Yesterday in La Crosse
Wisconsin moving slowly toward a lottery, 36 years ago
There are only six states now that don’t have their own lotteries, but In early 1982, fewer states ran those games of chance. A lottery proposed for Wisconsin in ’82 was projected to raise $36 million dollars a year…not even 10 % of the existing deficit in that year’s state budget. Critics said lotteries prey on the needy and cost too much to run. Wisconsin finally did start its own lottery six years later.
The Wisconsin Badgers were losing their first African-American basketball coach. Bill Cofield resigned, after leading Wisconsin for six years, and winning 38 % of his games. It would be another 12 years before the Badgers were good enough for the NCAA tournament.
Burger King had two locations in La Crosse…at the far south end of town on Mormon Coulee Road, and near Bridgeview Plaza on West George Street. The downtown Burger King near City Hall would come later, but there were two places in town to get a Whopper, 36 years ago, 1982…yesterday in La Crosse.