By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel
Grant Nelson had waited a long time for Saturday's NCAA Division III national championship football game.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater senior from Muskego had followed his Warhawks for the past three seasons when they also made it to the Alonzo Stagg Bowl, but never committed to the big game until this year.
But Friday night, he got on one of three fan buses for the roughly 14-hour trip to Salem, Va.
Then, just 3 1/2 hours from their destination, Nelson and about 150 other fans, parents and band members were turned back by the blizzard that socked the Mid-Atlantic states and made roads through the Appalachian Mountains impassable.
"I skipped my girlfriend's graduation today for this," Nelson said Saturday from somewhere in Kentucky. "I guess that kind of backfired on me."
Because more than a foot of snow hit Salem, the game was delayed five hours, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but that still wasn't long enough for the Warhawk faithful to get all the way back to Wisconsin to watch it on TV.
So they called ahead and made plans to stop over in West Lafayette, Ind., and catch the game on TV at a Buffalo Wild Wings near the Purdue University campus.
Matt Gardner, a UW-Whitewater junior from West Allis, said the buses got a little bit of a late start Friday night after one needed a tire repair in Janesville. They got to Huntington, W.Va., about 6 a.m. Saturday amid worsening conditions.
"We were sliding around turns and down hills a bit," he said via cell phone from the road. He said the drivers then got reports that the Interstates through the mountains were closed. The bus company and the Whitewater athletic director made the tough call to turn back.
Among the disappointed fans was 6-year-old Rye Fader, traveling with his father Tim Fader, the UW-Whitewater wrestling coach.
"He's been to all the home games the last three years," Fader said of his son. "He likes 'em."
"Everyone's very disappointed," Fader said. "But you just have to make the best of it." He said the group hoped to get loud and make some noise for a Warhawk victory at the restaurant.
Buffalo Wild Wings general manager Jen Schulfer said she had a full staff scheduled and was more than happy to help out the Warhawks.
"I'm glad they're from Wisconsin," she said. "I'm a huge Green Bay fan, even though I grew up in Indiana."
And Saturday she got to witness total Wisconsin fan-demonium, as the Whitewater contingent pretty much took over her restaurant, then erupted as the Warhawks won with a late touchdown and field goal.
"When (Jeff) Schebler kicked that field goal, everyone just went nuts," Gardner said Saturday evening from one of the homeward-bound buses.
The dramatic victory sent the Whitewater fans streaming into the Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot, where their drum line pumped up the volume and the Warhawk followers danced crazily.
"It was just awesome," Gardner said from the bus as fellow students screamed in the background and chanted "U-Dub-Dub," a takeoff on the two "Ws" that mark their school's name.
In fact, he said, the whole experience might have been as good as being at the game. The restaurant crew was terrific, Gardner said, and the local folks who had stopped by to watch a Purdue-Ball State basketball game on TV graciously allowed many of the sets to be tuned to small-college football.
"I personally thanked every waitress and waiter that was there," he said.
Fifty years after graduating from 
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