A Tribute to Kirk Penney and the Badgers
By Emily Christopherson
I came to school here at UW-Madison 3 years ago. Not having grown up in Wisconsin,
I, unlike a majority of UW students, was not already a Badger fan. Throughout my first semester I kept my Gopher
sports allegiance in what little sports I bothered to follow. My dorm roommate, Sarah, tuned into all the
Badger basketball games, and I often was amazed by her intensity during
games. All that began to change my
second semester after Sarah got 2 tickets to go to the Badger game versus Penn
St, Penney’s sophomore season. The
second ticket went to me, and it forever changed my college experience.
Being immersed in the Kohl
Center atmosphere worked wonders
for my Badger enthusiasm. It shot
sky-high and I was suddenly absolutely smitten with the basketball team. Sarah gave me a run-down of the players,
including Kirk Penney, the “three point specialist.” Being as nothing’s better than a good
old-fashioned three point basket (ok, so three pointers aren’t exactly
old-fashioned, being as they were invented in the 70s), my sentiments of
partiality turned towards Penney. These
sentiments were cemented after I heard him being interviewed after a game—who
can resist that accent?! Previously
having a love affair with Australia,
it wasn’t hard to switch that love affair to New
Zealand.
An adorable three-point shooter from the land down
under? I’ll take it any day.
For the rest of that season, both Sarah and my screaming
could be heard throughout our dorm wing whenever the Badgers had a game. We were die-hard fans—Sarah loving Mike
Kelley and I, Kirk Penney. I began
looking around the web for whatever Penney information I could find, absorbing
all I could on the Kiwi basketballer (lay off me, spell check! If New Zealand
says ‘basketballer’ is a word, it’s a word!).
We finally convinced our friends that we were completely
nuts when we forced them to watch the end of the year basketball awards banquet
on TV. Not only did we watch it, but we
recorded it. I’ll never forget the video
montage that was shown of moments throughout the season played to Republica’s
song, ‘Ready To Go.”
We must have re-watched that 10 times.
Imagine my heartache when one day I accidentally recorded over part of
the awards banquet, including the aforementioned video montage. I will never forgive myself for that
one! I still get chills when I hear that
song, even when it’s just in the background of a Dairy Queen commercial. Oh, montage clip,
how I miss thee!
Wanting my friend Elizabeth to teach me how to build a
website using html, I needed a website topic.
What should I do a webpage on?
Well, how about Kirk Penney? I’ve
got pictures, articles, and thoughts on him.
This seems like the perfect subject for my simple little website. Thus began the first Kirk Penney
fansite. What it was to grow into, I had
no idea.
Of course, student season tickets were a must for the
following year. I got with a large group
of students and camped out a couple of days prior to season ticket
distribution. The total number of hours
that Sarah and I individually clocked: 1. One single hour from midnight to 1am
on Halloween, fully dressed in Halloween garb.
The next morning a beautiful ticket sheet was delivered to me, showing
that I had tickets in section 115, row ff…or row 6, if you will. The only drawback was being in seat 8,
directly behind the basketball hoop. That, and having an 8 foot gorilla in the seat in front of
me. Not the greatest when you stand at
the paltry height of 5’4” (I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe that 5’4” is the
average female height).
While we couldn’t wait until the season began, our friend
Elizabeth was dreading its arrival—“You guys get so obsessed during the games. I hate it.”
Proving the team’s infectiousness, three games into the season Elizabeth
was hooked. Managing to buy season
tickets off a fellow student, the three of us became game obsessed
together. With the loss of Mike Kelley,
Sarah refused to choose a new favorite—“I just can’t pick a favorite.” Elizabeth’s
favorite became Dave “calves like quarter-barrels” Mader, and my favorite, of
course, remained Penney.
But what was up with Penney this year?? What’s with the loss of hair length and
addition of massive muscle tone?? What
are you doing trying to post up??—you’re a three point shooter! What has this new coach Bo Ryan done to the
player I love? After a rocky start to
the season, I soon saw Penney and the team pull it together to demonstrate the
new Badger style brought by Ryan. The
style is the Swing Offense, of which I won’t explain because I just don’t get
it. But now, instead of “Kirk Penney,
the three-point specialist,” it’s “Kirk Penney, one with multiple offensive
weapons.”
Throughout the year my website kept growing as more and more
articles, pictures, and miscellaneous comments were added. And what should happen one day but an email
from a fellow Kirk Penney fan who had discovered my
website. How absolutely thrilled I was
to learn that somebody had not only seen my website, but enjoyed it. A few more encouraging emails began to
trickle in, fueling my website ego and ambition. Remembering how frustrating and time
consuming it was searching through the vast world-wide-web for information on
Penney, I made it my mission to make my site as comprehensive as I could. How much time I would have
saved if I had found a Kirk Penney site when I first began searching the web
for information. If I can make
this search easier for all the other Penney fans out there, it’s definitely
worth it. My website high definitely
came when I received my first email from New
Zealand.
Knowing that I was helping Penney’s Kiwi fans keep tabs on their New
Zealand mate was (and is) such a great feeling.
I didn’t miss a single home game that year. This involved me driving to Madison
on three different occasions during winter break from my home town of Rochester,
MN, a 7 hour round trip drive. I was
officially labeled “crazy” by my family.
It really didn’t help that my Gopher family is inherently
Badger-hating. I either watched on TV or
listened on internet radio to every single away game, save one—Penn St. That game was missed because I was attending
the Gopher-Michigan game at Williams Arena.
I still blame myself for their loss that night—if only I’d been
listening, they would’ve won.
Penney’s junior season was one of many great memories. Beating #7 ranked Illinois
(resulting in court-storming #1). Beating #14 ranked Marquette, behind
Penney’s 33 points. The
come-from-behind win at Minnesota
behind Penney’s 30 points—27 of which came in the second half (watching the
second half of this game never gets old!).
Breaking MSU’s 53 home game winning streak (as cruel as it sounds, how
much I loved watching the MSU student section sullenly amble off the court
post-court-storming after learning that the last MSU “game-winning” basket
didn’t count). Winning in Bloomington
for the first time since 1977 (can’t hear this last sentence in any voice but
Matt LePay’s…that sound clip was always being played whenever I entered the
Kohl Center for games this year). And
best of all, beating Michigan for
a share of the Big Ten Championship. The
first Big Ten Championship since 1947.
Having to share the championship with 3 other teams didn’t matter a
bit. Picked to finish 9th or
lower in the conference, the young Badger squad surprised the bejeezus out of
everyone, and exceeded everyone’s expectations, except, perhaps, their
own. Making this game all the more
sweet, I had been given front row tickets to the game by the wonderful Badger
Student Fan Club because of my website.
Storming the court, listening to the speeches, and watching the players
cut down the net made that night one of the best of my college years up to that
point (and I’m sure it will remain very near the top). While losing to Maryland
by 30 points in the second round of the NCAA tournament was a little sad, at
least we went down to the eventual national champions.
This summer Penney was on the New
Zealand national basketball team—the Tall
Blacks. He had competed with them before
in both the 2000 Olympics and 2001 Goodwill Games, but this year the Tall
Blacks had qualified for the World Basketball Championships. Expectations were about as high for the Tall
Blacks in the World Basketball Championships as they were for the Badgers the
previous year—not high. Breaking
expectations seems to be what Penney does best—or is it a trait of all Kiwis? What should New
Zealand do but place 4th in the world. Where did the
USA finish? An unmemorable…well, I don’t
recall. However, I do know that it was
under the Tall Blacks. The great success
of the Tall Blacks created a basketball fervor in
rugby-loving New Zealand. Penney and the Tall Blacks became New
Zealand national heroes. More emails came rolling in to me from
Penney-loving Kiwis.
Badger season ticket time came around once again, and this
year another girl, Brighton, was infected with the
Badger basketball disease. Not having
the fortune of a large group for line waiting this year (it was only the 4 of
us), we planned out early on our line-waiting
schedule. Getting in line 4 days early
would surely get us close to front row seats, right? My heart absolutely sank when, over a week
before ticket distribution, a group appeared in line at the Kohl
Center. Oh, how I hated those students! What are you doing starting the line-waiting
this early?! There was no way the 4 of
us could afford to get in line that early.
Waiting alone, that would be 60 hours in line for each of us! We hoped that no one else would join the line
for a few more days. The line slowly
grew, and 5 days before distribution we had enough. We needed to join the line! Not wanting to wait in line alone the whole
time, often times we were paired up, resulting in approximately 40-50 hours in
line for each of us. As hellish as it
was at the time (sleeping on frozen concrete with a tarp covering you as pools
of rain and snow form above you), I actually do look back at it fondly. It’s an interesting experience not many go
through that’s fun to tell to others.
But wait—not many go through? By
the time ticket distribution came around, the line was insanely long and
student season tickets had sold out for the first time ever. It seems as though the Badgers had infected a
huge portion of the student population.
What seats did 5 days in line get us?
Section 115, row nn—about the 15th row. The last row of double-digit letters and
padded folding chairs (as if they were ever sat in).
The season started well, losing only 2 non-conference games
to Wake Forest
and Marquette. Not a bad pair of teams to lose to. Was our non-conference schedule full of
“cupcakes?” Who cares? All that matters was that we played and
won—often by a very comfortable margin.
Ah, but the real test is against our conference foes. How will we fare this year? The first two games (both away) were
lost. One loss was given to us by Michigan. Michigan?? Oh no, our team’s in trouble. Looks like the Badgers are going to struggle
this year. But, wait! It turns out Michigan’s
not too shabby this year, and the Badgers climb up the rankings after raking in
the wins. True, they did lose twice more
(to Purdue and…Penn St.),
but then March 5th came around.
The last game of the regular season to determine the
Big Ten Champs. Who’s in the
front-running to win the championship?
Well, look-y here! It’s the
Badgers and Illinois, who happen
to be playing each other. If the Badgers
were to win this game they would clinch sole possession of the Big Ten
Championship title. After an utterly
heart-stopping ending to the game, the student section is spoiled once again
with a court-storming. Big Ten Champs,
baby! And who are we sharing it
with? Absolutely no one! More great speeches and net-cutting
ensue. I feel so proud and happy that I
can only imagine how the team must feel.
Knowing how happy they must feel after all their work paid off is the
best thought of all.
This season was filled with many great memories as
well. Winning by 49 points (who cares
who it was against?! 49
points!). Penney’s
game-winning shot and Tucker’s game-saving block at Ohio St. Tucker’s ally-oop dunk off
Devin’s pass at the end of the MSU game (Izzo’s not the only one who
remembers it!). Wilkinson’s 3 point
shooting bonanza in the second half of the Iowa
game. Another great game by Penney
against the Gophers at William Arena, which I was fortunate enough to attend
(sorry you didn’t enjoy the ending as much as I did, Dad!). Of course, the
championship-winning Illinois game. Freddie’s last
second 3 pointer against Tulsa
in the second round of the NCAA tournament (at that moment I almost loved you
more than Penney…but not quite). Again,
I didn’t miss a single game (either attended, watched
on TV, or listened to internet radio).
There isn’t much I can think of that’s more important than basketball
games!
Kirk Penney’s tenure on the court as a Badger basketball
player came to an end tonight, but not before a valiant effort by both Penney
and the entire team. What were the
Badgers doing in the Sweet Sixteen playing against the #1 team in the country
anyway? Weren’t we supposed to lose in
the first round against Weber St.? No?
Ok, but certainly we’d lose to #13 seed Tulsa. No, analysts, I’m afraid you’re wrong
again. Tonight, Penney and the Badgers
proved to all the naysayers that they deserved to play with the elite. Kentucky
may have won the game, but it was a hard-fought win, with the Badgers keeping
it close the entire game. We certainly
gave Kentucky a run for their
money. Kentucky
fans and Ashley Judd were kept biting their nails the whole game. Sure, star Keith Bogans was out the whole
second half due to an injury, but you know what? That’s the way the cookie crumbles. Anyone who tries to downplay the Badgers’
achievements is just laughable at this point.
If two Big Ten championships and a Sweet Sixteen appearance don’t prove
that the Badgers are a worthy team, I don’t know what does. Does the Pope wear a funny hat? He certainly does.
Thinking of how my website looked in its beginnings to how
it looks now, I am amazed. I’ve gotten
so much joy and fulfillment out of hearing from everyone who has emailed me. Each email I receive makes me feel better and
better about creating the website. While
I have been criticized at times (anyone with this type of website must be a
pathetic freak, right?), thinking that I may have added to anyone’s enjoyment
of Penney’s Badger basketball career makes it all worthwhile.
As I sit here and try to write a concluding paragraph, I’m
at a loss for words. I’ve just watched
Penney play his last game in the cardinal and white uniform. I began writing this to express my utter appreciation
to all that Kirk Penney has brought to Wisconsin
(not just for the basketball team), New Zealand
(I know, who am I to talk for New Zealand? But we all know they love him), and my own
college experience. Five pages later, I
feel I’ve barely scratched the surface.
There’s so much I haven’t written.
If I had never gone to that first Badger basketball game, how different
would my college experience have been?
The pride I feel for being a UW student has no bounds (I came to the UW
hating mascot Bucky, now I love him), and this pride was greatly facilitated by
the school spirit shared and acquired at basketball games (football
shmootball). I hope Kirk Penney realizes
how much he is appreciated and loved by both Badger fans and Kiwis. He may think he knows how much, but he has no
idea. On behalf of all Kirk Penney fans
out there, I wish him luck wherever life leads him. We love you, Kirk!
