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Since the UW Field House opened in 1930, scores of students have walked through its doors to cheer on the university’s basketball, volleyball, wrestling, boxing and gymnastics teams, hear memorable speeches by John F. Kennedy and Desmond Tutu, or watch then-amateur boxer Cassius Clay lose a fight.

But for more than half a century, the ‘W’ crest that adorns the upper half of the massive front wall of “the Barn” hid in plain sight. Its rise in popularity to the most identifiable symbol for UW-Madison — distinct from the Athletic Department’s ‘Motion W’ — started about 25 years ago due to a combination of events that included the UW School of Medicine, the University Ridge Golf Course and former Chancellor Donna Shalala.

Earl Madden, art director for the university’s Communications and Marketing office, doesn’t know who created the original crest. But he drew up a slightly different version of the crest for the School of Medicine’s new logo in the late 1980s after then-dean Philip Farrell said he wanted something classic that would look good on a golf shirt.