When LaRae Riggs moved to Wisconsin from Montana over 20 years ago, her new boss introduced her to Babcock ice cream.

“He was showing me the great things in Madison,” Riggs said.

Since the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant began churning out ice cream 72 years ago, generations of students and alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison along with locals and visitors consider it to be among the best they’ve tasted.

“For a lot of people it’s a nostalgic thing; taste and smell have a really big tie to memory. The ice cream helps remind them of their time here at school. What student at school doesn’t have Babcock ice cream every week? I know I did,” said Caroline Crowley, communications specialist for the Babcock Dairy Store. “We haven’t changed our recipes since 1951, so you are getting the same ice cream that you did when you went to school here.”

While the dairy plant has produced over 200 flavors in its history, Crowley says top sellers of Babcock Dairy ice cream are vanilla, orange custard chocolate chip, “Union Utopia,” salted caramel toffee and “Mnookie Dough.”

Here’s what former students and ice cream aficionados had to say about their experiences with, and memories of, the locally churned-treat.

Babcock and the Badgers go together like ice cream and football

Cierra Lynn Ehrke-Essock says her grandfather, a UW-Madison graduate, introduced her to Babcock ice cream during their Badger football season tailgates.

“My grandpa was a season ticket holder for over 50 years, and we continue our Babcock ice cream tradition at every home football game,” she said.

Love the treats, share the treats

Visiting the campus for a band camp, Jeff Vande Zande was lucky to secure a quart of his favorite flavor, orange custard chocolate chip, before the end of the day. Shortly after his purchase, Vande Zande watched as a man tried to enter the now-closed store.

“I thought he was going to cry because he was so disappointed,” Vande Zande said. “I had grabbed extra plastic spoons and offered to share some with him and he said ‘Sure!’ I think I made his day a bit brighter.”

Ice cream in the winter? It’s a thing only Badgers understand

Many former students and staff shared that a trip to either the Babcock Dairy Store or The Daily Scoop, located in both Memorial Union and Union South, was a reward.

“I remember walking to Babcock Hall with friends after calculus exams as a sweet reward for our efforts in the classroom,” said Steve Fantle.

During her stint as an educator at both the vet school and old med school, Luanne Wolfgram says when “things would get crazy” it was time for a Babcock run.

“My favorite time to go was in the winter,” she said. “The orange custard chocolate chip wouldn’t melt on the way back to work.”

Amy Leverson agrees.

“Walking around with mittens on, eating ice cream almost daily, is something only Badgers understand,” she said.

Writing a tiny check totally worth it, woman says

The smallest check that Kari Bender ever wrote was to the Babcock Dairy Store.

“I was a student and didn’t have cash, and I knew I would have to write a check, so I took a friend and paid for both,” Bender recalled. “I believe it was $1.75 for two huge cones. I still say all roads lead to Babcock!”

Babcock may have factored into one man’s education decisions

Could the rich taste of Babcock ice cream have been a turning point in Jan Kralj’s son’s educational path? She thinks so. At the time, her son was leaning towards attending college in Minnesota.

“I made him take the Badger campus tour at UW Madison and afterward everyone was given a coupon for a free cone at Babcock. We sat outside on the terrace and he took one bite of his ice cream cone and said ‘yeah, this is great,'” Kralj said. “I asked if it was the ice cream he was referring to and he said ‘yup, and this place’. He is a proud graduate of UW Madison.”

Former Alice in Dairyland considered it the gold standard

When she was a child, Mary Hopkins-Best would save her allowance to buy Gustafson’s restaurant ice cream and considered it the gold standard for ice cream until she was crowned Wisconsin’s 26th Alice in Dairyland in 1973.

“I tasted Babcock Hall ice cream and wowzer! Since then, their Butter Pecan is my ultimate treat,” Hopkins-Best said. “It’s so delicious because of the butterfat content.”

No matter how bad cancer treatments felt, ice cream made it better

And for some, that age-old tradition of enjoying ice cream takes them back in time.

“My dad did some experimental cancer treatments at UW Hospital. As horrible as he felt he’d always have vanilla Babcock Hall ice cream,” said Jim Gorman. “Forty years later and it still brings me back.”