The date was November 16, 1991. The location was the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. The Wisconsin Badgers were not yet a powerhouse in national or Big Ten college football. They were still two years away from putting all the pieces together. However, they needed to begin to build something they could believe in. They needed to find moments of positive reinforcement which pushed forward Barry Alvarez’s attempt to create a strong program from scratch.
Mel Tucker provided the winning play.
Tucker, who was named Michigan State’s head coach earlier this week, played for Alvarez at Wisconsin and was part of Barry’s first recruiting class in Madison. What he did on Nov. 16, 1991 not only won Paul Bunyan’s Axe; it stopped a tidal wave of negative events and allowed the Badgers to dream of a better future entering the 1992 season.
When Tucker broke up a fourth-and-goal pass from Minnesota quarterback Marquel Fleetwood to intended receiver Patt Evans in the final seconds, Wisconsin had secured a 19-16 victory. (Minnesota didn’t settle for a short field goal and a 19-19 tie; it wanted to either win or lose the Axe on one play. Such was the reality of college football back then. The sport had not yet adopted an overtime system — that happened in 1996.)
Just how big was that win in the Metrodome?
From the Associated Press game story, consider these facts:
“Wisconsin (4-6 overall, 1-6 Big Ten) also snapped a six-game losing streak and a 23-game road losing streak. It was second-year coach Barry Alvarez’s first Big Ten victory.
The Badgers hadn’t won a Big Ten game since beating Northwestern 35-31 on Oct. 21, 1989. They hadn’t won on the road since winning at Northwestern on Oct. 18, 1986.”
The game also snapped a 19-game Big Ten losing streak for the Badgers.
Older Wisconsin fans remember what it was like for UW to labor for one year after another without much of any reward. The early 1980s brought a brief string of bowl appearances, but that island of prosperity was surrounded by a large number of failures in the mid-1970s and mid-to-late 1980s.
One other noteworthy detail about UW’s 1991 win over the Gophers: Minnesota had won six of the previous seven Axe games. Tucker ushered in an era in which Wisconsin began to dominate. Minnesota has beaten Wisconsin only five times since that 1991 game, only three times over the past 25 seasons going back to 1995.
If you are a Wisconsin fan who is at least 40 or 45 years old, you KNOW how big a play Mel Tucker made on a fourth down in the Metrodome over 28 years ago.