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Wisconsin got a lot of good press from what Greg Gard did with the UW men's basketball team. You could say what he and the team did kept Wisconsin prominent "on the map."
It is good when sports can give a town, city, community and/or state a good name.
But, it can also work in reverse.
The national media picked up on the verbal attacks Latino soccer players from Beloit received a series of racial slurs and insults from a small group of Elkhorn students at a recent match. There is no need to repeat what was being said by the students and Beloit has been assured there will be penalties and discipline measures taken.
But, what was said and done can never be taken back and that is sad.
The state received a bad name because of the actions of a few.
Players suffered emotional damage because what happened.
And, there is no place in athletics at any level where this should be tolerated.
I feel the unanswered question is why didn't someone...adult or student...stand up and tell the offenders to knock it off?
Until everyone buys into the fact that racism and intolerance should not be allowed things will never be the way it should be.
It is sad this happened.
It is sadder if we don't learn from this and stand up to wrong doing of any kind.