Author: jnweaver

IT WASN’T a long walk, just a block south on Park Street from College Court, where they lived, then right, up Regent Street a few more blocks, an easy stroll in the cool evening air. Vito Parisi and his young friend George Fabian didn’t talk much. Fabian was just a high school kid on that night in April 1948, and Parisi was preoccupied with what lay ahead. He must have feared the worst. In the end, he made history.

Parisi, a Madison native who was responsible for the loudest sustained roar in the storied history of the University of Wisconsin Field House, died quietly in Colorado last week. He was 80 and had been suffering from pneumonia and other illnesses.

College athletic programs are ranked by revenue. Based on 2005-’06 financial reports sent to the U.S. Department of Education. Wisconsin brings in nearly $79 million.

What does University of Wisconsin basketball player Janese Banks have in common with homemaking icon Martha Stewart and actress Sheryl Lee Ralph? All three are winners of Glamour magazine’s Top 10 College Women Awards. Stewart received the honor in 1961; Ralph was a 1975 honoree. Banks, the Badgers’ second-leading scorer last season, joined the elite club earlier this month during a ceremony in New York.

University of Wisconsin senior-to-be Jolene Anderson scored eight points as the USA Basketball’s under-21 women’s team beat Hungary, 93-70, for its third victory in as many days at the FIBA World Championship in Moscow.

After dealing with some uncomfortably high anxiety levels brought on by uncertainty and an untimely injury, Alando Tucker finally was able to reflect on the “crazy process” that was determining “where my life was going” and his new team colors.

In the final reckoning, it turned out to be the 602 area code and purple and orange after the Phoenix Suns revisited some history with the University of Wisconsin basketball program by taking Tucker with the 29th selection in the first round of Thursday night’s NBA draft.

Now Alando Tucker can just play.

The former University of Wisconsin star spent the past month traveling the country working out or visiting with teams that were trying to get a feel for whether he was a shooting guard or small forward and whether he could handle the ball or shoot it well it enough to carve a niche for himself in the league.

Apparently, he made believers of the people in Phoenix.

At this point, there is nothing else Alando Tucker can do.

The former University of Wisconsin star has spent June traveling around the country, working out for or interviewing with at least 10 National Basketball Association teams, some of them twice. During one four-day stretch, he went from Philadelphia to Phoenix to New Jersey. This week he was in Charlotte on Monday and in Phoenix on Tuesday.

The next time Tucker visits an NBA city, he will have officially arrived.

THERE WAS a spirited reaction to my column last week on the prospect of bringing varsity men’s baseball back to the University of Wisconsin.

There were notes from former players and fans, with most of them talking about the pain that accompanied the decision to drop the program in 1991 and how great it would be if it was resurrected.

My favorite response, however, was from Wisconsin Public Radio host Larry Meiller, and it had to do with the fact my column was prompted by the recent appearance in the College World Series of the University of Califorina-Irvine Anteaters.

College football coaches like to trumpet the value of their summer camps because it gives them an on-campus forum to evaluate prospects. And frequently these contacts lead to scholarship offers.

That has been the case this week with the University of Wisconsin football program.

They stepped to the stage Friday night in the span of less than three hours and each accepted handshakes from National Hockey League legends.

Who knows if it’ll be what incoming University of Wisconsin freshmen Kyle Turris, Ryan McDonagh and Brendan Smith remember about their experience of being first-round picks in the 2007 NHL entry draft in Columbus, Ohio.

Either way, the parade to the Nationwide Arena stage allowed the trio to form a unique legacy in Badgers lore, before they have even played a game for the team.

A meeting this past Friday to look over plans for a proposed on-campus arena for the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team gave Mark Johnson a picture of Doug Beard’s enthusiasm.

“He was in great spirits and excited and really fired up with what was happening with the hockey programs right now,” said Johnson, the Badgers coach.

A week of such positives for the hockey programs ended on a somber note with news of Beard’s death Friday night at age 46.

Former University of Wisconsin athletic director Pat Richter recalled some of the golf conversations that he used to have with Doug Beard and how they often revolved around Beard working as a caddie during his youth in Kennebunkport, Maine. There was even a reference to Beard caddying for former U.S. president George Herbert Walker Bush, whose summer home was in Kennebunkport. In retrospect, Richter agreed, there was no better way to describe Beard’s work ethic and willingness to do the heavy lifting for someone else without expecting credit in return. “He was just the type of guy who would carry a (golf) bag,” Richter said. “He had that kind of mentality — blue collar and very solid and dependable.”

Like so many fellow workers, past or present, within the UW athletic department, Richter was shocked and saddened to learn of Beard’s death Friday. The 46-year-old Beard has been an integral component of the administrative team, dating to 2001 when Richter recruited and hired Beard from UW-Milwaukee.

Kyle Turris and Ryan McDonagh will be in the spotlight tonight, and they’ll bring the University of Wisconsin along with them.

In the last few seasons, Minnesota and North Dakota have been the most well-represented college teams in the first round of the NHL entry draft. With UW recruits Turris and McDonagh expected to be first-round selections and Brendan Smith a possibility, the Badgers could be the stars in the background in Columbus, Ohio.

UW coach Mike Eaves knows there’s more than acclaim that comes along with that, however.