what you can to support it and give back," she said.
"If you're passionate about something, how lucky is
it that you can have the opportunity to do so?"
The Pattersons have given back in many ways to
UW-Madison. They have annually funded the tuition
for two swimmers, one in-state and one out-of-state;
one male and one female.
They've also been very supportive of the schools
of Nursing and Education at UW.
"I love coming here," she said. "It's really close to
my heart."
Which she tends to wear on her sleeve when it
comes to her beloved Badgers.
It was not enough for Susan Patterson to watch
Wisconsin play in the Rose Bowl.
"I saw it in person and I've got to go back and relive it (on tape), I don't know how many times," she
"Everybody knows that I'm a crazy Badger
fan," Patterson's wife, Susan, confirmed. Her
Florida license plate spells it out: "BADGRS."
38
//
VARSITY September 26, 2013
said. "Is that a diehard fan? See, it's this thing about
getting passionate about something."
That's why the final 18 seconds of the Arizona
State loss have been so difficult to swallow.
"Why didn't someone just throw a flag and say,
'OK, we need to sort this out?"' she reasoned. "That
drove me crazy for days. It's really a pity, I just don't
get it."
Nor do many others.
"We just played golf in New York and a guy who
works on the course came up and said, 'I'm embarrassed to tell you that I went to Arizona State,'" she
related. "Oh, it's so frustrating."
Speaking prior to last Saturday's Big Ten opener
against Purdue, she confided, "Today is Friday and
I'm already starting to get worked up about tomorrow's game. Isn't that crazy?"
