Bret Bielema: The Coach With The Tiger Hawk Tattoo

Bret Bielema: The Coach With The Tiger Hawk Tattoo
October 2010
Lost Lettermen

Tattoo regret has been lampooned in everything from T-Mobile commercials to Saturday Night Live sketches.

But there’s nothing funny to Wisconsin fans about the tattoo on the left calf of Badger head football coach Bret Bielema: an Iowa Hawkeye “Tiger Hawk” logo.

Especially not the week before No. 13 Wisconsin heads to Iowa City to face No. 15 Iowa on Saturday.

Sure, it seemed like a great idea when he got it. Bielema was a walk-on defensive lineman for the Hawkeyes two decades ago and decided to celebrate receiving a scholarship from Hayden Fry in 1990 with some black ink. So Bielema, just a sophomore, got an Iowa logo tattooed on his calf with the words “Believe” and “Achieve” on opposite ends of a giant “I.”

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Bielema appeared to be a Hawkeye for life, becoming a senior captain in 1992, returning to Iowa City shortly afterward to become a graduate assistant and serving as a linebacker coach there for six seasons.

He finally left the nest in 2002, crossing conferences to become a co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State, where the tattoo wasn’t an issue.

But when Barry Alvarez hired Bielema in 2004 to become the Wisconsin defensive coordinator, word leaked out in Madison about Bielema’s dirty little secret. With Iowa and Wisconsin constantly battling for Big Ten supremacy, it certainly grabbed the attention of the media and Badger backers.

It started out as a fun anecdote or trivia but that all changed in 2005. After Bielema had been named Alvarez’s successor as the Wisconsin head man, a rumor started on an Internet fan site that Bielema had an escape clause to leave for his alma mater. Both men were irritated and vehemently denied the hearsay, knowing very well the Tiger Hawk tattoo only fueled the rumor.

Just weeks later, Bielema finally seemed to have enough of talking about ink instead of football.

“It’s permanent, it’s a part of me, that tattoo is party of my history – it’s staying,” Bielema said. “But,” he added, “I do wear high socks now.”

Bielema certainly isn’t the first Big Ten coach to switch allegiances from his playing days. Recently fired Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster was a captain at Illinois, his predecessor, Glen Mason, played at Ohio State and former Michigan coach Gary Moeller was a captain for the Buckeyes.

But because of the permanence of a tattoo, Bielema continues to be badgered about his allegiance to Wisconsin.

In fact, just this week Bielema even stated that Iowa coaches use it against him in recruiting battles. He noted that after a trip to Iowa City, the high schoolers always ask to see his tattoo.

And of course it comes up every year before the showdown with the Hawkeyes, with BCS bowl bids possibly on the line this weekend. Sometimes the media doesn’t even wait for that. Here’s Bielema defending the tattoo at Big Ten Media Days this past summer:

You couldn’t blame Bielema for feeling like the whole world is against him. Many Iowa fans now consider him a traitor and he’s still having to prove his loyalty to Wisconsin in his fifth year on the job. At least
Bielema knows two people have his back.

“The one thing people forget when they talk about the Tiger Hawk is what’s written on it, ‘Believe’ (and) ‘Achieve,’ and that applies to anything and that’s his whole philosophy with his kids,” says Bielema’s dad, Arnie, from his home in Prophetstown, IL.

“And his mother has a very good comment about that. She says it’s a birth mark because he got it at Iowa and that’s where everything started.”

Actually, that might not be any better in the minds of Badger fans.

Considering the torture Bielema’s gone through for the tattoo, a Tiger Hawk birthmark probably would have resulted in an exorcism.
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