The Madison Sports Hall of Fame added four local notables â?? Dr. Conrad Andringa, Al Hovland, Greg Oâ??Brien and Vince Sweeney â?? to its ranks in ceremonies Wednesday night at Monona Terrace.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will begin a new search for an athletic director now that George Koonce has officially announced his resignation after a rocky year as the head of the department.
Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne says his Rose Bowl rings, a bracelet commemorating his selection as the top player in college football and other items worth more than $140,000 have been stolen. The former University of Wisconsin and NFL running back said Wednesday that his two bowl rings and other jewelry were stolen from his home in a Madison, Wis., suburb in April.
Joe, Jen and Nate Lescher were pretty excited to see Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, basketball coach Bo Ryan and football coach Bret Bielema among the many coaches and personalities at Wednesdayâ??s Badger Days event at The Shops at Woodlake in Kohler. But they saved most of their gushing for another celebrity in the house.
Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne said Wednesday that his Rose Bowl rings, a bracelet commemorating his selection as the top player in college football and other items worth more than $140,000 have been stolen.
Authorities said Badger football legend Ron Dayne was victimized by separate burglaries this year, with over $100,000 in jewelry and one-of-a-kind keepsakes stolen.
Almost from its inception nearly 20 years ago, University Ridge has been critically acclaimed for its design, playability and ambience. Its greens are another story because they have never consistently measured up to the rest of the course.
It looks like thatâ??s about to change. Officials from the University of Wisconsin athletic department are expected to discuss this month with the Athletic Boardâ??s University Ridge oversight committee a plan to reseed the courseâ??s 18 greens and practice green in front of the clubhouse.
Tom Ragatz is thinking what many longtime UW football season ticket holders are probably thinking about the Big Ten conferenceâ??s possible expansion to as many as 16 teams.
He is skeptical, sees greed as the overriding motive and worries the change will put the rich tradition of UW sports at risk. Ragatz, a well-known Madisonian and retired partner of the Foley & Lardner law firm here, has what must be one of the longest-running first-hand perspectives on the issue.
Ron Dayneâ??s bracelet commemorating his status as a Heisman Trophy winner was one of several items stolen late Saturday night from a home on the southeast side in which the former University of Wisconsin football standout is living.
Almost from its inception nearly 20 years ago, University Ridge has been critically acclaimed for its design, playability and ambience. Its greens are another story because they have never consistently measured up to the rest of the course. It looks like thatâ??s about to change.Officials from the University of Wisconsin athletic department are expected to discuss this month with the Athletic Boardâ??s University Ridge oversight committee a plan to reseed the courseâ??s 18 greens and practice green in front of the clubhouse.
The top college teams in the country were in Verona all weekend long for the USA College Ultimate Championships.
Madison police say former UW football star and Heisman trophy winner Ron Dayneâ??s home was robbed over the weekend.
Former University of Wisconsin Badgers hockey player Brendan Smith made an appearance in court Tuesday.
Local college football legend Ron Dayne has recently been the victim of burglaries in two locations.
Madison and the University of Wisconsin have a special connection to this yearâ??s NHL Stanley Cup finals. Chicago Blackhawks forward Adam Burish, who won an NCAA title in 2006, now looks to add the Stanley Cup in 2010.
When Barry Alvarez was a football player at Union High School in Burgettstown in the early 1960s, he was overlooked by Penn State and not offered a scholarship.
Both the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s menâ??s and womenâ??s ultimate frisbee teams are competing in the championship tournament this weekend.
The UW womenâ??s ultimate frisbee team pulled out a pair of wins Saturday afternoon to secure a place in Sundayâ??s national quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the UW men defeated Texas State and Pittsburgh to improve to 2-2 on the weekend.
Which organization boasts of possessing the largest nonmilitary fleet in the nation? The UW Sailing Club, which owns 120 boats and sailboards. That group is hosting an event that is as large in magnitude as the club is in stature — the Intercollegiate Sailing Associationâ??s national championship, a 10-day affair that kicked off Tuesday on Lake Mendota.
An unprecedented season for the University of Wisconsin womenâ??s openweight rowing team ended with an unprecedented seventh-place finish at the NCAA Rowing Championships Sunday on Lake Natoma. UW earned 55 points, nearly doubling its previous high of 28 in 2006.
A burglary affecting a local college football legend this weekend highlights ongoing concerns about safety in a neighborhood on Madisonâ??s East Side. It was hardly the homecoming that Charles Slaughter was expecting, but he came home on Saturday morning to less than heâ??d had before he left.
Barry Alvarez received an unexpected gift while attending the recent Big Ten Conference meetings in Chicago.Wisconsinâ??s athletic director was informed he had made the cut for the College Football Hall of Fameâ??s 2010 class.
Ever since Barry Alvarez pulled off one of the great reclamation projects in college football history, winning three Rose Bowls at the University of Wisconsin, his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame seemed a matter of when, not if.
University of Wisconsin-Madison athletic director Barry Alvarez will be inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame, according to an announcement on Thursday morning.
The high school football coach knew that he had to be creative upon taking over a losing program that had hit rock bottom. So he focused on building up his players, both physically and mentally, through a rigorous summer conditioning phase that was designed to get some positive results.
General public season tickets for 2010 have been renewed at a rate of 97.5 percent, according to an e-mail sent out today from football coach Bret Bielema to Badgers football season ticket holders.
Given Barry Alvarezâ??s 16-year body of work as the football coach at the University of Wisconsin, there can be only one possible outcome Thursday when the College Football Hall of Fame announces this yearâ??s class of inductees in New York.
Unruly weather washed out the competition on the first day of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association womenâ??s national championship on Lake Mendota, and the forecast doesnâ??t look much better for Day 2. The event, hosted by the University of Wisconsin Sailing Club, will attempt to resume Wednesday — there is a 70 percent chance of rain, with thunderstorms looming — with 18 schools competing in the semifinals for a top-nine finish and a berth in the championship round.
First, there was no wind Tuesday. And once it came, it brought rain and lightning. Unruly weather washed out the competition on the first day of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association womenâ??s national championship on Lake Mendota, and the forecast doesnâ??t look much better for Day 2.
Mark Taurisani, a member of the University of Wisconsin football staff for the last four years, has been promoted to director of football operations, coach Bret Bielema announced Thursday in a statement.
This sport is the Ultimate – really – and its national college championships are coming to Madison on Memorial Day weekend. Backyard Frisbee has got nothing on the Ultimate Players Association College Championships, set for Friday through next Monday, May 31, at Reddan Soccer Park in Verona and at Middletonâ??s Breitenbach Stadium. Fans who come out for the UPA College Championships are sure to see the highest level of Ultimate anywhere, said Matt Young, captain of the UW-Madison club Ultimate team, the Hodags.
The men’s and women’s teams are pushing their oars in the same direction due to the mutual efforts of coaches Chris Clark and Bebe Bryans.
Unlike his old office overlooking the football field at Camp Randall Stadium, Vince Sweeney doesnâ??t have a scoreboard outside his window at Bascom Hall. And that has made it tougher to track progress â?? or keep score â?? from an administrative standpoint .â??But there hasnâ??t been one day where I woke up and thought, â??What the heck did I do? I had such a great thing going â?? why did I leave?â?? â? Sweeney said. Ten months ago, he made the move from Monroe Street to Bascom, from reporting to University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez to serving UW chancellor Biddy Martin.
The unique celebration was spread over hundreds of miles of Midwestern flatland, with a couple of Interstate convenience stores used as staging areas.
Assistant coach Kathi Bennett has left the University of Wisconsin womenâ??s basketball program to take over as the head coach at Northern Illinois. Northern Illinois announced the move Tuesday at a news conference in DeKalb, Ill.
As a University of Wisconsin athlete, Lawrence Johnson knew what it took to get to the finish line. And he usually got there before anyone else. He still has the third-fastest time in the 200-meter run in school history.
As a UW student, though, Johnson had trouble finishing what he started. Over 30 years ago, he left school without his degree. And there was little or no commitment at the time to come back for it.
…Given this backdrop, you can better understand what it felt like for Johnson to finally cross the finish line during last weekendâ??s UW commencement exercises at the Kohl Center.
Cycling in the area got a lift when UW-Madison won its own bid for a high-profile event. In November, the National Collegiate Cycling Association, part of the sportâ??s national governing body USA Cycling, announced that UWâ??s cycling team – the universityâ??s largest club sport – would host the 2010 and 2011 Collegiate Road National Championship races.
During a conversation with former University of Wisconsin and major league pitcher Paul Quantrill several years ago, the question was posed about what he would do if metal bats were ever approved at the professional level. â??Retire,â? Quantrill deadpanned before admitting he was serious. The familiar â??pingâ? generated by a ball meeting a metal bat has always sat funny with traditionalists who favor wood, but also has created a level of anxiety among pitchers and infielders in the line of fire of the rocket shots metal bats can emit.
No need to hurry. That was the message Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany shared with reporters Tuesday in Chicago when asked about the leagueâ??s expansion plans.
Despite a recent report that the Big Ten has already invited Notre Dame, Nebraska, Missouri and Rutgers to join the league, Delany reiterated Tuesday during the Big Tenâ??s annual spring meetings that he will continue to follow the timetable of 12 to 18 months that he laid out in December.
CHICAGO — Donâ??t expect a decision on expansion anytime soon from the Big Ten. Commissioner Jim Delany is basically sticking with the timeframe he laid out in December, when he said the league would explore its options over the next 12 to 18 months. He says a decision is “months away.”
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez understands the public would like some answers about Big Ten expansion. Just donâ??t ask him. Alvarez said the decision rests with school presidents, not with the leagueâ??s athletic directors. Still, expansion was the hot-button topic Monday as conference coaches and administrators gathered in Chicago for three days of meetings. “People want to know whatâ??s going on, but nobody has any answers for them,” Alvarez said. “None of us do, anyway.”
Big Ten coaches and athletic directors, including Wisconsinâ??s Barry Alvarez, will gather Monday through Wednesday in Chicago. The annual spring meeting likely will further stoke interest in the leagueâ??s future, even though the commissioner, Jim Delany, has indicated that expansion could be a year away. But the Big Ten isnâ??t merely a sports league – it is an identity. Expansion, if it occurs, will have to be considered carefully. The perfect match doesnâ??t include only ability on the football field but excellence in the classroom and the research lab.
Kohl Center spokesman Justin Doherty may think that all fans are willing to go anywhere to see Simon and Garfunkel perform. Not this one. I stood in line for a long time and spent $381 for three good seats. I stood in line to get my refund. I am not standing in line again — just because the University of Wisconsin acted foolishly.
Championship performances in the 1,500 meters and 400-meter relay to start the day set the stage for the Badgers, who totaled seven All-Big Ten performances and placed nine different athletes on the awards stand. It was good enough for second place in the team standings, as UWâ??s tallied 124 points behind Minnesota, who totaled 145 in defending its title. It is the Badgersâ?? ninth top-two finish in the last 11 years at the Big Ten outdoor meet and represented their best team score since tallying 145.5 points to win the title in 2007.
Jenny Soceka won her first Big Ten conference title in the pole vault and highlighted the Badgersâ?? outstanding final day in the field events, as Wisconsin racked up 101.5 points overall to finish third in the team race behind Penn State (133.5) and Minnesota (123).
Harold “Hal” Otterback, a four-year letterwinner as a lineman on the University of Wisconsin football team from 1946-49, died Monday. He was 83.
Chavon Robinson has negotiated her share of learning curves since joining the University of Wisconsin womenâ??s track and field team four years ago. She came from Milwaukee in 2006 regarded as a decent talent in the long and triple jumps. Sheâ??s heading for the exit with two school records, having grown into what UW coach Jim Stintzi describes as an “elite, national-level athlete.” Robinson came from Rufus King High School with a passing knowledge of her craft. Sheâ??s since become such a student of her specialties that her tutor, UW assistant coach Nate Davis, came up to her after a practice session this season and, in complimentary fashion, said, “You donâ??t need me as much.”
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan saw his basketball team go 2-0 against the Atlantic Coast Conference last season, with both victories coming against established powers that went on to play in the NCAA Tournament. Maryland fell to UW in a holiday tournament in Hawaii, and the Badgers upset eventual national champion Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in Madison. UWâ??s opponent in the 2010 ACC/Big Ten Challenge, North Carolina State, isnâ??t at that level.
UWâ??s athletic department is not exactly known for leaving money on the table. Just ask those compelled to make annual contributions to the Badger Fund to maintain seat locations and parking priority for Badger sports events.
That fact makes even more baffling the departmentâ??s refusal to accommodate the promoter, and more significantly, the big ticket-buying public, in rescheduling the Simon and Garfunkel concert.
Two key administrators in the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department have taken new jobs. John Jentz, the UW associate athletic director for business operations, has accepted an offer to become senior associate athletic director for finance at UCLA. Nancy Graff-Schultz, the director of human resources for UW athletics, will become director of business services for libraries on the Madison campus.
Former Badger football player Erasmus James plead guilty to one count of substantial battery-intend bodily harm in court Tuesday.A misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct was dismissed.
Both the menâ??s and womenâ??s ultimate frisbee teams will compete in the national championship tournament at the end of May and theyâ??ll be doing it on their home turf.
The UW cycling team finishes 10th overall in the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships.
The addition Friday of Mundelein (Ill.) High School senior guard Ben Brust adds the fourth and final player to the class and provides coach Bo Ryan and his staff a second combo guard less than two months after the departure of senior guards Trevon Hughes and Jason Bohannon.
The very first race, before the formation of the Dad Vail Rowing Association, was held in 1934, hosted by coach Rusty Callow and the University of Pennsylvania. Callow created a trophy as the competition prize and named it after Harry Emerson â??Dadâ? Vail in honor of his many years of coaching at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
In response to a letter asking him why he gave this name to the original trophy, Callow replied: â??Dad Vail was a lovable character, entirely devoid of secretiveness or slyness, and with a great sense of natural humor. I recall one year observing that he was going up one side of the river in his coaching launch, and across the river, about half a mile away, rowed his Wisconsin crews. So I asked him: â??Dad, why do your crews go up one side of the river and you in your launch up the other? Your lads canâ??t hear anything you may say.â?? He replied, â??You know, Rusty, Iâ??ve found out through experience that the farther off they are, the better they look.â?? That was Dad Vail.â?
Call it what you will, enlightenment, a jolt of insight or simple maturity, but Kyle Jefferson is starting to see what he can do as a member of the University of Wisconsin menâ??s track and field team. Itâ??s an exciting sight to behold.
Jefferson is best known as a wide receiver for the football team, a senior-to-be who has caught 44 passes for 636 yards and two touchdowns in 34 games.
Wisconsin officials on Thursday confirmed the UW menâ??s basketball team is scheduled to compete in the 2010 Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla. The tournament is scheduled for Nov. 25, 26 and 28 at the Milk House at Disneyâ??s Wide World of Sports Complex.
Wisconsin has agreed with Illinois to push their Big Ten football matchups into December in 2011 and 2012. Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said playing later in the season gives the teams more exposure and an advantage in bowl preparation.
Itâ??s hard to overstate just how good an athlete Don Voss was.
In 1951, he was part of the University of Wisconsin football team and its famous “Hard Rocks” defense, the top defensive unit in the country. UW track coach Riley Best wanted Voss, too, asking football coach Ivy Williamson if Voss could skip spring football practice to compete as a hurdler.
Williamson gave the OK. Voss became an All-American in track.
The Badgers will play in the Old Spice Classic over Thanksgiving weekend at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Fla., the school announced Thursday in a statement.
