Wisconsin fans came to get down at the 2011 Rose Bowl game, but anyone who has tried to get up, stand up, throw your hands up and jump across the ceiling -- even if you've got the feeling -- without House of Pain's "Jump Around" knows it can be awkward.
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Instead of their traditional end-of-third-quarter anthem, fans at the 2011 Rose Bowl heard a few public address announcements. Entertaining, but in a much different way than the raucous scene at Camp Randall Stadium.
"Seeing thousands of people jump around to no music was weird," said Wisconsin Alumni Association-LA Chapter member and former Bucky Badger mascot Derek Hildebrandt.
Click here to see video of what that looked like. The Badgers went on the lose, 21-19 to TCU.
But instead of packing it up and packing it in, the alumni club launched Operation Jump Around in advance of the Jan. 2 Rose Bowl game against Oregon and its highly complex uniform scheme.
Badger fans will download the song -- 69 cents on iTunes, 99 cents on Amazon -- to their mobile devices and press play when the game clock expires at the end of the third quarter. It's unlikely the whole crew will act up at the same time, so who knows what kind of sound will actually be produced.
The tradition began at Camp Randall Stadium in 1998 when, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, "Not much scoring was going on during the Oct. 10 Homecoming game against Purdue, so a UW marketing agent put the song on the loudspeakers between the third and fourth quarters."
Fans enthusiastically did as House of Pain emphatically requested.
But at 2003's first home game of the season, fun took a timeout -- UW officials canceled the tradition because of concerns about the structural integrity of the stadium after the construction of new skyboxes. When the familiar song did not play, chants and boos continued into the fourth quarter.
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Students protested during the the following week, and the "Jump Around" tradition was saved.
Last season marked the Badgers' first Rose Bowl appearance since back-to-back wins in 1999 and 2000.
Many Badger fans will be coming to the Rose Bowl from Santa Monica. The city serves as a home base for visiting fans and some of the 6,000 to 8,000 Wisconsin alums in LA County.
"We're one of the most active chapters," said Robert Webb, a 2002 Wisconsin grad and president of the WAA-LA Chapter.
Webb grew up in Madison and moved to Los Angeles in 2004.
"It's great living out here," he added. "I found people to be open and friendly, but definitely being part of the alumni group helped me make this city seem smaller."
The alumni club booked five buses -- two from Hermosa Beach and three from Santa Monica -- to transport fans to the game. There are several Badger-themed events in the run-up to Monday's game, including a party Saturday on the Santa Monica Pier. About 10,000 Badger fans are expected to attend the pier event.
The city hosted thousands of fans last year.
Click here to see what Oregon's fans have planned.
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