Badgers fans in Appleton show passion in scavenger hunt offering free tickets, prizes

APPLETON – Patrick Herb, a director of brand strategy for Wisconsin Athletics, didn't know what to expect when he got to Memorial Park early Thursday morning.

With 100 days until the kickoff of the 2022 football season against the Illinois State Redbirds, UW Athletics announced a scavenger hunt for mini football helmets in parks across the state. The locations for the 400 mini helmets were announced at 6 a.m., and each helmet had a code for a prize of gift cards, Badger gear or even free pairs of tickets to home games.

Herb said, at 5:59 a.m., there was no one there. But by 6:02 a.m. after the locations were announced, several people were searching for helmets at Memorial Park, and within 20 minutes, the park was picked clean. All the helmets were claimed by lots of fans clad in red and white gear.

"It validated what I believe about Badger fans, that there is a lot of passion and excitement," Herb said.

UW Athletics held scavenger hunts in Madison, Eau Claire, Racine and Kenosha, and all of the helmets were claimed before noon Thursday.

Badger fans could find helmets in Erb Park, Highview Park, Hoover Park, Jaycee Park and Memorial Park in Appleton. Herb said the majority of the 200 helmets were free pairs of tickets.

In addition to the scavenger hunt, UW announced it would give away prizes through drawings for fans unable to find helmets, give away prizes on social media and opened up season ticket sales for 2022 to celebrate 100 days until kickoff.

Herb said the event was a good opportunity to get out to the fans from "border to border" to say thank you, and noted UW Athletics is looking to find more ways to do outreach.

That could include reaching out to more places in the Fox Valley like Oshkosh and Fond du Lac, whether through appearances from the UW Marching Band, current or former Badger players and coaches or bringing more prizes for Wisconsin's eager fans.

"We want to continue to find ways to keep painting our state red," Herb said.

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Contact Bremen Keasey at 920-570-5614 or bkeasey@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Keasinho.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Badgers fans hunt for prizes like tickets in parks across Appleton