The University of Wisconsin's already controversial expansion of its athletics footprint near Camp Randall Stadium caused another stir when it appeared that bricks commemorating previous donations would be sacrificed to make way for a new practice facility.
However, as reported by Wisconsin Public Radio, university officials announced Thursday that the commemorative bricks will continue to be displayed near the stadium. The announcement followed an uproar from fans, who expressed their frustration about the possibility of the bricks being removed and returned to their respective benefactors. For three decades, donors to UW athletics have purchased personalized bricks, which line a walkway outside of Camp Randall that is being torn up, along with other structures on the property, to make room for the indoor football practice facility.
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The univerisity has been selling memorial bricks outside Camp Randall since the 1990s, and an advertisement in a 1993 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal urges readers to gift someone a brick for “permanent display” as a way to “assure their place in Badger athletic history," WPR's Sarah Lehr reported.
The athletics department is not currently selling the bricks, according to its fundraising website. As recently as 2021, fans could get a brick in exchange for a $150 tax-deductible donation, while a larger brick cost $350.
University officials had recently been circulating an online form, allowing donors to sign up to pick up their bricks between Monday and Thursday of next week.
In an email Thursday evening, UW athletic director Chris McIntosh said donors will continue to have the option to pick up their bricks, but the email also added some new information: It said bricks that aren’t picked up will eventually be displayed somewhere near Camp Randall. The exact location of that display has yet to be determined, the email said. None of the commemorative bricks will be discarded by the university, McIntosh wrote, as reported by WPR.
“I appreciate and acknowledge the emotions that are attached to the bricks,” McIntosh wrote. “There are very personal and meaningful stories associated with them and it was never our intent to dismiss that aspect of the bricks.”
According WPR's Lehr, Madison resident Andrew McCauley was among the Badger fans who pushed for the bricks to remain on public display. McCauley launched an online petition Aug. 21 that called on the university to preserve the bricks. The petition had garnered 1,324 signatures as of this writing.
“UW Athletics’ motto is Forever Forward, but you can’t forget those that kind of laid the foundation for where UW Athletics is now,” McCauley said prior to the Thursday evening announcement.
McCauley’s family purchased a brick in 2021. It memorializes Andrew McCauley’s father, Tom McCauley, who played baseball and football for the Badgers in the 1960s before playing three years in the NFL.
McCauley told WPR that he visits the brick on game days. “I just kind of either sit or stand next to the brick, and just kind of reflect on him and his life and what those Saturdays meant to him personally,” he said. “It kind of gets me ready for that busy day ahead.”
