a cure for the common cold if he knew it came from UW-Madison. What bothered us the most was Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair State Rep. Robin Vos’ statement earlier this week that
the New Badger Partnership was “a lot for [the legislature] to think about,” and that it might be too large a task to tackle in the current budget cycle. It must be difficult for Vos to keep up with the ongoing budget crisis after he and the rest of the state government exhausted themselves stripping the state’s spoiled teachers and prison guards of their collective bargaining rights. But it’s hard to feel sympathy for an elected official whose reason for possibly stalling worthwhile and necessary restructuring of the Wisconsin university infrastructure is, “Government is hard.” But more important than Vos’ patently ridiculous excuse is the lie beneath it. This is not about a lack of time. This is about UW System schools putting pressure on their local representatives. And that pressure is about money, plain and simple. If you want to throw the brakes on the New Badger Partnership, fine. Nass and Vos can proceed with their shortsighted pandering, but if that’s the path they choose to take they better be prepared to show us some cash. Mike Mikalsen, spokesman for Nass’ office, told The Daily Cardinal the budget cuts and the New Badger Partnership are separate matters that don’t necessarily go together. But consider-
ing that the UW administration’s entire plan to deal with these budget cuts revolves around the New Badger Partnership and the cost-saving measures contained therein, this is simply not true. In Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget, UW-Madison is slotted to take half of the $250 million in cuts to the whole UW system, despite the fact that it only accounts for 38 percent of the funding. You don’t need to be a math major to realize this isn’t a fair split—that’s why the New Badger Partnership was put forth: To give Chancellor Biddy Martin and UW-Madison administration the necessary tools to deal with a greater share of the burden.
It’s really that simple, legislators. Give UW-Madison the autonomy it desires or give us $25 million.
Oh, and by the way: You’re welcome, other UW System campuses, for taking that load off your backs. We await your thank you card in the mail with baited breath. As much as we love our fellow UW System schools, it does Wisconsin no good to keep the state’s local campuses at the status quo while the crown jewel gets crippled. Either let UW-Madison handle its unduly large share of cuts in its own way or spread the pain equally. It’s really that simple, legislators. Give UW-Madison the autonomy it desires or give us $25 million. The third option is to turn UW-Madison into the Midwest’s pre-eminent safety school. It’s obvious to us that last option is one to avoid. Trust us, we get a pretty good education here—at least, for now.
Tell us something we don’t know E-mail us at opinion@dailycardinal.com
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Well, Magneto won’t be robbing a bank any time soon... Only one U.S. coin can be picked up with a magnet: The zinc-coated steel penny produced during World War II. dailycardinal.com/comics
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Today’s Sudoku
Accepting the nearing end of the semester
Evil Bird
By Caitlin Kirihara kirihara@wisc.edu
© Puzzles by Pappocom
Eatin’ Cake
By Dylan Moriarty EatinCake@gmail.com
Solution, tips and computer program available at www.sudoku.com.
Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.
The Pipesmokers Classic
By Joseph Diedrich jsdiedrich@wisc.edu
Today’s Crossword Puzzle
The Graph Giraffe Classic
By Yosef Lerner graphics@dailycardinal.com
By D.T. dtollefson@wisc.edu
Hoop Dreams Answer key available at www.dailycardinal.com Come on in!
ACROSS 1 Drained of blood 6 Speech coach’s challenge 10 Common settler? 14 Mushroom-to-be 15 Social starter 16 Not had by 17 Typing instructor’s concern 19 Unpleasant smell 20 Wrap up 21 To date 22 Litter’s littlest 23 Conclusion 25 Type of conjunctivitis 27 Place for a cotillion 32 Untruth 33 Mishmash or medley 34 ___ the Terrible 36 Hopeful lover’s item 40 Mil. org. on campus 41 Philbin of TV 43 Chute opener? 44 Socially awkward ones 46 Latvia’s largest city 47 Cinema sign 48 Bro, to sis 50 Sodium ___ (table salt) 52 Chubbier 56 Price indicator 57 Rajah’s wife
58 Third bk. of the Bible 0 Vocal style 6 65 Leave out 66 Receptive to new ideas 68 ___ child (pregnant) 69 Wolfe of crime fiction 70 It precedes “fast” and follows “home” 71 Big name in chips 72 Tickled 73 Legions DOWN 1 Inquires 2 Gush forth 3 Georgetown player 4 Formerly, in olden days 5 Situated below 6 Language spoken in Vientiane 7 One of the Pac-Man ghosts 8 Brew, as tea 9 Stamen’s counterpart 10 Guard 11 Excessive, as force 12 Displaying no emotion 13 Rich dessert 18 “The Bathers” artist Pierre-Auguste 24 White Cliffs locale 26 ___ in the bud 27 Bjorn of tennis fame
28 Ingredient in many lotions 29 Beer choice 30 Helpers when keys are lost 31 Abracadabra stuff 35 “’Twas the ___ before Christmas ...” 37 What so loudly we hail? 38 Drought-stricken 39 In the wee hours 42 Muslim form of salutation 45 Use a straw 49 ___ to (be a member of) 51 Monstrous, a la Shrek 52 Search for prey, e.g. 53 Female monster 54 Opposite of separateness 55 Chase away 59 Designer Wang 61 Look ___ (investigate) 62 Poems of praise 63 Passengers’ selections 64 Chances 67 Wordless acknowledgment
Washington and the Bear
By Derek Sandberg kalarooka@gmail.com
sports
dailycardinal.com/sports
Thursday, April 21, 2011
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Softball
Badgers, Gophers spilt double header at Goodman By Hayley Kuepers the daily cardinal
The Wisconsin softball team topped the Minnesota Golden Gophers 5-3 in game two of a classic border battle Wednesday, after falling 1-0 in the first game. Game one was representative of the way things have gone for the Badgers this season. They stayed within arun of the Gophers for seven innings after Minnesota went up early, but were unable to come up with big hits in key situations and were shut out. Freshman Cassandra Darrah got the start for the Badgers in the circle. She struggled early, but eventually found her rhythm and held the Gophers to just one run. The Badgers had their best scoring opportunity in the fifth inning, but were unable to capitalize on freshman left fielder Mary Massei’s leadoff triple. The triple was especially exciting for Massei, who was making her first start since being injured March 26. Massei collided with fellow outfielder senior Jennifer Krueger at Penn State and suffered facial fractures that sidelined her for almost a month. “Putting my jersey back on after three and a half weeks and being there
with my team felt great,” Massei said. The Badgers, however, were unable to bring her in to score. Despite bringing up the top of the order in the sixth, the Badgers could not get anything going offensively and once again suffered another shut out defeat. Darrah walked in the only Minnesota run of the day, as her struggles to receive run support continue, and her record fell to 12-7. In the first inning of game two, sophomore catcher Kari Dorle gave her Minnesota team an early advantage with a two-run home run off sophomore pitcher Meghan McIntosh. The Gophers added another run in the second with an RBI single from senior first baseman Malisa Barnes. After being shutout in game one, the Badgers answered quickly with a four-run second inning in the second game. Throughout the season, the Badgers have taken themselves out of close games thanks in part to their costly errors. On Wednesday, however, the Badgers made Minnesota pay for their two untimely mistakes. Freshman shortstop Stephanie Peace ignited the Wisconsin offense with a one-out single in the second
inning of game two. She was followed in the lineup by freshman first baseman Michelle Mueller who hit a routine double play ball. But an error by Minnesota’s shortstop kept both runners on base for hot-hitting sophomore second baseman Whitney Massey., who singled to left field.
Peace was able to score Wisconsin’s first run of the day after the ball got away from the Gophers catcher. UW head coach Yvette Healy isaid she was proud of the way Massey has been hitting lately. “She did a nice job,” Healy said. “She got us some key hits and we’re really proud of her.”
Later in the second, with two outs and two runners still on, sophomore right fielder Kendall Grimm gave the Badgers their first lead of the day courtesy of the long ball. On the first pitch she saw, Grimm smashed the ball over the center field wall, putting the Badgers up 4-3, for the eventual 5-3 victory.
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Thursday, April 21, 2011
Knockout How the UW boxing program rose to dominance before falling in one swift hit.
By Mark Bennett
C
harlie Mohr and Stu Bartell were good friends. But on April 9, 1960, with a national title on the line, the two men were fierce enemies in the ring. In likely the final fight of his boxing career, Mohr was not only battling for a personal title, but also a victory over San Jose State’s Bartell that would secure a ninth NCAA team championship for Wisconsin. “If you wanted to have a brother or a son, Charlie was about the mold you would want him to come out of,” former teammate Bob Lynch said. “When he walked across campus he just lit the place up. Everyone wanted to know him. He was the most popular athlete on campus at that time” The first round was a wash. Both fighters were in their prime and on their game that night. Midway through round number two, Mohr went for a left jab at Bartell’s upper chest. Bartell dodged the brunt of the hit and countered with a powerful right to Mohr’s head. Mohr stumbled back to the ropes and went down hard. The referee called the match off. The young Wisconsin fighter from New York staggered back to the locker room where he collapsed into convulsions. Rushed to the hospital, Mohr underwent emergency surgery and spent the next week fighting for his life. “He always had a time for any and everybody,” Lynch said. On Easter Sunday, April 17, 1960, Charlie Mohr died.
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Wisconsin Boxing
seasons of competition
NCAA team championships
individual champions
Within a month, Wisconsin faculty voted to abolish the sport, and boxing had fought its final round. But as abrupt and dramatic as its ending was, the University of Wisconsin boxing program’s beginning was humble at best—a tie. March 21, 1933, the Badgers and St. Thomas College fought to a 4-4 draw in Wisconsin’s first dual match. For the next 27 years, ties—and especially losses—would be few and far between for the Badgers. Six years after that initial bout, Wisconsin claimed its first NCAA team championship April 17, 1939. There would be seven more team titles to follow, as well as 38 individual crowns overall. And with success came popularity. With popularity came the crowds. It was unusual to find a crowd of less than 10,000 at any dual match Wisconsin hosted. The team was the toast of the town, eclipsed only by the Badger football team, according to former Wisconsin boxer and 1951 NCAA Champion Dick Murphy. “There was a Friday night when there was a Joe Louis heavyweight worlds championship fight in Madison Square Garden that had an attendance of 11,000,” Murphy said. “That same night UW boxed Washington State in the Madison Field House and the attendance was 15,000.” Bob Lynch, who boxed at Wisconsin in the program’s final two seasons, credits much of the program’s success to its coach, John Walsh. “John Walsh was an extremely successful man,” Lynch said. “John worked with the boys’ heads awful well. He was so damn bright and really made them think.” Walsh, who also completed law school while coaching at Wisconsin, led the Badgers to all eight team titles. In fact, Walsh was so successful and well respected that, while still coaching at Wisconsin, a trophy to honor the
annual NCAA team champion was named in the coach’s honor. Heading into the 1950s however, college boxing began to take a hit as universities across the country dropped their programs. “Wisconsin was the last Big Ten school that had intercollegiate boxing. The next to last would have been Michigan State and right before then, University of Minnesota,” Lynch said. “So it was beginning to decline in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s basically because a number of schools were giving it up.” The sport of boxing began to take on generally negative connotations as well. Doug Moe, author of “Lords of the Ring,” a history of the UW boxing program, said the way professional boxing was racked with organized crime scandals shed a bad light on the sport overall. “There was this visceral feeling that boxing was not a sport that should be on good college campuses, and programs were dropping it,” Moe said. “The Badgers were having trouble scheduling enough teams during the season.” According to Moe, university faculty at Wisconsin had been trying to get rid of boxing since the late 1940s. With the death of Charlie Mohr, they had enough general sentiment to ban the sport. “It got so that the faculty and a lot of people around the community wanted to have the word boxing sound almost like a swear word,” Lynch said. “Some of the same people that approved of it, because of Charlie’s death, suddenly saw all the flaws and the faults in it.” Later that year, the NCAA followed suit, officially dropping its sponsorship of intercollegiate boxing. Today, college boxing has found new life. The National Collegiate
Boxing Association has sponsored a collegiate boxing league since 1976, currently featuring 35 universities, including three Big Ten schools. College boxing in the NCBA today does not hold the grandeur of NCAA boxing throughout the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, however, and likely never will. Instead, we are left only with the surviving memories of those like Dick Murphy, Bob Lynch and others who, if only for three short decades, made Madison the boxing capitol of the world.
Charlie Mohr Courtesy of the UW-Madison Archives