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The Van Pelt Praise
by Scott Van Pelt - ESPN Radio - July 2007
What's good, yall? Hope your afternoon is as good as beautiful where ever you are as it is in central Connecticut. We are having one of the eight to ten nice days of the year that we are alotted, so, you got to enjoy 'em while you got 'em. So if you enjoy listening to my voice, then the good news is that you and I have both survived the single worst day in sports that we have each and every year. I am speaking of the Wednesday after the [baseball] All-Star Game. There ain't nothing going on. Nothing!
And we've survived it together, and I have survived 48 hours in America's Greatest College Sports Town. Now if you're listening and you're in one of the great college sports that we have-- and there are alot of them. Maybe your ears perk up and you say, "Where was he? Was he in our town? Is he talking about us?" Let me tell ya, let me give you some of the parameters of where I'm talking about, about what makes a great college sports town.
Number one, you got to be the story in town. Not a pro sports town. Boston's a great sports town in terms of BC and BU and Northeastern and Harvard, etcetera, etcetera… but it's not a college sports town because they’re not the number one story in town. You go through the Atlantic Coast Conference, great, there are some great towns: Chapel Hill - great college town, Charlottesville's a great college town. SEC is tougher to identify 'cuz there are a bunch. And I'm probably going to make a whole lotta people mad right now when I'm gonna say Athens is the best SEC sports town. I know Gainesville, look, there are a bunch of ya. I'm gonna say Athens for the SEC.
Go to the Big 12, hands down, it's Austin. And maybe Austin's not bet-, no, Austin's not better where I just was. So Austin, you can weigh in and tell me why I'm wrong when I reveal the greatest college sports town in a moment. I'm in a bit of a loss when we get out to the Pac-10, 'cuz I haven't seen 'em all. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I haven't had the pleasure of going to Eugene, I heard it's awesome. Haven't been there. My boy, Neil Everett, my partner in crime, he can tell me all about it. But I'm still willing to say that where I just was, is America's Greatest College Sports Town, and I'm gonna tell you why
MADISON, WISCONSIN IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS
...if you are like me and you love the college sports. This town has got EVERYTHING. I was up there for my boy, Andy North. He had a charity golf event. Wonderful time. Had the good fortune of getting out and experiencing all that is Madison.
First of all, it sits on these, there are these two lakes. I don't know, Madonno and Fla-, I don't know what they are. But they're beautiful lakes. You got your Fraternity Houses and apartments set up right on the lake. And fellas in the fraternities, if you're not using that to your advantage, what are you doing? 'Cuz it's unbelievable, you can't invent something prettier than this.
The State Capitol, it's like the Capitol in D.C. - it sits up on some sort of a hill. You got State Street, which I'm gonna get to in a minute.
You got Camp Randall which is an old-school stadium that they've renovated. 85,000 plus lunatics there, seven Saturdays a year in the fall.
You got the Kohl Center - 17,000 plus, lunatics for college basketball. About 13,000 for Hockey. When they were the National Champions there. Football this year, 12-1. Basketball this year, a #2 seed in the tournament. They were ranked #2. I think #1 at one point in one of the polls.
So the teams are relevant. Venues are unbelievable. The setting is gorgeous. Those teams mean everything to the town.
And there are smaller campuses like your MAC schools. I've heard Oxford, for Miami of Ohio is awesome. I went to Athens, Ohio - almost went to school at Ohio University. Those are great environments, but it's just as not a big a deal. Madison's just a grander stage.
And then, there's State Street. And you don't want to make the partying element too much of it. But because sports are so good there, and because State Street is such a great set up, State Street, to party on, it's just, everything comes together, this confluence of events to make that town the Best College Sports Town in America .
Now Columbus, you're great too, but you gotta pro franchise. High Street in Columbus, now that's epic as well.
BUT what you've got on State Street- and I didn't go to all of it. I understand there's a place called the Essen Haus, I didn't get there. And I understand there, you drink out of a boot. Because the moral of the story in Madison is that A Cup of Booze Ain't Enough. You gotta have a BOOT. Or if you go to Wando's, you gotta drink out of a Fishbowl. Now at some point, you realize that as an adult, there really isn't any upside to drinking out of a fishbowl because ultimately, it's gonna make you do things that you don't wanna do. Because you don't wanna drink that much booze and puke. But what Wandos does have, when you get to the bar to buy whatever it is - and you might just be havin' ice water, and that's fine - They have bacon. Little containers of Bacon, like if you've been to In-&-Out, and you get the French fries that come in the In-&-Out French fry container, they have 'em at Wandos, but there's bacon! How good is that?!
State Street Brats. You kidding me? They have beer stock. Where they have like a ticker-exchange. Where they have like CNBC going by. And as certain beers get bought, the price goes up. And if no one's buying it, it goes down. These people are genius bar keepers there.
I'm Scott Van Pelt, and I have declared
MADISON, WISCONSIN - THE GREATEST COLLEGE SPORTS TOWN IN AMERICA
Now I'm sure that you're sitting out there, in Austin, and Athens, Eugene, Chapel Hill, Oxford, Mississippi, Gainesville, Florida, etc. etc. And you're saying, "Van Pelt, you are out of your skull! No way Madison's better than we are." That's fine! The email here, we're ALWAYS ready to take the emails here at ESPN Radio. And it is, the email address, Amanda help me, it's radio@espnradio.com. Please, FLOOD the inbox, because I want to know. Since we had no topic to talk about due to yesterday's sports, and I was lucky enough to be in The Belly of the Beast in Madison. I had to declare it the Greatest Sports Town. Greatest College Sports Town in Our Country.
After having been there for 48 hours, people very kind, we appreciate the love, very nice of you. I would tell you not to go to Monday's on a Monday night unless you're prepaired to get into a stupor, which I was not prepared to do, since we had golf obligations. I hit the ball well. I found the game, useful shots, I don't know where they came from, that was exciting. But...
THE PEOPLE IN THAT TOWN: AWESOME
They are talking right now on State Street, they're talking now about the night game against Iowa. Hawkeyes, they got some scores to settle with you. You better strap it on and bring it, 'cuz they're ready. They're ready right now. For when Go Blue comes to town from Ann Arbor. They're ready for you, they can't wait for you to come to Madison, Wisconsin and enjoy all that they have to offer there. It is an unbelievable setting . If you went to school there, you know what I'm talking about. If you're going to school there now, I'll tell you what I told the people that I was lucky enough to meet a couple days ago:
JUST ENJOY EVERY DAY
Where ever you are in college, just enjoy every single day that you have. Because, when the college experience ends, then it's over. And you have to have a gig, and there's no blowing off life, and you have to go to work. And I'm lucky enough to have work that I can enjoy. But I threatened the other day when I was in Madison to just pack it in. I'm coming back and I'm going to school here. But then I remembered... My academic achievement in College Park, Maryland was less than stellar. And I realized that they wouldn't accept me and certainly, within a very short period of time, my time would be over in Madison, Wisconsin. And then, you're just a bum. You're just a miscreant, just wandering the streets. And boy, you can certainly do that there in a hurry and find yourself disenfranchised. But, Madison, Wisconsin - the Greatest College Sports Town in America.
To some degree, this is not an original thought. It's not like I just had some epiphany and I'm dubbing them this out of nowhere. Over the course there have been polls done and this and that, where people have said the same thing. I had the good fortune to go there several years ago. I attended Maryland. My good partner in crime, Andy North, went to Wisconsin, so I went up to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, great fun. Wisconsin won the game. The Grateful Red, the tie-dyed shirt I said I would wear if they lost. Maryland lost, and I got like a medium, I put it on, I looked like the Michelin Man, it was hideous! But you gotta honor your word, especially the Good People of Wisconsin I Cuz I don’t know what I would done if Maryland would have won, but they didn't. Always wanted to go back. Had Andy's golf tournament, which by the way was great, they raised about $100,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation up there so all across the board, a Wonderful Experience.
But flying back to come here to do SportsCenter last night, on the single worst
sporting day of the year, all I could think of was "That's as good as it gets. That is the Best College Sports Town in America. State Street, Camp Randall, Kohl Center, State Capitol, Great University, the lakes, the setting, the vibe the whole thing, I don't know what's better."
Maybe you do. Maybe you say I'm wrong. So, so...Fire in. Fire in, Gainesville. Fire in, Austin. And I did speak to some of the folks that work for us up here from Texas and I said, "I'm going with Madison." They said, "Come on down to Austin in about February. And I said, "You got a point. 'Cuz Texas has got everything Wisconsin has got in terms of relevance for sports, great venues, 5th Street, 3rd Street - if you're a little older. They've got everything in Austin as well." And they've got it everywhere.
And that's the beauty of this, is that I asked a number of people when I came here today, I said that I have just come from the Greatest College Sports Town in America. Where did I come from? Some people got it, other people were representing their schools and that's the beauty of it. It's kind of like cheering for your team, you know. You rep your team 'cuz that's where you went. But you gotta rep your town as well. And if you're from Lexington, if you're from... I don't wanna keep saying the same places 'cuz there's Corvallis, Palo Alto, San Diego State. Look, Arizona State's good too, but Scottsdale, you kind of morph into that whole pro-town. College Town. The essence of American College Sport.
What makes your school better than Madison? Fire in, we're gonna be here all day, well not all day, we're gonna be here 'till 4 o'clock eastern time. I got nothing better to do than talk to you and I'd love to hear what you've got to say as well. What's the greatest college sports town in America? I'm pretty sure I just left it, and it's Madison, Wisconsin. If I'm wrong, prove it! Invite me there! I'll be America's guest. I'll come there, show me what makes your town better. I don't know if you can, I don't think that you can.
On behalf of the 40,000+ students, almost 400,000 alumni, the Badger student athletes, the University faculty and staff, the UW Greek Community, the city of Madison, and the State of Wisconsin, the Men of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity - Lambda Chapter would like to thank Mr. Van Pelt for explaining why Madison is. U Rah Rah, Wisconsin.
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