Going into the final game of the 1992 regular
season at Northwestern, the Badgers were on the
brink of doing something special by earning a bowl
invitation just three seasons after Barry Alvarez
had taken over a moribund program that had not
gone bowling since 1984.
Both the Independence Bowl (Shreveport, La.)
and the Freedom Bowl (Anaheim, Calif.) were prepared to take Wisconsin ― Alvarez brokered one
deal and UW athletic director Pat Richter the other
― on the contingency that the Badgers defeated the
2-8 Wildcats at what was then Dyche Stadium.
But a mistake-prone offense and malfunctioning
special teams conspired against Wisconsin. As the
offense was driving to potentially set up the gamewinning field goal, tailback Jason Burns lost a fumble with 49 seconds left allowing Northwestern to
escape with a 27-25 win.
"I was saddened for Jason,'' Panos recalled, "and
14 » VARSITY
JULY 11, 2013
I was sickened, disgusted and infuriated (by the
loss). In fact, some Northwestern guy got in my
face afterward and said, 'You guys aren't going anywhere' and I saw red. I ran him down and people
had to pull me off of him.
"We knew we could have gone to a bowl game by
winning (at Northwestern). Even if it wasn't going
to be a great bowl game, it didn't matter because
Wisconsin hadn't gone to a bowl in so long. We
wanted to be that team and we wanted to be that
class (to get the job done) my junior year.
"We all knew how close we got and once you're
that close to something ― and you lose it or get it
taken away from you ― it's pretty good motivation and a driving force. So, before the next season
(1993) even got started, it was almost as if we knew
something that no one else did.
"It's like you can't wait to show someone what
you have. Everyone on the team felt it because we
