Community Corner: A year of great Pioneers

Mark Molesworth

Athletic director, UWPlatteville

Updated: Jan 10, 2013, 1:00 AM

Published: Jan 8, 2013, 4:53 PM

Thank you to everyone in Platteville and the surrounding communities for your support of UW–Platteville athletics. Your support was helpful to our success this past fall and will be important throughout the rest of the winter season.

Last month, the men’s soccer team and football team finished with one of their best seasons in school history. The men’s soccer team made its second trip to the Division III NCAA Championship Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. Head coach Enzo Fuschino guided the Pioneers to a program best 15 wins and was named National Soccer Coaches Association of America North Region, Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletics Conference and Wisconsin State Coach of the Year. Forward Brandon Chmiel and midfielder Chris Brown, both seniors, and goalkeeper Ian Christensen and defender Michael Prudisch, both juniors, all earned NSCAA all-region, all-WIAC and all-state honors.

The football team finished the year 8–2, a record that hasn’t been matched since 1976. The team played in front of the largest crowds they’ve had in decades, with Pioneer Stadium recording more than 21,000 fans as the Pioneers rose to as high as 12th in the nation.

The Pioneers garnered a program record 15 all-conference honorees. Two Pioneers accomplished feats that haven’t been accomplished in decades. Defensive lineman Corey Marks became the third Pioneer to earn three-straight first team all-WIAC honors, while defensive back Ryan McWethy became the third Pioneer to earn American Coaches Association All-American honors and the first Pioneer since Mike Hintz in 1986.

Our student–athletes’ success starts in the classroom. They realize that academics are their first priority and understand the importance of studying and working hard, both inside and outside the classroom. In addition to this, student athletes are deeply committed to athletics and make time for strenuous training, practices and games.

These students’ engagement in athletics has helped them succeed at their academics. In fact, student–athletes have had a higher GPA than the general student body for 12 straight years. This past spring, 11 student–athletes were named to the Chancellor’s list by earning 4.0 GPAs. In addition, 181 student–athletes made the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Scholastic Honor Roll as well as the school’s Gabe Miller Academic Honor Roll for having a GPA above 3.00 during the 2011–12 school year.

The winter season is in full swing, with the men’s basketball team sitting second in the WIAC standings, women’s basketball team holding a perfect 3–0 record in the friendly confines of Bo Ryan Court, and the wrestling team getting its first conference win earlier this month against UW–Eau Claire.

All of UW–Platteville’s student athletes and coaches are appreciative of the support the Platteville community and the surrounding communities have shown at our athletic events. Your enthusiasm is instrumental in helping our athletes experience success.

You, the fans, help make every day a great day to be a Pioneer.

The Community Corner is a weekly column of opinion written by guest columnists UW–Platteville Chancellor Dennis Shields; Platteville School District Superintendent Connie Valenza; Chamber Director Kathy Kopp; Main Street Program Director Jack Luedtke; Common Council President Mike Dalecki, Platteville Recreation Coordinator Jordan Burress, State Rep. Travis Tranel, Platteville City Manager Larry Bierke and Police Chief Doug McKinley.

Mice paddling a canoe?

Random Thoughts, August 3

This is a reproduction of a Huppler card drawing, done with tiny black dots. He gave it to me in 1961 when he was living in Muscoda with his father.

Mice paddling a canoe — This is a reproduction of a Huppler card drawing, done with tiny black dots. He gave it to me in 1961 when he was living in Muscoda with his father.

Wendell Smith

Updated: Aug 10, 2023, 3:25 PM

Published: Aug 10, 2023, 3:24 PM

MUSCODA - Probably few folks in this village remember when mice in Muscoda paddled canoes and/or drove a Hudson roadster automobile. Don’t worry, the little rodents existed only in the mind of a Muscoda native and artist, Dudley Huppler.

Huppler was born in Muscoda August 8, 1917. He attended high school in Muscoda where he developed a life-long interest in reading. He then enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

He first worked for the WPA, a make-work federal program during the Great Depression when jobs were scarce. He later returned to the U.W. as a teaching assistant.

Through the years he made frequent visits to Muscoda to visit his family who operated a meat market here. I interviewed Dudley in September, 1961. By then he was an international traveler with many connections throughout the art world. He also spent time teaching at the University of Minnesota and had studios in Santa Monica, California and New York City

As an artist Dudley developed a system of tiny black dots to portray mice and other characters. He used the method in children’s books and on sets of cards that he marketed in New York City and small places like Ed’s Store and Ruth’s Dress Shop in Muscoda.

One of his books has characters who lived in “Mouscoda” during the 1920s, including a young girl who is given a croquet set and struggles to learn the game. 00

His books for children are not among the collection at the Muscoda Public Library. However there is a book on local shelves that chronicles Huppler’s life and accomplishments.

His life ended in August, 1988 in Boulder, Colorado. By that time he estimated he had created more than 38,000 drawing and paintings.

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