Our Boys: Statewide Loyalty to Wisconsin’s Sports Teams

They may be called the Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Brewers, but the degree to which major sports teams in Wisconsin are embraced by fans everywhere else in the state is not common in the sports world. These are “our teams” even if they play 100 or 200 miles away.

That’s on exhibit for all the world to see this week with the Packers’ appearance coming up Sunday in the Super Bowl. Fan loyalty to the Packers in Milwaukee, for example, often seems to know little limit, even though the team stopped playing in Milwaukee in the mid-1990s and (dare I say this) from Milwaukee, it is just about the same distance to Soldier Field in Chicago as it is to Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

Much less noted is the degree to which the Brewers are a Wisconsin team.

In an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session last week at Eckstein Hall, Rick Schlesinger, the Brewers’ executive vice president for business operations, talked about how important it is for the team to give people who attend games a good experience, and how important out-state fans are to the Brewers.

“We have to draw from not just Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin,

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County Executive Candidates: Trying to Establish Their Identities

The new guy. The outsider. The insider. The legislator in line with Scott Walker. The former legislator critical of Scott Walker.

A crucial part of running for office, especially when you’re not a household name, is establishing an identity in the minds of the general public. The most interesting part of watching the first joint appearance of the five candidates for Milwaukee County Executive last week was not in the position statements and answers the five gave. It was in how they tried to identify themselves.

The session, held in the Appellate Courtroom of Eckstein Hall and moderated by Mike Gousha, the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, was co-sponsored by the Law School and the Milwaukee press Club. A full house of about 200 was on hand and the session was broadcast later on television.

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Professor Lisa Mazzie Is a Ms. JD Writer-In-Residence

I am happy to report the news that our Associate Professor of Legal Writing, Lisa A. Mazzie, will be one of Ms. JD‘s writers-in-residence for 2011.  Ms. JD describes itself as follows:

Ms. JD is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to the success of women in law school and the legal profession. Ms. JD is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of law students and recent graduates and an Executive Director. Founded at Stanford Law School in 2006 by a group of female law students from Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley), Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU, Stanford, UCLA, UT Austin, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and Yale, Ms. JD is a 501(c)(3) incorporated in California.

Serving as a unique nexus between the profession and the pipeline of diverse attorneys, Ms. JD’s online community provides a forum for dialogue and networking among women lawyers and law students. With campus chapters throughout the nation, Ms. JD is also home to the National Women Law Students’ Organization. Ms. JD celebrates women’s achievements, addresses remaining challenges, and facilitates continued progress by bringing legal practitioners and law students together to share in an ongoing conversation about gender issues in law school and the profession.

As a writer-in-residence, Professor Mazzie will post to the blog every month throughout the year.  You can read past writer-in-residence posts here.

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