36 // VARSITY January 30, 2014
Campus Crusade for Christ (with Swan) and he said
to me, 'I know this former walk-on, he's a captain of
the Badgers and one of their best players and he also
happens to be a short, white guy who plays receiver,
I'll try to put you in touch.'''
Maragos decided to send out this Facebook mes-
sage to Swan: "You don't know who I am, but you
kind of know my brother a little bit. I know your sto-
ry and just because of your background, I wanted to
see if you could check out my film. If you like it, take
it to coach (Bret) Bielema.'''
Swan liked what he saw on film and shared it with
quarterback Tyler Donovan, who also liked it. In
turn, they took the film to former UW wide receiv-
ers coach Henry Mason and finally to Bielema. "And
they all said that they would love for me to walk-on,''
Maragos remembered.
Even if it might have sounded like a no-brainer for
a Cheesehead by birth, it still came down to a choice.
"I had to choose between a scholarship at Grand Val-
ley,'' he said, "or chasing my dream at Wisconsin. I
knew my abilities and I knew I'd love to play for the
Badgers.''
His original expectations were fairly modest. "My
thought was,'' Maragos said, "that if I could run down
on a kickoff maybe one time ― kind of like a Rudy-
type deal ― or just run out of the tunnel and be a
part of the team. That was going to be satisfaction
enough for me.''
It wasn't until Maragos moved from wide receiver
