Category: Athletics

The task of paying Mount Rushmore-style homage to the four greatest figures in University of Wisconsin athletic history is pretty simple, frankly.

You have three absolute duhs: Barry Alvarez, Elroy Hirsch and Pat Richter, listed here in alphabetical order.

You have one spot up for grabs, which could be filled by one of a couple of diverse, worthy candidates.

University of Wisconsin-Madison sophomore swimmer Maggie Meyer was one of three swimmers to qualify for the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships at IU Natatorium in Indianapolis.

UW-Madison will be able to expand its golf instruction thanks to a $45,000 grant, steered to the university by Edgerton native and professional golfer Steve Stricker.

The funds, distributed through the 2008 Ryder Cup Outreach Program, will allow UW-Madison to meet student demand for golf programs by adding eight more class sections over the next two years.

BELGRADE, Serbia â?? Led by a team-high 17 points from North Carolina forward Deon Thompson, the U.S. menâ??s basketball team clinched a spot in the quarterfinals of the World University Games with 108-77 victory over Greece on Monday night.

CROSS PLAINS â?? To Andrew Winterstein, fly fishing is about more than catching fish.
Itâ??s also about more than just getting out into nature.

To Andrew Winterstein, fly fishing is all about water â?? and the respect it deserves.

â??I share my angling passion and talk about some of the conservation issues. If someone is going to be an angler, that person has to understand, and care, about water resources,â? said Winterstein. a clinical professor in the Kinesiology Department at the University of Wisconsin, who teaches a two-week summer course on fly fishing.

BELGRADE, Serbia â?? For starters, Bo Ryan had to be happy with his U.S. team at the World University Games.

Iowa State forward Craig Brackins had 12 points and nine rebounds as the Americans opened Group H play with an 87-40 rout of Finland in the menâ??s basketball competition on Friday night.

Wherever Barry Alvarez goes these days, the University of Wisconsin athletic director hears the same question with the same urgent tone.

No, it doesnâ??t involved football coach Bret Bielema and the state of that program.

â??I donâ??t go to any function â?? I donâ??t care if itâ??s national, Big Ten (Conference), local â?? and everyoneâ??s talking about the same thing,â? Alvarez said. â??How you going to deal with the economy? How you going to deal with all this stuff? What are your answers?â?

Now that the Camp Randall Hockey Classic has a corporate sponsor, its next order of business seems obvious.

â??I want to see 80,000 people in the stadium,â? Craig Culver said.

It was announced Wednesday that Culverâ??s Restaurants, the fast-food chain with roots in Prairie du Sac, will sponsor the first outdoor hockey games at Camp Randall Stadium.

Before Mark Johnson can take temporary leave of his job as University of Wisconsin womenâ??s hockey coach, he will have to address an unexpected departure from his staff.

Assistant coach and top recruiter Dan Koch has accepted an offer to coach one of the nationâ??s elite girls prep programs at Shattuck-St. Maryâ??s High School in Faribault, Minn.

Koch and fellow assistant Tracey (Cornell) DeKeyser had been tabbed to coach the defending NCAA champion Badgers next season while Johnson takes a one-year sabbatical to guide Team USA in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

After Serbia went to the free throw line 46 times and beat the United States 98-82 Sunday night in a World University Games exhibition game in Belgrade, coach Bo Ryan was more concerned with his teamâ??s mental shortcomings than its physical ones.

â??The main thing is not to overreact to how a game is being called,â? Ryan said.

The University of Wisconsin menâ??s basketball coach knows thatâ??s much easier said than done. He was warned prior to beginning his stint coaching the United Statesâ?? entry in the World University Games that begin later this week during a meeting with former UW players led by Kirk Penney, Mike Wilkinson, Zach Morley and Greg Stiemsma.

Dear Editor:

I want to applaud the kindness and thoughtfulness of Bret Bielema and the Wisconsin Badgers’ football staff.

I was working at their high school football camp last week when I got a phone call stating that my father had had a heart attack. I told coach Bielema and camp director Mark Taurisani that I would have to leave, and of course they said, “By all means, go.” That didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was the genuine concern displayed by the Badgers’ staff and the other high school coaches when I returned.

University of Wisconsin sports fans can watch an entire day of Badger-themed programming on the Big Ten Network on Monday, June 29.

Where does that leave us with the University of Wisconsin record book? Are there any untouchables?

I say yes, and they go beyond milestones in baseball and all other sports that have been discontinued at UW. Here are my top 10 in order of projected shelf life:

MASON CITY â?? Itâ??s been 30 years and there has been Rose Bowls and a Heisman Trophy winner to reflect upon.

But this past week, Barry Alvarez kicked up his feet in his cabana in Madison, Wis., and popped in a video.

Craig Smith will take in the NHL Entry Draft from afar, his head ready to deal with whatever comes out of the proceedings in Montreal Friday night and Saturday.

An incoming freshman for the University of Wisconsin menâ??s hockey team, Smith is one of those enigmatic pro prospects. Some scouts see him going as high as the second round. Others donâ??t have the 6-foot-1, 189-pound power winger among their top 200 targets.

WIW: UW FB coach BB njoys Twitter b/c he can control IM 2 fan base. Moving fwd, itz a GR8 way, IHHO, to update pple abt da Badgers, 4 sure.

Y not?

Works 4 me 2.

Long before it became fashionable to have a “bucket list” — compliments of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in the 2007 movie by the same name — former University of Wisconsin sports information director Jim Mott had buckets, and lists.

For the first time, hockey players swept the athletes of the year award at the University of Wisconsin.

Jessie Vetter — who capped her stellar career by backstopping the Badgers to a third NCAA title — claimed top female honors, while WCHA Player of the Year Jamie McBain was named top male.

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department has lost an institution.

Jim Mott, the schoolâ??s Sports Information Director for 34 years, died Sunday night. His age was not available late Sunday night, but research showed he most likely was 79 or 80.

â??It might sound corny,â? Mott told The Capital Times just before his retirement in June 1990, â??but it really has been a love affair between me and Wisconsin athletics.â?

The University of Wisconsin’s athletic department is receiving national recognition for its “Wear Red. Think Green. Badgers Recycle.” campaign.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Crazylegs Classic could go global.

Crazylegs is set for next April 24 in Madison. The university’s athletic department, the National W Club and the Wisconsin Alumni Association are trying to set up simultaneous Crazylegs runs anywhere else in the world that might have interest.

Terry Murawski is the executive director of the National W Club, an organization for UW-Madison athletic letter winners. He says participants would pay a registration fee and receive an official T-shirt and race-bib, just as they would in Madison. The money would go to UW-Madison athletics.

Elroy (Crazylegs) Hirsch, otherwise Forever 40, would have been 86 today. Born on June 17, 1923 in Wausau, Hirsch was a Hall of Fame football player and Hall of Fame fundraiser, whose indefatigable spirit is still manifesting itself years after his death (Jan. 28, 2004) in such things as the Crazylegs Classic, a mega-popular run/walk that is now going global.

Virtually everyone credited Chicago Daily News sportswriter Francis Powers for tagging Hirsch with his nickname: Crazylegs. “Hirsch ran like a demented duck,” Powers wrote of Hirsch’s 61-yard touchdown run in a 1942 game against Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago. “His crazy legs were gyrating in six different directions all at the same time.”

The University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s athletic program is the fifth-largest revenue-producer in the country, according to a report in Street & Smithâ??s Sports Business Journal.

The publication, citing Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act forms from the U.S. Department of Education, said UW had about $93.5 million in revenue during the 2007-08 school year.

Jack Ikegwuonu wants both his legal and his leg problems behind him, and it’s possible they could be in his rearview mirror by the time he arrives for the start of training camp late next month at Lehigh University.

The Eagles’ second-year cornerback is scheduled to finally get his day in court July 2 in DeKalb County, Ill., where he and his twin brother, Bill, were charged with residential burglary and criminal trespass Nov. 26, 2006.

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board approved multiple changes to its bonus policy for coaches Friday, including the creation of some gray area in an otherwise black-and-white formula.

The revised policy eliminates the words “exceptional achievement” from the title; downgrades the payout for three lower-tier football bowl games; and acknowledges two other postseason men’s basketball tournaments outside of the NCAA and National Invitation Tournament.

High school teams and fans coming to Madison for the state softball and tennis tournaments should plan for a little extra time getting to their venues because of the major road and building construction on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The WIAA girls state softball tournament starts Thursday and runs through Saturday at the Goodman softball complex, 2415 University Bay Drive, and the WIAA boys state team tennis tourney is Friday night and Saturday at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium, 1000 Highland Avenue.

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department is in the process of changing its Exceptional Achievement Award Policy, which came under fire recently when football coach Bret Bielema earned a $100,000 bonus for leading his team to the Champs Sports Bowl.

The proposed changes, which must be approved by the Athletic Board on Friday, would lower the bonuses football coaches receive for the two lowest bowl games.

Craig Miller and Jack Bolas could have left with everyone else.

It has been almost a year since Jerry Schumacher resigned as the University of Wisconsin men’s cross country coach to train distance runners for Nike, a move that sparked some key departures from the program.

At the top of the list were Brandon Bethke, a three-time Big Ten champion who transferred to Arizona State, and Evan Jager, who turned pro after his freshman year and trains under Schumacher’s tutelage in Oregon.

Miller and Bolas, meanwhile, helped the UW cross country team win its 10th straight Big Ten title in the fall and during track season have pushed each other all the way to the NCAA championship meet, where both are among the favorites in the 1,500 meters.

As if being a phenom isnâ??t enough, Alex Rigsby is about to become a pioneer, curiosity and longshot, too.

The 17-year-old University of Wisconsin womenâ??s hockey recruit from Delafield is already an accomplished goaltender, having helped Team USA to the gold medal in the Under-18 World Championships earlier this year, prompting observers to project her into the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

But before Rigsby shows up at UW â?? sheâ??s verbally committed for 2010-11 â?? sheâ??ll have to deal with the trappings of being a history-maker.

The 11 a.m. start is becoming a Homecoming tradition.

For the fourth straight year — and sixth in the last eight — the Wisconsin Badgers football team will have a morning kickoff for its Homecoming game.

It’s official: Catie O’Leary is a Badger. The All-State guard from Janesville Parker, who originally signed with Loyola (Ill.) but told The Capital Times in April she would change course and come to Wisconsin, has signed a national letter of intent with UW and was introduced by the school Monday.

O’Leary, whose 20.9 points per game average as a senior ranked second in the state among Division 1 players, will join the program this fall.

Noted: Indeed, some observers think the incentive bar for coaches has been set too low. Wisconsin State Journal sports columnist Tom Oates took the University of Wisconsin athletic department to task in March for paying head football coach Bret Bielema a $100,000 bonus after leading the Badgers to a 7-6 record and a 42-13 loss to Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl â?? the fifth of seven bowl bids awarded to Big Ten teams. “Even though the bonuses are paid with booster money and therefore don’t cost the school a dime, this is all about perception, and the perception is this is easy money for coaches while the rest of the state-supported university struggles to make ends meet,” Oates wrote. “If UW wants to change that perception, coaching bonuses should be earned, not handed out like Halloween candy.”

Two candidates with ties to the University of Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball program — North Dakota State assistant coach Will Ryan and Platteville assistant coach Jeff Gard — are among five finalists for the head coaching vacancy at UW-Platteville, the school announced today.

Asked by Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reporter Michael Rothstein about potentially playing the University of Wisconsin football team in a nonconference series, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said that he and Barry Alvarez have spoken but not about specifics. Here’s a link to Rothstein’s blog.

“At this time of year, everybody talks to everybody,” Swarbrick told Rothstein. “As you know, it’s a real Rubik’s Cube of trying to fit everything together. Would we be interested in playing Wisconsin? Absolutely. Great football tradition. Great school.”

For years, some University of Wisconsin football fans have been cheer, cheering for old Notre Dame to appear on the Badgers’ schedule.

That wish might come true, though fans shouldn’t get too excited just yet.

UW athletic director Barry Alvarez acknowledged Tuesday during an interview on WTSO-AM/1070 that he and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick have had discussions this spring about scheduling a non-conference series.

The University of Wisconsin is in discussions with Notre Dame about scheduling a nonconference football series, athletic director Barry Alvarez said Tuesday in an interview on WTSO-AM/1070.

Alvarez told host Mike Heller that his talks with Fighting Irish officials have focused on a four-year window from 2012 to 2015.

“I haven’t told anyone else this, but actually I have talked to their athletic director about it,” Alvarez said. “There is a possibility.”

Those University of Wisconsin football fans who have criticized the school’s non-conference football schedules as soft and lacking big-name programs might want to sit down before they continue reading.

UW athletic director Barry Alvarez is working to get Notre Dame on the Badgers’ schedule, with 2012 through 2015 as the window of opportunity.

Look, I know Barry Alvarez wasnâ??t a math major at Nebraska, but there is one thing about the University of Wisconsinâ??s season-ticket numbers as announced by Alvarez that simply doesnâ??t add up.

In a press release last week, Alvarez, the athletic director, and Bret Bielema, his football coach, proclaimed themselves â??pleasedâ? that 94 percent of the general-public season-ticket holders for football have renewed for the upcoming season.

Noted: If nearly 3,300 season tickets were left on the table by University of Wisconsin football fans for 2009, what happens next year when thousands of UW employees are feeling the effects of furloughs, salary cuts and, perhaps, layoffs? â?¦

Most of the UW-Madison graduates who accepted their diplomas at the Kohl Center last weekend weren’t born yet when Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios led the Badgers to the 1983 NCAA hockey championship.

Luke Swan liked his chances in the latest reality TV show after the first day of practice at the historic Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

The Fennimore, Wis., native and former University of Wisconsin captain is one of six wide receivers and six defensive backs featured on “4th and Long,” which made its debut Monday night on Spike.

A big piece of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department’s revenue puzzle moved into place Tuesday when it was announced that 94 percent of general public football season ticket holders renewed for the 2009 season.

While that’s the smallest renewal rate since Camp Randall Stadium was renovated in 2004 – when capacity increased from 78,000 to 81,000 – it’s considered an upbeat development in the face of a tough economy and growing skepticism over the direction of the UW football program.

Vander Blue has discarded his oral commitment to play for the University of Wisconsin menâ??s basketball team, but he made it clear that doesnâ??t mean he has completely ruled out playing for the Badgers.

The 6-foot-4 junior guard from Madison Memorial said during a news conference Tuesday that he wants to take “a step back and see what else is out there for me.