Two Badgers made it their mission to attend all 23 varsity sports at UW–Madison in one year.
Blaine Renfert ’84 needed a distraction, something positive to look forward to during a tough time. His wife, Kim Renfert ’85 MS’93, knows that he loves a challenge, and both Badgers have always wanted to attend more sporting events. This is how the Badger Sports Challenge came about.
Between men’s and women’s varsity sports, there are 23 total, and not all are as easy to get to as basketball, for example. What was your first step to making this a successful challenge?
Kim: It required a lot of planning! Our first step was to go to uwbadgers.com and look through all the dates for the different teams. We got 16 sporting events by June, but the fall schedule doesn’t come out until the middle of the summer or later, so I’d be like "Did you look at the schedule? Has anything popped up?” We knew football would be easy to get to, but some of the sports would be more difficult, like golf and rowing.
So how did you attend those more-difficult-to-spectate sports?
Blaine: Golf, cross country, and rowing were all questionable. Ironically, I was a rower, but it’s kind of an east coast/west coast sport, so there aren’t a lot of competitions in Madison. When I was rowing (1979–84) they used to have something called the Midwest Rowing Championships on Lake Wingra, which was a cool meet.
Toward the end of the challenge, we had everything except women’s lightweight crew and women’s open weight crew, and they only had one competition in Madison all fall. They didn’t have any in the spring, and it was November 4. I'm thinking, “If the weather isn’t nice, and the water’s too rough, they’ll cancel this, and we’ll be two [sports] short.” But it turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we watched from the boathouse!
We went to University Ridge for both golf [teams]. It’s so beautiful out there. We were sitting out there on the first hole near the green… and we look up, and there are three deer that run across, and cranes fly over. The rough out there looks like a restored prairie. It’s an absolutely beautiful course.
To see a cross country meet we had to go to the far west side, near University Ridge. When we were there, other spectators asked us if we were parents, and I said, “No, my wife and I just wanted to watch a cross-country race.” They thought that was very cool.
What is your perspective of watching those less attended sports as a fan and not a parent or friend?
Blaine: I was surprised by tennis. There were very few spectators — mostly just friends and family — so you could sit right behind whichever athlete you wanted.
Kim: The smaller sports are [often] just the parents and family and friends, but not outside people looking to experience something. It surprised us how much we enjoyed some of the smaller, less-attended sports.
What sport surprised you by how much you enjoyed it?
Kim: I think, for me, it was wrestling. I had never been to a wrestling match in my life. This was the first one, and just the crowd understanding what was going on, the enthusiasm of the coach, and just watching it — it surprised me how much I enjoyed that. I would definitely go back to another wrestling match.
Blaine: I would go back to another wrestling match. Tennis, too — that was really fun. I’m also impressed by these athletes knowing that they’re full-time students at a place like University of Wisconsin. To be playing a sport at that level is like having two full-time jobs. It’s very impressive.
You’ve said, “If you’ve got a daughter, take her to softball.” Why?
Blaine: They’re passionate. They know the game. They know the players. They’re confident. One thing I loved about raising [our daughter] Logan, relative to when we were kids, is we could take Logan to see women’s hockey or women’s basketball or volleyball and see a fairly large number of fans watching female athletes and cheering them on. That really didn’t exist at the same level when I was a kid.
Do you have any tips for someone wanting to complete this challenge?
Kim: Get organized! We made a list and wrote down all the potential events we could attend. The ones circled are the events we went to. Go to the website, and look at the schedules of the different teams, and really plan in advance, and then plan to go back and keep looking, because the teams, as Blaine said, don’t announce games far in advance. However, if people are just taking the challenge just to attend, not necessarily within a one year, but to attend everything, there’s plenty of opportunity and time for that!
What’s your next challenge?
Blaine: I’m on a multiyear quest to watch the Badger football team play in all the Big Ten venues. I’m about halfway there, but they keep adding teams to the Big Ten, so it's not making the job any easier.
What message would you give to Badgers?
Kim: If you’re a current student, you’ll learn more about your school by experiencing a variety of sporting events. Plus, it’s relatively easy and cheap to do. Just look at what’s going on during any given weekend. I think we paid $6 to see wrestling. It’s also a great activity to do with your friends that doesn’t involve drinking or going to bars.
Blaine: If you find a sport that you really love, keep supporting it. You never know when they might become national champions. And if it’s a sport like tennis that gets very few spectators, then I’m sure the athletes appreciate hearing extra cheers.
Let’s challenge Badgers to 24 sports in 2024 — how can we do that?
Kim: You could add the UW band! That’d be a great way to recognize them because they are such an integral part of the UW sports. You could attend the band’s spring concert, or during football season, you can watch them practice on the Friday before a game. Bring your own lawn chair!
Do you accept the 2024 Badger Sports Challenge? Let us know how it goes! Tag us in your social media posts and use #WisAlumni
