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Early UW Mascot: Regdab the Badger!
Three Wisconsin football players with their badger mascot in the late 1940s. A live badger was actually used as a mascot at football games for a short period of time in the 1940s, but he would often escape his handlers and was determined to be too dangerous to attend live events.
As a result, he was donated to the Vilas Zoo, and a raccoon named “Regdab” (“Badger” spelled backwards) took over as mascot. The costumed Bucky mascot we know and love today was first introduced to campus in 1949.
For more information about this photo or UW-Madison campus history, visit http://archives.library.wisc.edu.
Posted by Molly Temple for UW Archives
