The best Wisconsin Badger to wear jersey No. 5 was the man under center for arguably the program’s greatest run of success (1999-2002). His name is Brooks Bollinger.
Bollinger came to Wisconsin out of Grand Forks Central High School in North Dakota and redshirted a year before becoming a four-year starter for head coach Barry Alvarez.
It needs to be said when reviewing the success Bollinger had in Madison that his backfield teammate was Ron Dayne, one of the greatest running backs to ever step foot on a college football field.
Nevertheless, Bollinger succeeded from the start and had a memorable career as a Badger.
His redshirt freshman season saw the North Dakota native win his first 11 starts–one of which being the Rose Bowl against Stanford–and throw for 1133 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions on 140 attempts, in addition to 109 rushes for 454 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.
Yes, it was a very different era of football (though some may argue the Badgers still play football like teams did in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s).
His sophomore, junior and senior seasons saw Bollinger throw for 1479, 1257 and 1758 yards respectively, 30 total passing touchdowns, 1313 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns.
His career totals at the time were good for No. 3 in all-time passing yards, No. 3 in touchdown passes, No. 6 in rushing touchdowns and No. 14 in rushing yards.
The true dual-threat and Rose Bowl-winning quarterback before it was close to a sought after trait.
His dual-threat capability, again something extremely rare for his time, paired with his winning abilities and impressive performances were enough to get him drafted in the sixth round of the 2003 NFL Draft by the New York Jets.
Bollinger’s professional career lasted just five years, the best of which coming in 2005 when he started nine games for the Jets and threw for 1558 yards, seven touchdowns and six interceptions in addition to gaining 135 yards on the ground.
The former Badger finally retired from football in 2011 and was recently a high school coach in Minneapolis.