What can you say about the Badger Pep Rally, sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Association this afternoon on the plaza below the twin towers of the ABC Entertainment Center? Well, that it turned the plaza into a red-and-white sea bobbing with Wisconsin fans, that the air was filled with music by the UW Marching Band, that the football team was an hour late - stalled in LA traffic, can you believe?

And stalling was what the band's irrepressible director, Mike Leckrone, said he was doing while the team busses edged through traffic. But he and the band did it supremely well, keeping the crowd engaged with "On Wisconsin" and polka music and a tuba-section solo and the chicken dance, with band members snaking through the crowd and bouncing their brassy sounds off the towers.

Coach Barry Alvarez and the team arrived at last and rewarded the faithful with words of thanks and promises of a good game on Friday with UCLA. But before the game comes what simply must be done tomorrow as long as we've come this close to the Pacific: a trip to the beach . . .

(From top to bottom: Badger Pep Rally at ABC Center Entertainment plaza; members of the marching band doing the polka; Bucky at the pep rally; and Badger fans decked out in red.)

More postcards:
Dec. 28: Westard ho!
Dec. 28: Thawing out
Dec. 28: LA scene
Dec. 29: Old Pasadena
Dec. 29: Roses HQ
Dec. 29: Petal pushers
Dec. 30: 90210
Dec. 30: 90210, cont'd
Dec. 30: A sea of red
Dec. 31: Venice Beach
Jan. 1: Rose Parade
Jan. 1: The Game
Jan. 1: The Game, cont'd
Jan. 2: P.S.

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Photos by Jeff Miller, text by Jeff Iseminger.