'Jump Around' at Wisconsin

The “Jump Around” tradition at the University of Wisconsin may not be the oldest tradition in college sports (in fact, it’s one of the newest), but somehow, some way, the always crazed students in Madison have managed to take a bad 1990s rap song and parlay it into one of the coolest scenes in college football.

There’s not much depth to ‘Jump Around.’ Basically, the tradition is this: Between the third and fourth quarters of every Wisconsin home game, the stadium speakers blare “Jump Around,” the uber-popular hit by 1990s hip-hop outfit House of Pain, and as the song plays, the entire Wisconsin student section (and, sometimes, the rest of the stadium, too), “jumps around” along with the music.

That’s pretty much it.

The song was first played at Wisconsin during the school’s October 10, 1998, Homecoming game against Purdue. Students responded favorably and, just like that, “Jump Around” became a staple of Wisconsin football Saturdays. Though campus officials tried to get rid of the tradition in 2003, students protested and “Jump Around” was quickly reinstated.

Today, “Jump Around” is every bit as central to a Badger game as the “Fifth Quarter,” the legendary post-game band performance that dates to 1969.