Category: Athletics

A Philadelphia man has filed a preliminary injunction in federal court seeking a restraining order against Jerry Sandusky in the wake of his conviction last Friday on 45 counts of child sexual abuse, abc27 News has learned. In the one-page document filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin Tuesday, the plaintiff alleges Sandusky molested and threatened him during a Penn State vs. Wisconsin football game in 2002.

Title IX has put down deep roots in every college athletic department in the nation since it became the law of the land 40 years ago Saturday, but few have experienced the growing pains quite like the University of Wisconsin. The legislation that mandated equal opportunities for women in higher education ? including athletics ? went into effect when President Richard Nixon signed the bill on June 23, 1972. Since then, millions of women have come to schools such as UW and shared in a revolution as student-athletes.

Several athletes with Wisconsin ties will take part in the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London.

Former Jets receiver Al Toon was proud on draft day, when the Saints called his son?s name.

Chris Chambers thought he was on track to play a 13- or 14-year career in the NFL. He wasn?t putting up the numbers he did in his first seven NFL seasons with Miami, but Chambers was still a productive receiver for San Diego and Kansas City in his later years. He was traded to Kansas City seven games into the 2009 season, and still led the Chiefs in receiving that year despite playing only nine games. Chambers later signed a three-year deal with Kansas City before the 2011 season.

Did Devin Smith?s broken foot cost the University of Wisconsin football team a shot at a BCS title? Badgers coach Bret Bielema hinted strongly that was the case during a radio interview Wednesday on ESPN Madison radio?s “Jump Around” program. Smith, a cornerback, suffered a season-ending broken left foot against Oregon State in the second game of the season, his redshirt junior year. At the time, it was known to be a big setback. But when the Badgers? shot at an undefeated season ended on consecutive losses at Michigan State and Ohio State in which the secondary was burned for touchdowns in the closing seconds, Smith?s loss was magnified.

HUDSON – Hudson High School graduate Davis Drewiske, who won a state high school hockey championship with the Raiders in 2001, played on the University of Wisconsin?s 2006 national championship team, realized the dream of hockey players everywhere Monday night when he hoisted the Stanley Cup after his Los Angeles Kings team defeated the New Jersey Devils, 6-1, to win the franchise?s first National Hockey League title.

MADISON (WKOW) — Badger running back and Heisman Trophy award finalist Montee Ball has entered a not guilty plea to a charge he trespassed on a woman?s property during the Mifflin Street block party.

Hudson High School graduate Davis Drewiske, who won a state high school hockey championship with the Raiders in 2001, played on the University of Wisconsin?s 2006 national championship team, realized the dream of hockey players everywhere Monday night when he hoisted the Stanley Cup after his Los Angeles Kings team defeated the New Jersey Devils, 6-1, to win the franchise?s first National Hockey League title.

Bobbie Kelsey isn?t bottling up her enthusiasm over her most recent hire. The University of Wisconsin women?s basketball coach said the program “hit an absolute home run” by adding Jayme Callahan as recruiting coordinator, a move that was announced Monday. Callahan, who spent last season as an assistant at Clemson following a one-year stint at La Salle, replaces Kyle Rechlicz, who was named UW-Milwaukee head coach in May.

Sam Dekker keeps adding to his young resume. The incoming freshman for the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball team made the USA Basketball Men?s U18 National Team 12-man roster that will begin play later this week at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Sao Sebastiao do Paraiso, Brazil.

Highly touted University of Wisconsin men?s basketball recruit Sam Dekker has been selected as one of the 14 finalists for the U.S. men?s U-18 national team. Dekker, a guard/forward from Sheboygan Lutheran who was Wisconsin?s Mr. Basketball this past season, will continue training in Colorado Springs, Colo., through Monday. The official 12-man team will be selected prior to the team?s Tuesday departure to Brazil for the 2012 FIBA Americas U-18 Championship.

Sharif Chambliss, a former University of Wisconsin men?s basketball player who served as the Badgers? video coordinator the past two seasons, has been hired as an assistant coach at UW-Milwaukee. ?Sharif is a high-energy guy who is very familiar with us and is part of our coaching family,? said Panthers coach Rob Jeter, a former Badgers assistant.

TAMPA ? There was a game Nov. 6, 1994, when something seemingly came over Paul Gruber. Tempers flared. He lost control and found himself in a fierce fight with Bears defensive lineman Alonzo Spellman, and both were ejected.

Blue-chip recruits, high-profile games, and opportunities for student athletes are all at risk until the University of North Dakota moves away from the embattled Fighting Sioux nickname and logo, a group of the school?s athletic coaches said Tuesday.

The seeds of an Olympics berth began seven years ago with a generic postcard mailed to the home of Grant and Ross James, offering the pursuit of a new athletic adventure in college. The twin brothers had no idea just how much that postcard would change their lives.

The same suitcase Jordan Taylor has been living out of for well over a month was lined up alongside a handful of others in the front lobby of the Milwaukee Bucks? Cousins Center practice facility Sunday, June 3.

The vibrant new Field Turf surface now on display at Camp Randall Stadium raises an obvious question: What?s being done with the old stuff?

ST. FRANCIS ? The same suitcase Jordan Taylor has been living out of for well over a month was lined up alongside a handful of others in the front lobby of the Milwaukee Bucks? Cousins Center practice facility on Sunday morning. Over the course of 48 hours, the former standout point guard for the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball team had gone from Los Angeles to Chicago to Milwaukee and worked out for two NBA teams: the Chicago Bulls and the Bucks.

As the world of college football plows steadily toward a likely four-team playoff, the Big Ten Conference offered, at best, lukewarm support on Monday for new proposals for determining a national champion. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman outlined the conference?s point of view in a teleconference after a meeting on Sunday of the Big Ten?s Council of Presidents/Chancellors.

If major college football adopts a playoff format, University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez would like to see the media have a major role in implementing it. Bowl Championship Series officials are trying to devise a Final Four model to present to TV executives by June 20. The current BCS contract with conferences, bowls and ESPN, the current rights holder, expires after the 2013 season.

CAMDEN, N.J. ? The University of Wisconsin women?s lightweight rowing team accomplished one of its two goals Saturday. It won the varsity four national title but didn?t win the Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championship. With a heavy tail wind on the Cooper River, UW?s varsity four won its second consecutive national title.

University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez is looking to fill yet another hole on his senior staff. The last 14 months have seen four front-office departures. The latest to pull up stakes is senior assistant athletic director Tim Wise, who will assume a similar role at Miami (Fla.) and work with some familiar people. Former UW deputy AD Shawn Eichorst, who left last April, is the athletic director there. Steve Waterfield, a former associate athletic director at UW, is Eichorst?s top assistant.

When Erik Miller goes out in the world to sell the University of Wisconsin women?s lightweight rowing team to recruits, he generally lets the results speak for themselves. ?The reason I think kids want to come here is they know they?re going to be part of a really successful program,? Miller said. ?It?s a talented team. And we?re strong nationally every year.?

Montee Ball was reminded earlier this month that anything he does in public can have ramifications.”It was very unfortunate,” Wisconsin?s decorated tailback said Wednesday during a “Badger Day” event at Kalahari Resort. “I was literally at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The challenge of replacing future Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom in Detroit could fall to a standout defenseman from the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey program. Question is, which one? Reports say Lidstrom, who starred for the Red Wings for better part of two decades, will announce his retirement Thursday. Already there is speculation about who will step into his immense shadow. Three former Badgers appear prominently in the discussion.

ULM, Germany ? Keaton Nankivil?s sweet stroke from beyond the arc is still the same. He still keeps his family and friends in Wisconsin close to his heart. He also still claims to be a quiet guy, yet turns chatty when sharing stories about standing in awe at the ruins in Rome, learning just enough German to be able to order food and perfectly dissecting the pro basketball teams around Deutschland. But there?s something very different about Nankivil, a former Madison Memorial and University of Wisconsin athlete who now calls Germany home.

Local Olympic hopeful Kristin Hedstrom earned her ticket to London Sunday with partner Julie Nichols after finishing fourth at the World Rowing Cup. Hedstrom, a Boston native who attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, continues to make her appearance known throughout the U.S. lightweight women?s double sculls qualifying races.

Grant and Ross James will represent the United States at the 2012 London Olympics, marking the 12th consecutive Summer Games to feature University of Wisconsin rowers. The brothers were part of the men?s eight boat that prevailed at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta on Tuesday in Lucerne, Switzerland, to earn the eighth and final berth in the field. The DeKalb, Ill., natives attended UW from 2005-09 and both walked-on to the men?s rowing team, eventually earning spots on the 2008 national champion varsity eight boat.

It seems like J.J. Watt appreciates his wild, unlikely journey. That self awareness is part of what makes the Houston Texans? budding defensive superstar so easy to root for in every way.

After being a non-factor through the first three games of the series, Greg Stiemsma made his mark Monday as the Boston Celtics pushed Philadelphia to the brink of elimination in their Eastern Conference semifinal series. What?s surprising is that the former University of Wisconsin shot-blocker made the most noise on the offensive end.

For years, the Big Ten was viewed as the most powerful entity in college football. Lately, however, the conference has been in full backpedal mode. Or maybe it?s just some good old-fashioned politicking. Whatever you want to call it, the national debate over changing the BCS format from a two-team championship game to a four-team playoff has put Jim Delany, the Big Ten?s always-visionary and sometimes-pushy commissioner, in a mood to compromise.

Wisconsin?s non-conference schedule for the 2012-?13 men?s basketball season will include a trip to Las Vegas.

CHICAGO ? How about a national championship game in Detroit? Or Minneapolis? What about Boston or New York? With college football headed toward a playoff, Big Ten administrators this week came out in favor of staging those games in bowls, a step that would keep the conference?s longstanding ties to the Rose Bowl. But league officials said they could see the title game being played in cities other than the usual suspects in California, Florida and Louisiana, though they did not offer any specific suggestions. Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said part of the problem is transparency ? or a lack of ? with the current rankings system. He wants more clarity.

“I personally think there should be a committee, and it should be transparent so all the coaches and the public know the criteria, where the most weight is put and why decisions are made,” Alvarez said.

While his peers overwhelmingly endorse a major change to the rules about protective head gear, University of Wisconsin men?s hockey coach Mike Eaves is slightly torn. At meetings next month in Indianapolis, the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee is planning to formally recommend a switch from full face shields to three-quarter visors on helmets.

Expect to hear the name Justin Schultz a lot in the coming weeks. The 21-year-old University of Wisconsin defenseman has the option to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 if Anaheim, the team that drafted him 43rd overall in 2008, doesn?t get him under contract by June 1.

In most rooms, Russell Wilson blends in just fine. At 5-foot-11, he?s by no means a shrimp, but in the buildup to the NFL draft, Wilson?s “height issue” dominated scouting reports. His promising 72.8 completion percentage as a senior at Wisconsin was alluring, but quarterbacks under six feet aren?t usually long for the NFL.

Pat Richter, the star receiver for the University of Wisconsin football team who went on to rejuvenate the Badgers? fortunes as athletic director, has been named the Person of the Year by the Big Ten Club of Southern California. Richter was honored Tuesday at a banquet at the Wrigley Mansion in Pasadena, Calif., where in the 1963 Rose Bowl he set records by catching 11 passes for 163 yards in the Badgers? dramatic 42-37 loss to Southern California.

For the fifth straight season, the University of Wisconsin women?s rowing team will compete at the NCAA championships. The Badgers were selected Tuesday to the 16-team field for the May 25-27 event at Lake Mercer in West Windsor, N.J. Wisconsin is making its ninth trip to the national championships since 1997, when rowing became an NCAA sport. This marks the Badgers? seventh appearance in eight seasons under coach Bebe Bryans.

It cost UW-Madison about $43,700 to hire a retired Dane County Circuit judge to lead two inquiries into John Chadima, the senior associate athletic director who resigned earlier this year amid a sexual assault allegation. On Tuesday, the university released invoices submitted by Patrick Fiedler, now an attorney with the law firm Axley Brynelson.Three other investigators who worked with Fielder on the first inquiry were paid $11,900. Fielder worked with two detectives in the second investigation, but the university could not produce those billing records Tuesday.

A law firm has charged the University of Wisconsin-Madison about $43,700 to investigate an athletic official who resigned amid a sexual-assault investigation.

Russell Wilson joined the quarterback conversation as soon as the Seahawks chose him in the third round of this year?s NFL draft. It took the former University of Wisconsin standout just a little longer to officially join the competition for the starting job. “He?s shown us enough,” coach Pete Carroll said Sunday. “We need to see where he fits in.”

The University of Wisconsin men?s basketball program will welcome an old friend back to the Kohl Center next season. The Badgers host Virginia, coached by former UW assistant Tony Bennett, in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Nov. 28. Game time and television network will be announced at a later date.

It mystified most NFL draft experts when the Seahawks, selecting in the third round, latched onto University of Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson. His first negative, according to critics: Lack of height (5-foot-11). His second: the Seahawks had, only weeks earlier, guaranteed Matt Flynn $10 million over two years after acquiring him in free agency from the Green Bay Packers.

Kyle Jefferson became a legend Sunday, not for his greatness of skills, but for a preeminent display of will on behalf of the University of Wisconsin men?s track and field team. The Badgers came up with a stirring last-event surge to overtake Nebraska and win the Big Ten Conference outdoor title at the McClimon Track. Jefferson starred in that comeback, but the senior from Cleveland almost missed it completely.

The Big Ten track and field championships will begin on Friday at the McClimon Complex on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, and one Badger athlete to keep an eye on is junior distance runner Mohammed Ahmed.

Two decorated members of the University of Wisconsin wrestling team have made plans to transfer, capping one of the most demoralizing seasons in program history.

Yvette Healy has Sunday circled on her mental calendar for two reasons that are near and dear to the heart of the University of Wisconsin softball coach. One is job-related. If things go according to plan today and Saturday, UW could land its first NCAA tournament berth since 2005 when the 64-team field is announced.

MILWAUKEE (AP) ? Hoping to secure some stability at the top of its athletic department, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee hired former Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger on Thursday.

Greg Stiemsma might not be the next Bill Russell, as at least one overly hopeful ex-Boston Celtic predicted. But he has become a regular contributor ? and burgeoning cult hero ? on a star-studded squad that has designs on a deep run in the NBA playoffs.

The new system needs to be more transparent, and Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez would welcome the four teams being chosen by a selection committee, similar to the system used in basketball.