Royal Purple

Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: Lifestyle

Media Credit: Photo submitted Koebke

The "Unicycle Kid" doesn't exist. That's a pretty bold first statement, but by the end of this, you just might agree. So, the Unicycle Kid doesn't exist? Then who is it riding a unicycle to class? Many students are inevitably asking.

Junior William Koebke has some sort of campus celebrity status due to his unusual hobby of riding a unicycle. He's even been pulled off Prairie Street more than once and offered a few beers just because he was recognized as the Unicycle Kid, but he's not a gimmick. He's just Will.

"A lot of people might recognize me, but they don't really know me at all," Koebke said.

Senior Eric Halverson, a finance major, didn't know Koebke but had seen him around campus.

"I always wonder whether he's doing it because he really likes it or if he just does it for attention, or to be 'that' kid," he said.

Upon meeting Koebke, one might expect some eccentric, circus side-show persona, but he was nothing of the sort. His comments were genuine, and his actions weren't caricatured.

Koebke, a German major and Japanese minor, is a self-taught unicyclist who started unicycling after he received it as a Christmas present in high school.

Koebke said it was an unexpected gift.

"I haven't got a single clue as to why they would give me that," he said.

He got more serious about unicycling as an extreme sport when he came to college.

"I've tried every extreme sport, and this is just the most fun," Koebke said.

Koebke was indifferent to people's negative thoughts of him and his unicycle. A Facebook group called, "We hate the unicycle kid" even emerged.

"Basically, I don't care because it's just people making judgments based on nothing," he said.

Although Koebke has lived in more places than most students have even visited, like Hawaii, Germany and Australia to name a few, he enjoys living in Whitewater the most because of all the people around him.

"I really like living in Whitewater, if it weren't for the weather," he said. "I wish I could transplant all the people from Whitewater into Hawaii."

On any given day he might wake up, watch some TV, play some video games, take the unicycle out and try to jump a few sets of stairs and just hang out with friends.

At first it seemed the only atypical thing he was rocking was the one-wheeler, but then I offered him a cookie, while raving about how my roommate's mom made the best chocolate chip cookies ever.

To my surprise, and somewhat sheepish dismay, he was a vegan and had been for years.

As I marveled over how he didn't eat filet mignon, he claimed it really wasn't as difficult as everyone thought to avoid animal products.

He makes pesto and sushi, but that day he had grilled portabella mushrooms on ciabatta bread for lunch, admittedly not the typical college meal.

"The Unicycle Kid" is a persona other people have given Koebke, but there's a quirky, soft-spoken, down-to-earth kid behind the image of a whacked-out, attention seeking misfit.

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