Sports
Team Player - Ebba Gebisa
Five things to know about Ebba Gebisa, a forward for the Badger basketball team:
— Michael Penn
- A junior from West Lafayette, Indiana, Ebba is no stranger to Big Ten basketball. She and sister Lello, a senior center for the Badgers, grew up a few blocks from Purdue University, where their parents are both on staff.
- Ebba was delighted when Lello transferred from Duke to play at Wisconsin. Even at six feet, three inches tall, she still looks up to her big sister, in more ways than one. Lello is six-seven.
- She wears number 25 because her father, Gebisa Ejeta, had that number when he played basketball in his native Ethiopia.
- Ebba scored a career-high twenty points against Northwestern last season, but her best statistic may be 3.8 — her grade point average. That performance made her an Athletic Board Scholar, one of the highest academic honors for UW athletes.
- If it weren't for basketball, Ebba might be scoring a different kind of goal. She was an all-conference soccer player in high school.
— Michael Penn
Swimmers Take a Grumpy Ride
There are a number of ways to traverse the nine-mile stretch of crystal-blue ocean that separates the Hawaiian islands of Lanai and Maui. Some people scoot across the waves in motorboats. Others take planes or passenger ferries. But, for Brad Horner ‘77, MS'80, MS'83, MBA'90, there's only one way to go in style:
Freestyle.
Horner, a three-time All-American Badger swimmer from 1974 to 1976, is also a three-time participant in the Maui Channel Swim, an annual test of will in which more than three hundred of the world's top competitive swimmers stroke their way across the Au'au Channel from Lanai to Maui. Billed as the greatest weekend in open-water racing, it's fast becoming the world's biggest Wisconsin swim party.
The forty-nine-year-old Horner, an associate partner with IBM Business Consulting Services, organized the Grumpy Old Badgers, a group of intergenerational former UW and Madison-area swimmers who first competed at the Labor Day weekend event two years ago. With career achievements as bright as their Badger-red T-shirts, the teammates have made quite a splash at the event, which usually attracts a galaxy of former Olympians and record setters. This year, twenty-five men and women with Wisconsin ties made the trip to the islands for what Horner describes as “about forty minutes of torture combined with three days of a heck of a lot of fun.”
Freestyle.
Horner, a three-time All-American Badger swimmer from 1974 to 1976, is also a three-time participant in the Maui Channel Swim, an annual test of will in which more than three hundred of the world's top competitive swimmers stroke their way across the Au'au Channel from Lanai to Maui. Billed as the greatest weekend in open-water racing, it's fast becoming the world's biggest Wisconsin swim party.
The forty-nine-year-old Horner, an associate partner with IBM Business Consulting Services, organized the Grumpy Old Badgers, a group of intergenerational former UW and Madison-area swimmers who first competed at the Labor Day weekend event two years ago. With career achievements as bright as their Badger-red T-shirts, the teammates have made quite a splash at the event, which usually attracts a galaxy of former Olympians and record setters. This year, twenty-five men and women with Wisconsin ties made the trip to the islands for what Horner describes as “about forty minutes of torture combined with three days of a heck of a lot of fun.”
Let's start with torture. In the race's team division, six-person teams trade off for half-hour segments legging it out toward Maui, a journey that can take anywhere from three to seven hours depending on conditions. A few true sadists tackle the distance on their own, completing what amounts to about 290 lengths of an Olympic-sized pool.
Except that this pool comes with strong currents. And big waves. And sharks.
“I'm used to swimming in pools, where the lanes are marked and you can see the bottom,” says Art Luetke ‘68, a fifty-seven-year-old Madison property manager and Big Ten swimming official, who competed for the first time this year. “There, I'm looking down and seeing all this clear blue water, and I'm wondering where Jaws is.”
“It's a completely different kind of swimming,” Horner says, “and a completely different kind of test of your body. It can be like swimming in a washing machine.”
That's what drew Horner to the race. A former world record holder in masters swimming competitions, he hadn't experienced open-water racing until 1997, when Madison native and three-time Olympic gold medalist Jim Montgomery talked him into joining his Maui relay team. After a successful and shark-free race (there are always sightings, but never attacks, Horner says), he was hooked. He returned in 2001 with Brett Phillips ‘80, Jim Sorensen ‘81, Greg Hansen ‘95, Eric Seversen ‘96, and Curt LaCount ‘83, the original Grumpy Old Badgers, and the six started planning the 2003 trip almost even before they hit the beach.
Except that this pool comes with strong currents. And big waves. And sharks.
“I'm used to swimming in pools, where the lanes are marked and you can see the bottom,” says Art Luetke ‘68, a fifty-seven-year-old Madison property manager and Big Ten swimming official, who competed for the first time this year. “There, I'm looking down and seeing all this clear blue water, and I'm wondering where Jaws is.”
“It's a completely different kind of swimming,” Horner says, “and a completely different kind of test of your body. It can be like swimming in a washing machine.”
That's what drew Horner to the race. A former world record holder in masters swimming competitions, he hadn't experienced open-water racing until 1997, when Madison native and three-time Olympic gold medalist Jim Montgomery talked him into joining his Maui relay team. After a successful and shark-free race (there are always sightings, but never attacks, Horner says), he was hooked. He returned in 2001 with Brett Phillips ‘80, Jim Sorensen ‘81, Greg Hansen ‘95, Eric Seversen ‘96, and Curt LaCount ‘83, the original Grumpy Old Badgers, and the six started planning the 2003 trip almost even before they hit the beach.
With help from about a dozen alumni, Horner sent letters to some five hundred former UW swimmers and divers, eventually setting up four six-person teams, as well as one swimmer, Doug Bosley ‘85, who went it alone. With family and friends along, the Badger contingent was one of the largest groups at the event, which drew fifty-seven relay teams and fifteen individual competitors. The four Grumpy Old Badgers team boats, each flying a red Bucky banner, were so noticeable that one opposing boat captain shouted out scores of the Wisconsin-West Virginia football game, which was running concurrently on ESPN.
Wisconsin's imprint on the race results has been equally hard to miss. In 2002, Jim Sorensen, who holds the world record for his age group in the two-hundred-meter individual medley, set the Maui record for the fastest individual crossing, finishing in a little more than three hours. Badgers have also fared well in the relays, where they've gone stroke-for-stroke with teams featuring 2000 Olympians Amanda Beard and Klete Keller. This year, Sorensen, Montgomery, Phillips, Seversen, Cris Williams ‘83, PhD'90, and former Hungarian national champion Valter Kalaus ‘96 won the championship among teams totaling 240 years of age.
“We weren't there to take a bath,” says Luetke, whose team finished fourth in the senior division, where racers average at least fifty years of age. “Swimming is an individual sport, and you don't get many chances to swim with teammates. And that's where all the pressure lies. You don't want to let anyone down.”
Wisconsin's imprint on the race results has been equally hard to miss. In 2002, Jim Sorensen, who holds the world record for his age group in the two-hundred-meter individual medley, set the Maui record for the fastest individual crossing, finishing in a little more than three hours. Badgers have also fared well in the relays, where they've gone stroke-for-stroke with teams featuring 2000 Olympians Amanda Beard and Klete Keller. This year, Sorensen, Montgomery, Phillips, Seversen, Cris Williams ‘83, PhD'90, and former Hungarian national champion Valter Kalaus ‘96 won the championship among teams totaling 240 years of age.
“We weren't there to take a bath,” says Luetke, whose team finished fourth in the senior division, where racers average at least fifty years of age. “Swimming is an individual sport, and you don't get many chances to swim with teammates. And that's where all the pressure lies. You don't want to let anyone down.”
That shared experience, along with the presence of former UW coach Jack Pettinger, who regularly took his teams to Hawaii during winter break, gave the trip the gauzy feel of a reunion. Many of the racers from different eras didn't meet until they arrived in Hawaii, but the group had little trouble bridging the generation gap, Horner says.
“We have so much in common, particularly our coach. It was easy to get a party going real fast,” he says.
The swimmers hope to convene for the channel swim in odd-numbered years, when the race doesn't conflict with international masters championships. Horner asks that anyone interested in learning more about the 2005 channel swim — or about a Madison reunion for former swimmers and divers — contact him at bhorner@us.ibm.com.
“This is the start of [UW swimming and diving alumni] getting a lot closer,” he says. There's only one problem: with their spirit and competitive success, the Grumpy Old Badgers aren't living up to their name. They don't swim like they're old, and, in Maui, it's pretty hard to be grumpy.
— Michael Penn
“We have so much in common, particularly our coach. It was easy to get a party going real fast,” he says.
The swimmers hope to convene for the channel swim in odd-numbered years, when the race doesn't conflict with international masters championships. Horner asks that anyone interested in learning more about the 2005 channel swim — or about a Madison reunion for former swimmers and divers — contact him at bhorner@us.ibm.com.
“This is the start of [UW swimming and diving alumni] getting a lot closer,” he says. There's only one problem: with their spirit and competitive success, the Grumpy Old Badgers aren't living up to their name. They don't swim like they're old, and, in Maui, it's pretty hard to be grumpy.
— Michael Penn
In Season - Men's Basketball
Bo, Boo, ‘Do, and the gang go after a third straight Big Ten championship, something that hasn't happened at Wisconsin since 1914, when Walter Meanwell's boys won their third consecutive title.
Circle the dates: December 20, against Marquette in an ESPN telecast; February 22, at Michigan, on CBS; March 18–19, NCAA tournament play begins.
Keep an eye on: Guard Devin Harris is one of only three players in school history to start every game in their first two seasons. And don't count out Brian Butch, a high-school Parade All-American.
Think about this: In a sure sign that fans expect a memorable year, every home game this season has already sold out, the first time that has happened since the Kohl Center opened.
Circle the dates: December 20, against Marquette in an ESPN telecast; February 22, at Michigan, on CBS; March 18–19, NCAA tournament play begins.
Keep an eye on: Guard Devin Harris is one of only three players in school history to start every game in their first two seasons. And don't count out Brian Butch, a high-school Parade All-American.
Think about this: In a sure sign that fans expect a memorable year, every home game this season has already sold out, the first time that has happened since the Kohl Center opened.
”Jump“ Lives On
During a timeout early in the 1998 football season, the loudspeakers at Camp Randall Stadium crackled with the infectious strains of a hip-hop song called “Jump Around.” Students took it literally, creating a tradition that now rivals “Varsity” for mass participation. Now, when the song is played at the end of the third quarter of Badger home games, it tends to turn the stadium into a human popcorn popper.
Until this year's home opener against Akron, that is. Concerns about the stability of Camp Randall's upper deck, which sways palpably when fans jump, led athletics officials to stop playing the number — a decision that didn't sit well with fans who didn't want to sit.
Outraged students considered passing a resolution declaring their intentions to jump, even if the song weren't played. A quick re-examination of the stadium's engineering, however, spared the tune. “The amplitude of the motion in the upper deck, while enough to be physically noticeable, is actually very, very small and far below any risk to the structural integrity of the deck,” Chancellor John Wiley wrote in an e-mail giving the green light to “Jump.”
There's irony to the timing of the whole episode. This season also marks the twenty-fifth year of the Fifth Quarter, the now-famous post-game band performance. That tradition was born of a similar decision to suspend playing the popular “You've Said It All” until after the game — again, because it created uncomfortable sensations for upper-deck patrons.
— M.P.
Until this year's home opener against Akron, that is. Concerns about the stability of Camp Randall's upper deck, which sways palpably when fans jump, led athletics officials to stop playing the number — a decision that didn't sit well with fans who didn't want to sit.
Outraged students considered passing a resolution declaring their intentions to jump, even if the song weren't played. A quick re-examination of the stadium's engineering, however, spared the tune. “The amplitude of the motion in the upper deck, while enough to be physically noticeable, is actually very, very small and far below any risk to the structural integrity of the deck,” Chancellor John Wiley wrote in an e-mail giving the green light to “Jump.”
There's irony to the timing of the whole episode. This season also marks the twenty-fifth year of the Fifth Quarter, the now-famous post-game band performance. That tradition was born of a similar decision to suspend playing the popular “You've Said It All” until after the game — again, because it created uncomfortable sensations for upper-deck patrons.
— M.P.
