MADISON, Wis. -- Don Schuster has followed Wisconsin football long enough to remember the dark ages of a college program that once embarrassed itself seemingly on a weekly basis. He suffered as a young boy with Badgers fans through a 23-game winless streak in the late 1960s and waited 19 years between bowl game appearances.
He can recall the euphoria when Wisconsin qualified for the 1981 Garden State Bowl to play Tennessee, ending that two-decade-long postseason wait.
"That was a big freakin' deal," he said. "I remember the days where if we got ninth place in the Big Ten, we were happy."
This awareness of history helped Schuster, owner of Schuster's Playtime Farm in Deerfield, Wis., make a decision that would pay tribute to his love for Badgers football -- and one that already is generating serious Internet buzz.
In March, he sat in a Madison bar and listened to a nearby patron complain about the Badgers' former football coach, Bret Bielema. This was the same coach who had recently left Wisconsin to coach at Arkansas, the same coach who helped lead Wisconsin to three consecutive Big Ten championships and Rose Bowl appearances.
Some fans, Schuster decided, didn't know how good they had it these days.
"I met the man quite a few times," Schuster said of Bielema. "I still didn't think he got treated very well even with all the faults he had coming out of here. I don't think he ever felt welcome here.
"I thought, 'Let's do something for the new coach."
Every summer, Schuster designs a corn maze as part of his farm's fall entertainment business. He did not yet have an idea for his 2013 maze, but in that moment, he decided he wanted to honor new football coach Gary Andersen. He wanted to make him feel welcome, hoping fans would see it and perhaps appreciate Andersen in ways they did not fully appreciate Bielema.
And so, Schuster created an eight-acre tribute to him, using a GPS device on his lawn mower to carve a maze of Andersen's head with the words "Welcome to Camp Randall" and a football with the school's motion W logo on it. From start to finish, it took about seven hours to complete.
Schuster said he became further convinced Andersen was the choice after consulting with a company called The MAiZE, which helps create the intricate corn maze designs. The MAiZE is based in Utah, where Andersen coached before coming to Wisconsin, and its employees raved about Andersen.
This marks the 20th year Schuster and his wife, Teresa, have been in the fall entertainment business and the 14th year they have collaborated on designing mazes. Schuster usually designs his annual corn maze based off requests from various charities and offers some of the proceeds from his business to those organizations.
He has carved out an image of Ronald McDonald, the Boy Scouts of America logo to celebrate the organization's 100th year and even an image of former Saturday Night Live comic Gilda Radner shucking corn with the phrase "cancer shucks." Radner died of cancer in 1989.
"We've had mazes lined up as far as three years in advance," Schuster said.
This year's Andersen tribute is not the first Badgers-themed maze Schuster has put together. Three times, he has paid tribute to Wisconsin's school mascot Bucky Badger.
One paid homage to UW's fall sports team and consisted of Bucky holding a pile of trophies. In another, Schuster honored the football program by having Bucky kick a field goal with the words "On Wisconsin" carved out. And in still another, he placed Bucky on a pair of hockey skates with a stick, shooting a puck across the corn into a goal.
Schuster has great affinity for Wisconsin. He attended his first Badgers football game in 1972 at 12 years old and went on to teach farm management, grain marketing and human resource management at the university.
Schuster's Andersen tribute maze already has created plenty of interest around the Internet. He said he sent a personal letter to Andersen earlier this week and included the photo of his maze. Wisconsin's official football Twitter account posted the photo Wednesday, and attention increased from there.
Andersen said Wisconsin program assistant Lisa Powell brought it to his attention Wednesday.
"I don't know how you do that, but that's pretty cool," Andersen said following his team's practice. "Not that my face is on it. I love the motion W. But that is a pretty cool thing. It's just one more situation where you understand the importance of Wisconsin athletics, Wisconsin football and everybody that's around it. It's very unique and genuine.
"Lisa came into my office and the first thing she said was, 'I thought I'd seen everything in Wisconsin, but now I've seen something I've never seen before,' so away we go. It was interesting. It's unbelievable how they can do that."
The maze opens Sept. 21 and will last until about Oct. 31, Schuster said. The cost to enter the maze this season will be $6.
For a diehard Wisconsin sports fan such as Schuster, this year's maze ranks among his most notable yet. So what could he possibly do to top this?
"If the Badgers win the national championship in basketball or football, that's how I'm going to top it," Schuster said. "That's been on my list forever."
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