Inside the Big Ten's Super Bowl (for student managers)
— -- MADISON, Wis. -- On a weekday afternoon this spring, Andy Miller and Talon Zarling walked downtown into the Blue Lotus parlor, forked over $200 each and braced for the pain and awkwardness of a tattoo artist inking an illustration of their favorite inanimate object into their right butt cheek.
This was not some regrettable, spur-of-the-moment decision made through the foggy haze of drunken debauchery. Rather, it was a carefully calculated commitment from two student managers for the University of Wisconsin football team, meant to symbolize loyalty and pride in the most permanent of ways.
"Being a student manager, especially here at Wisconsin, is like a fraternity of sorts," Zarling said. "There's a brotherhood. We all live with each other. We're on the field for 12-hour two-a-days, and then we go hang out with each other afterward. It's something that defined my college experience, and I wanted something to remember it by."
For two hours apiece, Miller and Zarling exchanged turns dropping trousers until the finished product revealed a simplistic toolbox design, shaped like a large rectangle, half-yellow and half-red with Wisconsin's red motion W logo in the background. On one side, underneath the rectangle in red with black shadowing read the year '13. The other side read the year '14.
Both Miller and Zarling had been back-to-back winners in the biggest, baddest flag football game around. And they wanted everyone to see the spoils of victory for as long as they lived.
"There was a lot of mooning going on that night," Zarling said.
The football game, a competition between the 15 student managers at Wisconsin and Iowa, is known as the battle for "The Rusty Toolbox" -- yes, there is an actual toolbox presented to the winner, which once belonged to an Iowa equipment manager. It has been played almost every Friday night since 1991 before the Badgers and Hawkeyes football teams meet the following day in Big Ten play. It also is one of the most unique experiences in college athletics.
Among student managers, an unbridled love for the game and what it represents is evident in the number of hours spent practicing, watching game film and creating play sheets (really). Equally surprising is the level of hatred -- at least temporarily -- for those student-manager brethren on the other side of the field.
No price can be placed on the significance of winning, least of all $200 and a tattoo. But to understand why requires a look inside the rivalry within a rivalry, a wacky, charming tradition that features a healthy dose of competitive spirit for annual bragging rights.
"It's a pretty huge deal," said Nick Spiegelhoff, one of Wisconsin's head team managers. "To me, you don't want to let managers of the past down. You have to win this. You get one game a year."
"It's pretty much like our Super Bowl," added Dexter Bieri, Iowa's head team manager. "We look forward to it all year long."
Ringers, controversy, injuries all part of the series
The Rusty Toolbox game began 24 years ago as the brainchild of John Chadima, Wisconsin's then-director of football operations, who hatched the plan with Bill Dervich, Iowa's director of football operations. Chadima was a former team manager at Iowa who worked under Dervich, and both thought incorporating managers at each school into an 8-on-8 flag football game would mark a fun addition to the weekend.
But to suggest the event involves a laid-back, leisurely feel would be incorrect. Several contentious moments over the years have added fuel to the rivalry and built the legend of the game to greater heights.
Controversy followed almost right from the start. Iowa won the first contest in 1991, but the matchup was cancelled a year later because of bad blood between Iowa coach Hayden Fry and Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez. In the lead-up to the actual '92 game in Iowa City, Alvarez insinuated Iowa might have violated NCAA rules by not counting a Sunday running session as a practice. An unhappy Fry was said to have been at least somewhat responsible for calling off the Toolbox game, though it returned in 1995 when the teams met again.
One of the more notorious games took place in 2000 inside Iowa's practice facility, when a brawl erupted in the second half, though no punches were thrown. In 2003, dissension ensued when Wisconsin's managers brought in Thomas Hammock, a former standout running back at Northern Illinois. Hammock, now the running backs coach for the Baltimore Ravens, was filling in as a manager at the time and later became a graduate assistant for the Badgers' football team. Wisconsin won the game 18-0.
"Him coming in I think made the thing a lot more serious," said former Iowa team manager Dan Wolfe, who played from 2004-08 and heard about the infamous Hammock game. "Then it became we were hiring guys based on if they were high school football players. They had to have played. By the time I was gone, I'd say 90 percent of the guys played high school ball and were pretty serious about it."
Quite often, the game can resemble something of an infirmary. In years past, it was not uncommon for players to suffer concussions, broken noses, dislocated shoulders and kneecaps. In 2004, two Wisconsin managers collided heads while trying to stop an Iowa running back. Both were taken off the field via ambulance for stitches, and one needed surgery on his face.
Wolfe, an assistant director of video operations at Northern Illinois, said he broke an index finger and required a separate surgery on a ligament in his thumb. On his final Toolbox play in 2008, he sustained a concussion. Two years ago, Spiegelhoff's older brother, Nick, tore his ACL during the game. And in 2014, two players collided again and required stitches after a visit to the emergency room. Managers use their own insurance and pay for medical bills for injuries in the game, showing another level of dedication (and perhaps insanity). All players now wear mouth guards.
Part of the injuries stem from the fact that there are no pads worn. Nearly everything goes at the line of scrimmage, provided it's within the framework of real football rules. In the past decade, team managers have brought in local five-man officiating crews to referee the game after they finish their duties on a Friday night high school game. Last Friday, a crew drove nearly 30 minutes after working a game east of Madison.
"It gets pretty intense," said Jim Garde, a 16-year veteran of high school football refereeing, who officiated the most recent version Friday night. "We were told when we first started doing this that we did it because fights would break out. We've got the stripes on, so we take it seriously."
Among the endearing aspects to the game is just how much the actual Division I players care about the outcome. Players, who are typically sequestered the night before their own game in a team hotel, often don't find out about the result until they arrive at the stadium the following morning. Student managers say team members on both sides let it be known the week of the game they'd better walk out with the Toolbox on Saturday.
"I think it's awesome what they do," Wisconsin quarterback Joel Stave said. "That's the first question on Saturday morning is, 'Hey, how'd you guys do last night?' They have their plays and they're ready to go when it comes game time. I know there's a lot of support from the team. We love to see them win."
Wolfe recalled after Iowa defeated Wisconsin 38-16 in the actual game in 2008 to win the Heartland Trophy, Hawkeyes star running back Shonn Greene celebrated in the locker room by holding the Toolbox -- won by Iowa managers the night before -- while the team jumped up and down and sang the school fight song.
T.J. Ingels played in the Toolbox game as a Badgers manager from 2006-10 and now serves as Wisconsin's director of football operations. Ingels was walking to his car after a long day at the office Thursday night when a text message popped up on his cell phone. It belonged to Green Bay Packers backup quarterback Scott Tolzien, a former Badgers standout. Green Bay was three days from playing an important early-season divisional road game against San Francisco. But Tolzien wanted to discuss only one topic.
How are we looking for the Toolbox? Do you think we're ready?
"It's like, man, you've got enough other stuff," Ingels said. "You've got a game on Sunday and you're playing in the NFL. But that game made an impact on guys."
A game worthy of another tattoo
Inside Wisconsin's indoor practice facility, the McClain Center, Badgers student managers lobbed passes to each other while wearing bulky headphones to block the outside world 45 minutes before Friday night's Toolbox game. Their stoicism mirrored the expressions fans would see from players in pre-game warmups on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.
Bass-thumping, top-40 hip-hop tracks pounded from a speaker wheeled onto the sideline. A video guy readied his camcorder. Family members, friends, former team managers and football graduate assistants trickled in. By the time the game ended, roughly 150 people would be on hand to watch, including Zarling, the former team manager who graduated last school year and now works in Milwaukee.
For the 15 Badgers managers, the night was particularly special. It marked the first time any of them had played at Wisconsin. Due to a quirk in the league schedule when divisions briefly realigned, the teams had not met in Madison since 2009. For the occasion, they took extra strides, watching film of last year's game -- a 20-19 victory won on a two-point conversion with 11 seconds remaining -- and picking the brains of graduate assistants for plays. Iowa's team, on the other hand, was eager for revenge.
"You just keep replaying that last 11 seconds in your head all throughout the year," said Bieri, the Iowa manager, who played on the offensive and defensive line.
Referees finally arrived at 10:10 p.m., and after a brief exchange of the rules with captains, the game began at 10:22 p.m. It was played on an 80-yard field with a shorter width, cut off on one side near the hash marks. First downs were granted every 20 yards, when a team passed the 20-, 40- and then 20-yard lines. There were four 10-minute running quarters, with clock stoppages only in the last two minutes of each half. And extra-point conversions were awarded as three points from the 20, two from the 10 and one from the 3-yard line.
Players took powerful swipes on full dives for flags around the waist. They wore wristbands with play sheets slipped inside a clear plastic pocket. Parents screamed at perceived missed calls from officials. In almost every sense, this was real football.
Iowa took a 6-0 second-quarter lead on a 6-yard quarterback run around the right side. But Wisconsin sophomore Parker Grimes intercepted the conversion at the front of the end zone and returned it untouched 80 yards, which gave the Badgers three points. The teams then exchanged touchdowns and extra points, as Iowa pulled in front 13-9 with 9 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the game.
That's when Miller, a junior and a former quarterback at Wisconsin's Janesville Craig High School, abandoned the team's pass plays and strung together a series of successful quarterback runs. With 4:30 left, Miller uncorked a looping spiral to the back of the end zone. Teammate Jack Hoy, a senior wide receiver, outleaped two Hawkeyes defenders and made a toe-tapping 24-yard touchdown grab that sent Wisconsin's managers and fans into hysterics.
Iowa had one final opportunity and reached Wisconsin's 19-yard line. But sophomore Ben Mand recorded the Badgers' third interception of the game with 1:05 remaining to seal a stirring 16-13 comeback victory for Wisconsin. Two kneel plays later, and the Toolbox was back in the hands of Badgers team managers for a fifth consecutive game -- dominance that has brought Wisconsin to within 11-9 in the all-time series.
Wisconsin managers rushed to the sideline and hoisted the toolbox, letting off a, "One, two, three ... toolbox!" chant. Spiegelhoff opened the box, peeled off a motion W logo sticker and happily placed it next to the corresponding year. High fives and pictures with the trophy ensued. No serious injuries had transpired all night.
It was 11:40 p.m. Some managers had to be back at the stadium at 6 a.m. to set up for the football game. Pylons and flags were still strewn about the practice field. The stereo system needed to be stored, and soccer goals brought back into the indoor facility.
"Well," one Wisconsin team member said, "I guess it's back to being a manager."
Miller, meanwhile, was still reveling in the victory, posing for photos with friends and family members. He had thrown two touchdown passes, including the game-winner, and said he didn't think he'd sleep until at least 3 a.m. The excitement, of course, won't end there. At some point, perhaps during the football team's bye week, he'll require a return visit to the tattoo parlor.
Plenty of space remains for a much-awaited Toolbox update.
"Absolutely," he said, smiling and pointing to his backside. "The big old '15 right there."
