Late in the third quarter of Saturday’s Badgers triumph at Michigan State, one Badgers fan made a crucial play that would seal the Badgers commanding lead for good.
With four minutes left to play in the quarter, on a 3rd-down and 14, Michigan State QB Tyler O’Connor dropped back to pass when he saw Badgers LB Jack Cichy coming around the left end of the offensive line. With no open receivers, O’Connor was forced to throw the ball away in order to avoid the sack.
However, O’Connor did not realize that life-long Badgers fan and alumnus Bill Durham, a 45-year-old math teacher from Kenosha, was at the game with his wife and two daughters. O’Connor delivered a spiraling pass right into Durham’s waiting hands for his second thrown pick of the day.
After picking O’Connor off, Durham immediately sprinted out of the stadium and took off for Camp Randall. Durham booked it for I-96, where he ran for over 60 miles until he reached the Milwaukee-Muskegon ferry, which he used to cross Lake Michigan.
Durham’s interception return did not come without a mishap or two. While on the ferry, Durham fumbled the ball into the waters of Lake Michigan. Luckily, Bucky Badger, who had been running alongside Durham blocking for him the entire way, was there to dive into the water to recover the fumble. As Lake Michigan is 922 feet deep, Bucky technically was never down when he dove into the water to recover the fumble, allowing Durham to continue his return.
After 272 miles of traveling, Durham arrived at Camp Randall to a sold-out crowd of 80,321 Badgers fans. After 50-plus hours of running and three hours standing on a boat, he made it into the end zone, prompting the sea of hammered fans to go belligerently wild as thousands of them stormed the field.
The badgers won 30-6 in large part to Bill Durham’s amazing play.
