Andy Staples and Big Cat Reflect on the One Game Where the ‘Jump Around’ Tradition Did Not Take Place in Madison, Wisconsin

On today's Pardon My Take... ANDY STAPLES! The Big J from The Athletic joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter today to break down everything from a loaded Week 1 of the College Football season. Alabama remains Alabama, LSU's rough start, and Big Cat's Badgers losing a heartbreaker were all topics from Labor Day Weekend around the nation. Speaking of Wisconsin, Staples and Mr. Cat actually reminisced on the time that Camp Randall actually didn't play "Jump Around" during a football game. Let's dive into the details below:

Mr. Cat: Watching an entire slate of college football and having fans in the stands, it kind of hit home how shitty last year was.

Mr. Commenter: When Virginia Tech and UNC started on Thursday night...

Mr. Cat: Jump Around...

Andy Staples: ... Enter Sandman in Blacksburg. And thank you FOX for showing us the entire "Jump Around." The one part of "Jump Around" that, and Big Cat, you can attest to this, is that I think you can only experience in person, is you can hear the stadium creaking, as they jump. I mean, that's a lot of Leinenkugel's just jumping up and down. 

Mr. Cat: Did you know that when I was a freshman or sophomore, they actually tried to ban it because journalists like you complained that the press box was swaying so much? I went to a game that they didn't play Jump Around and everyone like booed and mother fucked the entire second half and fourth quarter. And then they were finally like, "This is stupid. Why are we taking this away?" So, it did, it was a game, I have to go look it up, I think it's probably like UNLV in September of 2003, they did not play Jump Around.

Andy Staples: The stadium hadn't fallen down, it's going to be fine.

I did some research right after this discussion took place and discovered that the game Big Cat was talking about was Akron @ Wisconsin on September 6, 2003. Jump Around was not played during the game due to what was originally called "construction of skyboxes surrounding the stadium." A few days later, students protested and it was later revealed that campus officials made the decision. The song was eventually reinstated, and we still have one of the greatest traditions in all of college football today. Those darn Big J's!