Hawks 58, Wesley 6 in 2005 - my No. 1 game-week memory

One of my great memories of a game-week at Perkins Stadium occurred the week leading up to UW-Whitewater's 2005 national semifinal game vs. Wesley College (Del.) at the Perk.
The story starts on Thursday when over a foot of snow falls in Whitewater.

I'm at the Warhawk football Quarterback Club at Saxe's Lonestar on Thursday night and I get a call about 10:30 p.m. from then head coach Bob Berezowitz.

"Tom, do you have your camera with you?" Berezowitz asked. "Get over here to the Stadium, you won't  believe it!"

I rush over to the "Perk" and I though I had just arrived at the North Pole!" (see adjacent photo)

A hastily organized "grounds crew" had put a tarp over the grass field that afternoon and portable heaters were brought in to try to keep the field from freezing over.

Ketterhagen Motors brought several SUVs to the stadium to keep the tarp from dislodging.

Fast forward 40 hours to game day. The field remained ice covered in front of a season-high crowd of 5480 at cold, snowy and windy Perkins Stadium. The Warhawks forced a Wesley safety on the first play from scrimmage and never looked back, rolling to a 58-6 victory over the Wolverines to advance to UWW's first-ever Stagg Bowl appearance.

To this day Wesley blames the poor field conditions and lack of proper shoes for the loss.

Whitewater would beat Wesley 44-7 one year later in 2006 national semifinal action at the Perk

 

 

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