With various Wisconsin Badger sports teams making playoff appearances, their marching band had lots of scheduling considerations, but still was able to map out two stops at Kozy Korner in the village of North Hudson.
The band was scheduled to play at the restaurant and bar at 9 a.m. Friday and 11 p.m. Saturday, in conjunction with their trip to the Twin Cities area that coincides with UW men’s hockey action. There is also the prominent Badger men’s basketball showdown with Oregon on Saturday. It is this time around in North Hudson that is the biggest, most exciting one of the two, said Ryan Nelson, one of the principles at Kozy.
Ryan’s father has known the longtime Badger band director, Mike Leckrone, for years, going back beyond the days when his charges started playing in North Hudson. Ryan said the band leader is a “Hall of Fame type,” and is known for his ability to remember names, presumably quite a few people locally.
While it has become “second nature” to hear them play, the music still gets people pumped. The band is fun and loud, in a good way, and their trademark songs, such as On Wisconsin and Varsity, never get old, Ryan said. They may also throw in a variation from their usual song list, such as Swingtown, the favorite of Ryan’s dad.
There will be about 23 musicians performing at the pizzaria, a which is a common traveling size and a good enough number to make the rocking joint truly cozy but not too jam packed. You have to consider that the band is used to playing at really packed bars of all sizes back in Madison.
The Badgers forced an Oregon-Wisconsin contest by beating American by 40 points, their biggest postseason win ever, which also was shown at Kozy. The game with No. 7-ranked Oregon has been touted by some analysts as a top matchup as far as excitement for the NCAA tournament. It goes off on Saturday at 6:45 p.m.
The hockey team is in the Big Ten Tournament and beat Penn State 2-1 on Friday afternoon to advance to the title game at a roughly similar time, 7 p.m. Saturday.
Again, watch while staying here in town, and be sure to stop in at Kozy before gametime wearing your Badger attire and score a free drink.