This Sunday, Forward Madison FC revealed its official crest, which features a pink flamingo at its center. But why a flamingo? And what does it have to do with Madison?

On the morning of September 4, 1979, UW-Madison students walking up Bascom Hill in the heart of campus probably had to pinch themselves to make sure they weren’t dreaming. They may not have expected to see 1,008 plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments, scattered haphazardly across the university’s front lawn, staring back down at them.

By mid-afternoon, the flamingos were gone, taken by students as souvenirs. But the legend they created lives on.

According to David Null, former Director of UW-Madison Archives, pranksters Jim Mallon and Leon Varjian - who had led their “Pail & Shovel” party to power in the university government - were responsible for the stunt.

“They put them up, as far as I know, during the night or very early in the morning,” Null said. “You see photos of people looking kind of befuddled by them. And people started taking them right away.

“People just grabbed them and took them.”

Dave Cieslewicz, who served as the mayor of Madison from 2003-2011, was a student at the time of the prank. He recalled the feeling of “silliness” the flamingos brought to Madison.

“It became such an iconic thing right away. There were pictures in all the papers, I think it got national press as far as I recall,” Cieslewicz said. “It was just fun. It was totally senseless. It was just flamingos on Bascom Hill. It was the very absurdity of it that made it so great.”