MADISON, Wis. — A local family gathered Tuesday night to donate three new portable defibrillators to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department.
Dr. George Warren and his family donated the AEDs, which will be installed at the UW-Madison Police Department and the UW Athletic Department.
Five years ago this weekend, Warren was running in the annual Crazy Legs Classic when he collapsed on campus. He said an AED and some quick-thinking citizens saved his life.
There may not be a better off-campus house in America than the one that Wisconsin senior tackle Joe Thomas shares with five teammates in Madison. Miller Lite tap in the kitchen, poker room in the basement, John Belushi poster on the TV room wall and — everyone’s favorite — padded red bra hanging from the antlers of a six-point trophy buck.
Quoted: Sharon McCabe, senior lecturer in real estate and urban land economics.
Dear Editor: Since running my first Crazylegs run in 1984, I have been an ardent supporter of Badger athletics. However, I will not be participating in the event this year.
I understand that at its inception, the Crazylegs was a way for the underfunded athletic department to subsidize programs. However, under the guidance of Barry Alvarez and Pat Richter, Badger athletics has become wildly successful. While the Crazylegs is indeed an entertaining event that helps foster community good will, I feel its time as a fundraiser has come to an end….
Although the Big Ten Network still doesnâ??t have a contract with Madisonâ??s Charter Communications, network officials are confident they will close the deal by kickoff this fall with the aid of University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez.
Dear Editor: I sure hope that there aren’t a bunch of people who write in complaining that another University of Wisconsin coach — basketball coach Bo Ryan — is getting paid “too much money.”
I know that for the average guy these numbers (total compensation package) seem to be over the top, but I for one think Bo would be a value if his current package were tripled.
With the first leg of the University of Wisconsin quarterback derby finished, Tyler Donovan and Allan Evridge appear to be in a dead heat.
Both players overcame mistakes or errant throws to give generally favorable performances in the Cardinal’s 35-6 victory over the White in the annual spring game Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.
The Big Ten Network might well turn out to be a good thing for University of Wisconsin fans when it is launched later this year.
More likely, though, the Big Ten’s venture into television will result in changes – some short-term, some long-term – that viewers won’t consider positive. It’s not an exhaustive list, but here are five potentially negative consequences for fans:
1. The Big Ten can’t strike a deal with the major cable providers (including Charter in Madison) and a significant number of football and basketball games won’t be available to viewers who now get them on ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2 or in local syndication from ESPN Plus.
Madison: The Big Ten Network doesn’t launch until August, so there’s still time to reach a deal, but right now it’s a cable channel without a home.
“We fully expect your neighbor and yourself to be able to see the network,” says Mark Silverman,President of the Big Ten Network. He wants you to know he’s doing everything he can to get Charter Cable to carry the channel. “I don’t know the odds. I’d like to think they’re pretty darn good. We’ve had great conversations with all the cable operators. I think they all value the content that we have here today.”
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When it launches in August, the Big Ten Network wants to be available in every cable- or satellite-wired home in eight states where its schools play.That’s the goal, anyway.So far, only satellite provider DirecTV and a handful of small local cable companies have signed on, Mark Silverman, the new sports network’s president, said last week during a news conference at the University of Illinois.
A plan that could drastically change the imprint of the University of Wisconsin athletics complex is quietly moving forward.School officials, in tandem with architectural and design consultants from Kahler Slater of Milwaukee, are meeting with coaches and UW Athletic Department administrators to devise a master plan for future capital projects.
MADISON, Wis. â?? University of Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas acknowledges he reads many of the pre-NFL draft online scouting reports about him. But it’s not an exercise in ego-tripping.
“The thing that I always look for right away is ‘weaknesses,’ ” the 2006 Outland Trophy winner says. “I really don’t care what people think I’m good at. I want to know what I need to work on.”
While draft hype consumes NFL nation, Wisconsin’s Joe Thomas is chilling in Madison, hitting the books and the brats and waiting for life to get even better.
Wisconsin will serve as host for one of four regionals during the 2007 women’s tournament, the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee announced Wednesday.
University of Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas acknowledges he reads many of the pre-NFL draft online scouting reports about him. But it’s not an exercise in ego-tripping. “The thing that I always look for right away is ‘weaknesses,’ ” the 2006 Outland Trophy winner says. “I really don’t care what people think I’m good at. I want to know what I need to work on.
The UW Field House has been known for a long time as one of the country’s best college volleyball venues. It will get a chance to show off on a big stage when the University of Wisconsin serves as host for one of four regionals during this year’s NCAA women’s volleyball tournament.
The regional is scheduled to be played on Dec. 7-8.
Dear Editor: With all the troubles we as a country are struggling with, including us in Madison, it was a diversion from all our worries following the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team this past year.
Their never-say-die attitude and all of their accomplishments this year were a welcome relief from all the troubles we have in our world….
Despite undergoing seven knee surgeries, Bret Bielema has tackled training for his first-ever Crazylegs Classic run with a vengeance.
The second-year head coach with the University of Wisconsin football team will also serve as grand marshal for the 8-kilometer run and two-mile walk that will take place on April 28.
Two decades ago, while excelling in track and field at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Jamie Pollard learned a valuable lesson.
“I was in individual sports, swimming and running, so I never had to say I didn’t score because somebody didn’t pass me the ball,” said Pollard. “What you put into it is what you get out of it and I think that’s rubbed off on how I work professionally.”
Iowa State University has been the beneficiary.
Since being named athletic director at Iowa State on Sept. 19, 2005, the 42-year-old Pollard has poured his heart and soul into Cyclone athletics. The results have been swift and efficient.
Of course, Barry Alvarez went with “Don’t Flinch” as the title of his autobiography.
After all, it was the mantra he lived by in resuscitating a hapless University of Wisconsin football program into a Big Ten power during his 16 seasons as head coach.
But “Don’t Rest” might be the perfect title for the chapter he’s currently writing.
You’ll be watching a new-look University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team playing a new-look schedule next season.
The Badgers’ schedule will include nonconference road trips to powerhouse programs Duke and Texas. It also will include a Big Ten Conference slate that is growing from 16 to 18 games, a shift that will add significance to the regular-season title and lessen the financial strain of scheduling nonconference opponents.
Each spring, a handful of draft-eligible players inform National Football League teams that their careers are over. Wisconsin’s Joe Stellmacher is one of them this year.
“That is correct,” Stellmacher said. “People have called me crazy and criticized me, but I’m not going to have any regrets. I just thought I had my time, had my fun and I was ready to move on in my life.
Coming off one of the more successful seasons in the history of the men’s basketball program, the University of Wisconsin has been rewarded with a marquee non-conference matchup next season: A meeting with Duke in the Big Ten / Atlantic Coast Conference Challenge.
The UW System Board of Regents approved a $250,000 salary increase for menâ??s basketball coach Bo Ryan at a meeting Friday, making his total projected salary for next year $1.25 million.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents voted Friday at UW-Oshkosh to give Learfield Communications, Inc., exclusive marketing rights to all Badger sports until 2019.
he University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a $250,000 amendment to the salary of menâ??s basketball coach Bo Ryan at their meeting Friday in Oshkosh, bringing his total salary for the 2007-08 year to $1.25 million.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department was ahead of the national curve in 2002 when it consolidated its multimedia elements and gave Learfield Communications exclusive rights to manage them.
Five years later, thanks to a new long-term deal with Learfield, UW has perhaps the most lucrative multimedia arrangement among all NCAA Division I schools.
The UW Board of Regents Friday approved a renegotiated contract with Learfield that guarantees a minimum of $75 million for UW athletics and extends the partnership 10 years through 2019.
MADISON â?? Bo Ryan got rewarded Friday for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s record-breaking season that saw the team hold the No. 1 ranking for the first time in school history.
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved giving Ryan a $250,000 bonus, raising his total compensation package next year to $1.25 million.
Under Ryan this season, the team finished 30-6, held The Associated Press ranking for one week, but exited from the NCAA Tournament in the second round despite earning a No. 2 seed.
“Bo’s able leadership has built a program that has earned national respect and recognition, not only for UW-Madison, but for the entire state,” Chancellor John Wiley said in a statement. “He is dedicated to providing consistent excellence, on and off the court. This contract change recognizes those efforts.”
Defensive end Jamal Cooper is back with the University of Wisconsin football team – for now.
MADISON, Wis. — Defensive end Jamal Cooper is back on the University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger football team.
Cooper was suspended earlier this year for failing to meet several academic standards set by coach Bret Bielema.
He has now been reinstated and practiced on Thursday for the first time this spring.
University of Wisconsin athletics holds one of the best home advantages in the nation. While the Badgers menâ??s basketball team won all 19 of its home games this past season, itâ??s not the Kohl Center. Nor is it Camp Randall. However, it is located just off of Breese Terrace.
For students at the University of Wisconsin, a Motion W on clothing around campus doesnâ??t get a second glance.
Encouraged by the inaugural results of their season ticket revocation policy, University of Wisconsin Athletic Department officials plan to maintain the current guidelines for 2007-08.”We felt for its initial year, it did what we wanted,” UW senior associate athletic director Doug Beard said Wednesday.
UW-Madison representatives will travel to El Salvador Wednesday to visit Hermosa Manufacturing and to meet with previous workers of the Adidas manufacturer. Chancellor John Wiley hopes the trip will help him, along with the universityâ??s Labor Licensing Policy Committee, to make an informed decision on whether the university should cut the contract with Adidas, according to a University Communications release.
A representative of the UW-Madison is traveling to El Salvador to investigate workers’ rights at factories that make the university’s athletic apparel, including alleged workers’ rights abuses at a former Adidas Group subcontractor.
The University of Wisconsin contracts with Adidas to provide athletic uniforms and shoes, and the company can sell apparel with the UW logo. Adidas agreed to a code of conduct that stipulated its responsibilities in dealing with workers, factories and suppliers.
….Chancellor John Wiley did not agree to end the contract, but said Adidas should do more to help workers if they were unfairly treated by the subcontractor. Now he is sending Dawn Crim to investigate the situation.
MADISON, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin is ready to sign a contract giving a Missouri-based company the exclusive marketing rights to Badgers’ sports through 2019 in exchange for guaranteed payments of $76 million.
The contract, to be considered by the Board of Regents this week, calls for Learfield Communications, Inc. to continue managing television and radio shows for Badgers’ coaches and play-by-play radio broadcasts for football, men’s and women’s basketball and hockey.
Vince Sweeney, senior associate athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will be the guest speaker for the 18th annual Janesville Sports Hall of Fame induction dinner.
The event, sponsored by The Janesville Gazette, is Saturday, May 19, at the Rotary Gardens. There will be a 5:30 p.m. reception, followed by 6:30 dinner and the program.
A Missouri-based company will extend its exclusive media-marketing contract with UW to 2019 for $75 million, if passed by the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents Friday.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin is ready to give Learfield Communications the marketing rights to Badgers sports through 2019 in exchange for payments totaling $76 million.
The proposal calls for the company to manage television and radio shows for Badgers coaches and play-by-play radio broadcasts for many games.
Learfield has had the contract since 2002 and proposed the 10-year extension last year.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison, whose licensing agreement with Adidas is worth $1.2-million annually, says it will not cut its ties to the athletics-apparel company despite a recent recommendation to do so by its own licensing-policy committee.
Instead, the institution plans to meet with Adidas executives to discuss reports of workers’-rights abuses at one of Adidas’s former subcontractors. The university will also send an envoy this week to El Salvador, where the now-closed Hermosa Manufacturing plant is located, to investigate those claims.
“I am prepared to pursue my very grave concern about what has happened with the Hermosa facility directly to the senior management of Adidas,” Chancellor John D. Wiley said in a written statement.
Madison – The legal case involving University of Wisconsin defensive back Jack Ikegwuonu doesn’t appear as if it will be resolved in the near future.
A hearing has been scheduled for June 22 in Sycamore, Ill., according to the district attorney’s office. Ikegwuonu’s attorney filed a motion in February asking that statements Ikegwuonu made to DeKalb, Ill., police be suppressed on the grounds he was not read his Miranda rights.
There’s a basketball hoop in the backyard of Jay Wilson’s Middleton home, one that sits idle more often than the WKOW/Ch. 27 sports director would like. Some days, Wilson is able to steal a few moments between newscasts to shoot around a little with one of his three children.
Those days just don’t come around enough.
ATLANTA, Ga. — Wisconsin senior forward Alando Tucker was named the 2006-07 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Awards winner in a presentation over the weekend on CBS. The award, selected by a nationwide vote of coaches, media and fans, is presented annually to college basketball’s outstanding NCAA Division I senior student-athlete.
Let’s cut right to the chase. Barry Alvarez will not coach college football again. He has completely closed that door. “I have,” he said.
Three years ago, April 1, 2004, Alvarez officially assumed the dual role of University of Wisconsin athletic director and football coach. Fifteen months ago, Jan. 2, 2006, Alvarez made his final appearance as Badgers coach during a 24-10 victory over Auburn in the Capital One Bowl.
Madison – Now that Lisa Stone has completed her fourth season as the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball coach, the ball, figuratively speaking, is in her bosses’ court.
The UW administration faces two choices during the next six weeks: Renew Stone’s contract and restore the year it did not roll over last spring or fire her.
LARAMIE, Wyo. â?? The future looks bright for the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team.
Although the Badgers lost to Wyoming 72-56 in the championship game of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament Saturday afternoon, all Jolene Anderson, Janese Banks and Mariah Dunham could think about after the setback were preparations for the 2007-08 season.
Nov. 10 seems like a lifetime ago. That was the day the University of Wisconsin womenâ??s basketball team defeated Air Force â?? which later finished the season at the bottom of the Mountain West Conference â?? in the regular season debut.
Mark Johnson of the University of Wisconsin has been named as the AHCA women’s Division I Coach of the Year.
Junior guards Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks combined for 49 points to lead the Wisconsin womenâ??s basketball team (23-12) past Western Kentucky Wednesday evening at the Kohl Center, 79-72. The Badgers now advance to the Womenâ??s National Invitational Tournament championship game, which will be played out on Wyomingâ??s home court Saturday afternoon.
The University of Wisconsin womenâ??s basketball team is just one victory away from being crowned the WNIT champions.
It took time for Jolene Anderson to find her shot Wednesday night, but teammate Janese Banks provided a much-needed boost in the first half for the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team.
The two guards combined for 49 points to lead the Badgers to a 79-72 victory over Western Kentucky in a Women’s National Invitation Tournament semifinal before 4,942 spectators at the Kohl Center.
Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks have carried the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team for most of the season.
UW’s gifted junior duo, with some timely help from their teammates Wednesday night at the Kohl Center, carried the Badgers into the Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship game.
The Badger Women’s basketball team kept its post season alive with a win over Western Kentucky.
The WNIT Title is still up in the air, but the Badger women already won over many new fans with their home performances at the Kohl Center.
Jolene Anderson scored 26 points and Janese Banks added 23 as Wisconsin defeated Western Kentucky 79-72 in Madison Wednesday night to advance to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship basketball game.
University of Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan has been named to receive the Adolph Rupp Cup as the national men’s basketball coach of the year by the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky.
MADISON – Wisconsin head men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan has been selected to receive the Adolph Rupp Cup as the national coach of the year, the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky announced Tuesday.
Ryan led the Badgers to a school-record 30 wins this season and the first No. 1 ranking in school history. The award will be presented to Ryan in Atlanta on March 29 at the start of the NCAA Final Four.
â??Showcase 2007,â? an event intended to â??show the universityâ??s best practices,â? was suddenly interrupted Tuesday by students who wished to showcase what they believed to be one of the universityâ??s worst practices.
Wisconsin basketball coach Bo Ryan has won the Adolph Rupp Cup as the nation’s outstanding Division I coach, the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky announced Tuesday.
The last thing the NCAA needs on the road to the Final Four is even a whiff of the point-shaving scandals that have periodically rocked college basketball: at Arizona State and Northwestern in 1997-1998; Tulane in 1985; Boston College in 1981; St. Joseph’s in 1961 and City College of New York in 1951.
That’s why, for the second year in a row, the NCAA asked FBI agents to warn players, coaches and trainers from all 32 teams in the regional round on the ways gamblers try to use them to try to beat the point spread, says Rachel Newman Baker, director of agents, gambling and amateurism activity.
Most of the people giddily filling out brackets for their NCAA “March Madness” office pool will never have a problem. But for a few unfortunate young people and their families, the Road to the Final Four, the nation’s fourth biggest gambling event, is paved with personal and financial ruin.
Some college students addicted to sports betting or online poker have taken it to extremes. They have committed crimes, including bank robbery and murder, over gambling debts. Others, unable to face the guilt or consequences of betting away tuition, have committed suicide.
Discussed: Meng-Ju “Mark” Wu, a 19-year-old freshman at UW-Madison who, in 2005, hung himself in jail while awaiting his murder trial committed over a $15,000 sports betting debt.
UW menâ??s basketball senior forward Alando Tucker was nominated by the Associated Press to be a first-team All-American Monday.
