1968 Wisconsin Badgers football team

The 1968 Wisconsin Badgers football team represented the University of Wisconsin in the 1968 Big Ten Conference football season. Led by second-year head coach John Coatta, the Badgers compiled an overall record of 0–10 with a mark of 0–7 in conference play, placing last out of ten teams in the Big Ten. Wisconsin played home games at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

1968 Big Ten Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 1 Ohio State $	7	–	0	–	0	10	–	0	–	0
No. 12 Michigan	6	–	1	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
No. 10 Purdue	5	–	2	–	0	8	–	2	–	0
Minnesota	5	–	2	–	0	6	–	4	–	0
Indiana	4	–	3	–	0	6	–	4	–	0
Iowa	4	–	3	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
Michigan State	2	–	5	–	0	5	–	5	–	0
Illinois	1	–	6	–	0	1	–	9	–	0
Northwestern	1	–	6	–	0	1	–	9	–	0
Wisconsin	0	–	7	–	0	0	–	10	–	0

$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

This was the first season of artificial turf at Camp Randall Stadium;^[1]^[2] the Tartan Turf home opener was against Washington of the Pacific-8 Conference,^[3] who had just installed AstroTurf at their Husky Stadium in Seattle.^[4] Outside of these two, the only other University Division venues with synthetic turf in 1968 were the Astrodome (Houston) and Neyland Stadium (Tennessee).

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 21	at Arizona State*	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, AZ	L 7–55	43,317
September 28	Washington*	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	L 17–21	42,965	^[5]
October 5	No. 19 Michigan State	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	L 0–39	49,067
October 12	Utah State*	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	L 0–20	37,469
October 19	at Iowa	Iowa Stadium Iowa City, IA (rivalry)	L 0–41	45,651
October 26	at Northwestern	Dyche Stadium Evanston, IL	L 10–13	33,133
November 2	Indiana	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	L 20–21	51,666
November 9	No. 2 Ohio State	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	L 8–43	40,972
November 16	at No. 4 Michigan	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI	L 9–34	51,117
November 23	Minnesota	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI (Paul Bunyan's Axe)	L 15–23	39,214
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

1968 Wisconsin Badgers football team roster

Players

Coaches

Offense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
RB	`36`	Joe Dawkins	Jr
OT	`70`	Mike McClish
WR	`18`	Tom McCauley	Sr
QB	`15`	John Ryan	Sr
TE	`40`	Stu Voigt	Jr

Defense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
LB	`33`	Ken Criter	Sr
DT	`73`	Jim DeLisle	So
DT	`76`	Bill Gregory	So
DT	`57`	Jim Novak	Sr
LB	`35`	Chuck Winfrey	So
DB	`30`	George McGarrett

Special teams

Pos.	#	Name	Class

Two Wisconsin Badgers were selected in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft, which lasted 17 rounds with 442 selections.

^ "Synthetic grass at UW passes 1st test". Milwaukee Sentinel. September 10, 1968. p. 1, part 2.
^ "Badgers try ersatz turf". Milwaukee Sentinel. September 10, 1968. p. 13, part 2.
^ Kuechele, Oliver (September 27, 1968). "UW plays Huskies; no relief is in sight". Milwaukee Journal. p. 19, part 2.
^ Bochat, Rel (September 28, 1968). "Huskies test UW, new rug today". Milwaukee Sentinel. p. 1, part 2.
^ "Washington turns back Wisconsin's rally 21–17". The La Crosse Tribune. September 29, 1968. Retrieved September 14, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "1969 NFL Draft Listing - Pro-Football-Reference.com". Archived from the original on December 21, 2007.