Those Fans in Red-and-White at Panther-Badger Game? They Go to UWM

One of the most anticipated games in the recent history of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men’s basketball occurred on Dec. 10. Inside a near sold out UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, the #5 Wisconsin Badgers were in town to take on the UWM Panthers.

The tension was evident, though, even before the opening tip. Students booed the Badgers as they entered the arena for pregame warmups. And Panthers who showed up to the game donning red-and-white were greeted with chants, some of which cannot be printed here.

Yes, you read that right. Panthers. Wearing red-and-white at a game between the Panthers and the Badgers. And it wasn’t by accident.

Another overarching theme, other than the conflict which took place on the court, was another type of conflict that was occurring across campus as well on social media. Many UWM students fearlessly showed their Badger pride, some from head-to-toe. Others just took to the Internet to do it.

They seemed to simply not be able to let go of the fandom for the team that some of them had cheered for their entire lives, even if it would be for just one night.

One of these students was Gabe Stoltz, another UWM freshman. He was impressed and happy with what he saw from the Badgers.

“It was a good game to see. I’m a huge Badger fan, so it was nice to see them play well.” However, there was one thing that he was not happy with. Stoltz says, “I was upset that I couldn’t see them break 90.”

Once the game started, however, that excitement turned into a feeling of somberness for the black-and-gold wearing fans anyway as the Badgers took a large first half lead capped off by a thunderous alley-oop dunk by junior forward Sam Dekker.

The Panthers would go to the locker room at halftime down 45-24. UWM freshman Miguel Browne called it a “slaughter.” It would only get worse for the Panthers in the second half. Even with the Badgers’ second team in the game, with players such as Duje Dukan and Bronson Koenig, the Panthers would be outscored 48-30 in the final 20 minutes to get the final score of 93-54.

While the “fight” around campus may have been all in good fun and competition, the battle on social media was much more personal. Comments were made such as “UWM has a basketball team?” and “How can you cheer for a team whose players aren’t smart enough to make the tourney this year” were thrown around, primarily on the popular anonymous social media platform Yik Yak.

Several comments were also directed at those openly supporting the Badgers. These fans were called “not real UWM students” and “Madison rejects.” While some took these remarks to heart, many of them took them with class. All in all, Wednesday’s game and afterwards showed that while sometimes students may cheer for an “enemy”, it the end, they are all one big, proud group.