MADISON, Wis. -- A movement is starting to try to get the controversial public art sculpture in front of Camp Randall moved.

The plan is not without precedent. One big sculpture was uprooted to a new location years ago, WISC-TV reported.

Filmmaker, magazine columnist and lifelong Madisonian John Roach said he will never forget the day the "Nails Tails" sculpture was erected outside his office window.

"I just was shocked. I was stunned. I just went 'Oh my God -- what is that, and how could that ever happen?' " Roach said.

At the time of installation, renowned sculptor Donald Lipski, a University of Wisconsin graduate, said the athletic department wanted something powerful and dynamic.

Roach said a bronze Bucky, or something like a sculpture of people waving their hands singing "Varsity," would have been much better.

But the committee assembled by the Wisconsin Arts Board had a different vision in mind.

"They talked about the notion of the obelisk as a historical reference, how the Egyptians marked temples with it. They talked about how when the Romans came to Egypt they took the obelisk back home as trophies," said George Tzougros, executive director of the Wisconsin Arts Board. "And so we talk about relating Camp Randall as the temple of football in our city, and the trophies we all hope to win, that's the thought process that was behind what was going on."

The artist embraced the concept, naming the $200,000 public art piece after his college roommate -- who was nicknamed "Nails."

Roach has a different take on the sculpture's look.

"The best interpretation I heard was a mutated corncob. It's the corncob they wouldn't serve at the Sun Prairie corn festival," Roach said.

Prominent downtown businessman Fred Mohs said he hasn't been very impressed with many proposed ideas for public art projects.

"The problem we have here, and I've been on some of these committees to select art, and it's pathetic what people bring to us." Mohs said.

But Gail Simpson, an artist in the UW-Madison Art Department, said she thinks public art is improving.

"Artists and art programs have worked really hard to integrate art into public space, and I think it's more successful now… But whenever you put anything in public space, people have very strong feelings about their public space," said Simpson.

Doug Moe, a columnist for The Capital Times, agreed that people tend to always have strong opinions about public art.

"I don't think there has been a piece of it built in the last three decades, as long as I've been a reporter, that hasn't had somebody screaming," Moe said.

Madison has opted to move public art in the past. There was the gay liberation statue, which is now in New York, and a very controversial $67,000 mural is now covered up by the Monona Terrace Convention Center.

"Of course, Madison is no stranger to moving pieces of controversial art. We're not. As a matter of fact, Fred Mohs had a piece that he did not like in downtown Madison, moved out to a park on the shores of Lake Monona," said Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.

"It's made of aluminum. I said this was 10,000 aluminum cans yearning to be free," Mohs said.

Nails Tails was funded through Wisconsin's Percent For Art Program. Under law, all state projects, like the Camp Randall renovation, must commit two-tenths of 1 percent of the total construction cost to public art.