As the University of Wisconsin opened spring football practice earlier this month, the Badgers did so with a dramatically reworked roster and, for the first time in years, without a spring game or spring practice open to fans. Wisconsin’s official spring practice page says practices began last month, and local news coverage has described a roster trying to bring together nearly 50 newcomers, including transfers and early enrollees.
Perhaps that might make it a good time to look back at a vanished Wisconsin tradition with local roots that was anything but private: Butch’s Bologna Bash, the fundraiser-party-tailgate hybrid that for years was as much a part of Badger spring football as practice itself. For New Glarus, the story lands close to home, because the man behind it — Palmer “Butch” Strickler — was one of its own.
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