Flamingos Flock at University of Wisconsin for 12th-Straight Year
Photo by BarbElkin/Shutterstock.com
In 1979, some students at the University of Wisconsin imported more than 1,000 flamingos to Madison. They didn’t have to worry about food, water, or shelter, though - plastic flamingos are much less needy.
On the first day of classes for the 1979-80 school year, Wisconsin students awoke to discover 1,008 pink plastic flamingo lawns covering Bascom Hill on campus.
The prank was executed by Leon Varjian and James Mallon, two top figures of the Pail and Shovel Party that rode an absurdist wave into student government power in 1978. It was one of many of their hijinks, which included building a fake Statue of Liberty and making it look like it sunk in Lake Mendota and organizing massive toga parties every Halloween.
“The best party I ever went to was Toga II,” Scott Mindock, a longtime friend of Varjian, told the university in 2017. “It was in front of Memorial Union, and … 10,000 or 12,000 people showed up - everybody in togas. It was crazy.”
The Pail and Shovel Party left a lasting impression on Wisconsin and its students. The flamingo invasion of 1979 may have the greatest longevity.
Each year in the fall, Wisconsin students, alumni, staff, and Madison locals come together to Fill the Hill, mimicking the invasion that Varjian, Mallon, and their party executed 45 years ago. For the last 12 years, it has become an annual fundraiser for the university and its programs, plus a way for the community to come together over something silly and lighthearted.
“Every flamingo on the hill represents a gift someone has made to the UW during this period,” according to the university’s website. “The growing flock represents the support of the extended Badger community, whose philanthropy plays a vital role in keeping the UW strong.”
The impact of the original prank has bled beyond the borders of the university. The official bird of the city of Madison is the plastic flamingo. The local professional soccer team, Forward Madison FC, is intertwined with the fabulous fowl - their nickname is The Flamingos, a flamingo features prominently on their badge, and they often include flamingos on their jerseys. Flamingos, especially of the plastic species, are a big deal in Wisconsin’s capital.
But why flamingos in the first place? And what made Varjian and Mallon pick the plastic pink bird replicas?
“A lot of kids come to the University of Wisconsin from suburbia,” Mallon said in a Wisconsin Alumni Association video in September. “What’s an icon of suburbia? Pink flamingo. They would be welcomed to campus if we put a number of them out on Bascom Hill.”
It was not the pranksters’ intentions to start something that would still be alive today, at the university or in the city, but that is what’s happened. Since Fill the Hill began, almost $3 million has been raised for the university.
The 2024 edition just passed, and per usual, plastic pink flamingos blanketed Bascom Hill. This year, the fundraiser pulled in more than $511,000.
It’s still fun and games, though. According to posters on /r/UWMadison, students make a game of stealing the plastic lawn ornaments while others are tasked with watching over them. The flamingos are not meant to be stolen, but when you tell college kids not to do something…
“I took 2 when I was in school,” wrote /u/DogaruMom. “Just casually placed them in my backpack. 10 years later they are in my garden.”
Who’s to say how many plastic pink flamingos that started as Bascom Hill residents are now sprinkled around town, the state of Wisconsin, and everywhere else the university’s alumni can be found. It isn’t zero, though.
