Unintimidated: Two come-from-behind goals by Talafous (left) sent the Badgers into the finals. UW Archives

Life on campus was dramatically different a half century ago. The football team had only two winning seasons in 17 years, including a stretch of 23 consecutive winless games, while the men’s basketball team finished above .500 just three times from 1968 to 1988. Antiwar protests regularly roiled the university.

From such a time sprung a new men’s hockey contender. Over one improbable weekend in Boston in March 1973, the Badgers captured their first NCAA hockey title. In the 33 years that followed, they added five others — more than any other college program in that span.

Most remarkable about the achievement is that it came just seven years after Coach Bob Johnson arrived like a dynamo from Colorado College, and just three years after Wisconsin was admitted to the powerhouse Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA), which had won 16 of the 22 NCAA titles up to that point.

The Badgers had been to two of the previous three NCAA tournaments before 1973, but they had never played for the title. Merely reaching Boston required a gauntlet of six games in nine days.

Wisconsin finished the regular season with a weekend sweep at home against Minnesota, completing a 17–1 record at the Dane County Coliseum. The team swept two games against the Gophers in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the last punctuated by a wild brawl with 39 seconds left. The Badgers followed a tie against Notre Dame with a 4–3 victory, punching their ticket to Boston.

Back then, the NCAA tournament was a small affair, with just four teams. Against Eastern champ Cornell in the semifinals, the Badgers fell behind 4–0 in the second period, then 5–2 early in the third. Yet the 3,000 UW fans who trekked to Boston kept cheering. “They never allowed us to die,” Johnson said.

Goals by Gary Winchester ’74 and Jim Johnston ’73 got Wisconsin within one, and with five seconds left, sophomore Dean Talafous x’75 scored. With 33 seconds left in overtime, Talafous scored again, sending the Badgers into the finals against high-powered Denver, the number one team in the country.

The Pioneers had two all-Americans and the WCHA’s top freshman, “but we weren’t intimidated,” said Wisconsin captain Tim Dool ’73, a puck-hounding dervish.

The UW fell behind early, but Dool’s second-period goal tied the game 2–2, and Talafous earned a place in Badgers lore with another game-winner. The celebration carried deep into the night in the streets of Boston.

Upon their return to Madison, the Badgers were greeted by more than 8,000 supporters at the Field House. A new dynasty in college hockey had begun.

Watts displays unmatched creativity and calm on the ice in “the best women’s hockey program in the world.”

It’s not often that a world-class athlete is simultaneously at the peak and the end of a playing career. But Badger hockey hero Daryl Watts x’22 has spent her fifth college season confronting that reality.

After scoring the game-winning overtime goal in the NCAA Championship last spring, Watts tried out for Team Canada over the summer. But the national program couldn’t find a roster spot for one of college hockey’s all-time greats. The snub effectively ended Watts’s Olympic dreams and future playing career.

“I learned that it’s time to hang up the skates,” the Toronto native says. “I feel like I’m at my peak performance, 22 years old. [But] I don’t see a future for myself in women’s hockey.”

It will be the sport’s loss. The formidable forward has twice led the NCAA in season-long scoring. As a freshman at Boston College, Watts led the country with 42 goals in 38 games and became the first underclassman to win the Patty Kazmaier Award (the women’s hockey equivalent of the Heisman), for which she was also a finalist last year. By the end of her second season, she had lost her passion for hockey and hoped to rediscover it by transferring to the UW. She promptly set a program record with 49 assists in 2019–20 and paced the NCAA in points from the first game.

“It was a no-brainer to go to Wisconsin,” Watts says. “Mark Johnson is an incredible hockey coach but an even better person. … There are so many little nuances on the ice that he’s taught me, like strategy, positioning, and skill moves. And his temperament is always the same. He’s so positive.”

Watts’s unmatched creativity and calm on the ice were on full display with her championship-clinching goal last year — her fifth game-winner of the season. Three minutes into overtime, Watts found herself all alone behind Northeastern’s net. She noticed the goalie leaning to the left of the net and a defender to the right. She slapped the puck off the side of the defender, and it ricocheted into the net. It was a circus shot that she hadn’t even attempted since high school.

“It felt too good to be true,” Watts says of the moment. “I remember just being like, ‘Am I dreaming?’ ”

Being cut by Team Canada — along with the pandemic adding an extra year to her NCAA eligibility — allowed Watts to return to Madison for an epic swan song. She’s within striking distance of the all-time NCAA scoring lead (in fifth place as of press time), and the Badgers are contenders to three-peat as national champions.

Watts hopes to stick around the school that reignited her love of hockey and allowed her to go out on her own terms. She plans to eventually apply to the UW’s highly ranked master’s program in real estate.

“I couldn’t be happier to be ending my hockey career at Wisconsin,” she says. “It’s the best women’s hockey program in the world.”

McDonagh: “Hopefully, I can at least tell my kids one day that I finished and got my college degree.” Photo by Scott Audette/NHLI Via Getty Images

When On Wisconsin caught up with Ryan McDonagh x’22, it was a rare day off for the defenseman between road games with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He talked with us from the safety of the NHL’s new COVID-19 regimen, a looser rendition of the “bubble” of daily testing and limited interactions that proved 100 percent successful in its fastidious protection of players, coaches, and staff during the 2020 playoffs.

The protocol is intense, but for McDonagh, it’s now routine, and one that he’s grateful for. After initial uncertainty about having a 2020 hockey season, the Lightning went on to win the Stanley Cup. The victory — in a fan-less arena after more than two months away from family — strayed from the glorious moment all Minnesota-bred hockey players imagine in their youth.

“Being isolated was very difficult,” McDonagh says. “It makes a world of difference, mentally, to be able to share experiences with one another and be around your family.”

But he doesn’t dwell on that part.

“It was definitely all worth it, and that’s what you talk about,” he says. “If you’re going to go through all this stress and protocol, let’s make it worthwhile and try to win the whole thing.”

This mind-set continues to serve McDonagh well as he takes on his next pandemic-defying endeavor: heading back to school. McDonagh is in Detroit for a series against the Red Wings, but as much as his head is in tomorrow’s game, it’s also in Madison, where he commutes virtually during his downtime to work toward finishing the degree he started at the UW back in 2007.

Upon entering his freshman year on the UW hockey team, McDonagh was drafted 12th overall by the Montreal Canadiens, who held the rights to McDonagh while he honed his skills at the UW. He was traded to the New York Rangers in 2009 and left the UW before his senior year to start his professional hockey career, a choice he said at the time was “the toughest decision I ever had to make.”

“We had just lost in the [NCAA] championship the year before, so you have goals of calling yourself a collegiate champion, and you come that close only to not get it. You only have one more year to possibly get it done, so that was weighing on me,” McDonagh says now.

Though he can’t return to win that missed championship, the nearly finished degree was another matter.

“I’d tried to do the best I could in my three years there while playing and going to school,” he says. “Hopefully, I can at least tell my kids one day that I finished and got my college degree.”

Prior to this year, pesky playoff appearances and demanding schedules prevented him from coming back to finish the job. Now, with most instruction shifted online, McDonagh is able to make it work.

“When you have a taste of success in something you’re really passionate about, you strive for ways to feel that again … that feeling of accomplishment, seeing your hard work pay off,” McDonagh says of opting to finish school after the hockey-career high of a Cup win.

McDonagh’s return to the classroom hasn’t gone unnoticed by his virtual peers, who took to social media to marvel at a classmate whose profile picture features a trophy that will soon bear his name and whose icebreaker fun facts likely relate to, well, ice.

“I was actually in a lecture this morning online, and one of the hockey guys for Wisconsin was in the little group that the teacher assigned us. It’s been fun to interact with kids who are 10 years younger [but who are] going to school at the same time as me,” McDonagh says.

Despite the age difference, he finds himself on the same learning curve of mastering college online: “It’s not just Microsoft Word anymore.”

No matter where his schedule takes him, McDonagh’s heart is in Tampa Bay, a city he’s called home since a 2018 trade. It’s not so much the city or the team, though, as the people who make it home: he shares in the world’s renewed appreciation for video chatting to get some long-overdue face time with his wife and two tots.

“I’ve been gone for a while, at times, but I talked to my daughter and said, ‘I’m trying to win a big trophy.’ So to be able to bring that home and see her grab the Cup and touch it was an awesome feeling,” he says. “It all clicked for her why I was gone and what I was trying to accomplish.”

And someday, a W-crested diploma may join the McDonagh family trophy case.

It was hours after the Badgers capped his fourth season as football coach by defeating Michigan State 41–20 in the Tokyo Dome in December 1993. The team had captured Wisconsin’s first Rose Bowl berth in 31 years.

“We’re going to the Rose Bowl,” a grinning Alvarez said. A belly laugh welled up as he shook his head in amazement. “It’s ridiculous.”

Alvarez and his team had just engineered a turnaround that propelled a college football laughingstock to long-lasting success. Twenty-seven years later, the view from his Kellner Hall office window is just as impressive. It offers Wisconsin’s athletic director a panoramic view of Camp Randall Stadium, today one of football’s iconic venues — thanks in large part to Alvarez’s leadership. His pride in 31 years of accomplishment at Wisconsin is palpable.

“I’m proud of the culture we’ve built,” says Alvarez. “That’s allowed us to be one of the country’s most consistent programs. You go from never going to a bowl game to going every year; from never being in the NCAA basketball tournament to doing it every year. That’s our culture.”

Alvarez’s coaching career spanned 16 seasons and produced three Rose Bowl victories. He transitioned to a remarkable run as athletic director, resulting in major facility improvements, 74 conference championships, 16 national team championships, and 25 individual titles.

In April, Alvarez announced that he would retire this summer, signaling the end of an era for Badger athletics. What are the highlights of his Wisconsin career? Fans will debate that question for years to come, but here are the top picks from the man himself.

An Era Dawns

After a disastrous three-year run that ended in a 6–27 record, former chancellor Donna Shalala and newly appointed athletic director Pat Richter ’64, JD’71 turned to Alvarez to return the luster to Wisconsin’s moribund football program.

Richter traveled to Miami, where Alvarez, Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, was preparing for the 1990 Orange Bowl versus top-ranked Colorado. While Alvarez was in a pregame meeting, Richter called his hotel room and got his father.

“Pat told my dad he was going to offer me the job, and my dad broke down crying,” Alvarez recalls. “When we ended the staff meeting, dad pulled me over and was still crying. My dad never got very emotional.”

Notre Dame won the game, and celebrations lasted until 3 a.m. Alvarez got two hours of sleep, then boarded a plane bound for Madison and a McClain Center news conference announcing his hiring.

“I was running on fumes. Late in the press conference, I said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m just fried.’ I was emotionally zapped, and the adrenaline just ran out,” Alvarez says. “Just an incredible day.”

Legitimacy at Last

After three years of methodically building a football program as coach, evangelist, and ticket-seller, Alvarez led his team to Pasadena in 1994. On a postcard-brilliant day, the Badgers achieved legitimacy with a 21–16 Rose Bowl victory over UCLA.

“We were on our way, and the fans finally had something to cheer for,” Alvarez says.

And there were plenty of fans — about 70,000 of the stadium’s 101,237 seats were filled with red and white.

As players stretched on the field before the game, Alvarez asked, “Doesn’t Camp Randall look lovely today?”

None of it would have been possible without Alvarez’s first recruiting class, assembled quickly and with an emphasis on in-state athletes. It included running back Brent Moss x’95, receiver J. C. Dawkins ’95, and defensive lineman Mike Thompson x’95.

A salesman visiting Alvarez’s uncle at his grocery store in Pennsylvania touted Joe Rudolph ’95, an offensive lineman who ended up on Alvarez’s roster — and who today is the Badgers’ associate head coach under Paul Chryst ’88.

“I told those guys that I’d always be indebted to them because they bought in,” says Alvarez, whose teams returned to Pasadena to score back-to-back victories in 1999 and 2000. “They had so much to do with what we’ve accomplished.”

A Life-and-Death Situation

At the north end zone of Camp Randall Stadium, giddy triumph turned to tragedy on the way to the 1994 Rose Bowl. Moments after Wisconsin defeated the Michigan Wolverines 13–10, a railing broke under the crush of students eager to storm the field.

The uncontrolled rush left dozens injured and the Astroturf strewn with helpless fans turning blue from a lack of oxygen. Many players, including Moss, Rudolph, and Joe Panos ’94, helped free people from the heap.

“It looked like a war zone. Our guys thought they were carrying dead students out of there,” Alvarez says. “I had gone up the tunnel when things started. I saw Joe Rudolph come up and he was crying. I said, ‘Rudy, you’re that happy?’ and he said, ‘Coach, there’s dead people out there.’ ”

Fortunately, no one died, but 69 people were hospitalized, four in critical condition.

Walk-on receiver Mike Brin ’96 saw an injured student bent over a fence. Brin grabbed her by the leg, hauled her into a stadium tunnel, and made sure she was breathing and conscious. Then he helped two other victims by administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Today, Brin is an emergency room doctor.

“When you see how your student-athletes respond in a life-and-death situation, it’s awfully impressive,” Alvarez says.

The Dayne Game

They called Ron Dayne ’17 the “reluctant hero.” Soft-spoken off the field and a battering-ram running back on it, Dayne was the center of attention as the Badgers played Iowa on November 13, 1999.

It was Senior Day at Camp Randall, and Dayne was 99 yards from becoming college football’s all-time leading rusher. The buildup for the game was unprecedented, and fans in the stadium waved white towels bearing Dayne’s name and number — 33.

“The atmosphere for that game was second to none,” Alvarez says.

With less than five minutes left in the first half, quarterback Brooks Bollinger ’03 handed the ball to Dayne on a play called “23 Zone.” Dayne cut back in the hole gashed open by the offensive line, juked defenders, and picked up 31 yards to break the record before a roaring crowd. He went on to amass 216 yards, help lock up a Big Ten title, win the Heisman Trophy, and embark on an NFL career.

“I don’t care where I go; when I run into a fan, they usually bring up the Rose Bowls or Ronnie’s game,” says Alvarez.

Eighteen years later, Dayne graduated from UW–Madison. He credits Alvarez for prodding him to get his degree. “When we recruit, we tell families that we want kids to walk out of here with a degree, a meaningful degree, from a world-class university,” Alvarez says.

A Special Way to Go Out

Few believed Wisconsin could prevail in Alvarez’s final game as coach in the 2006 Capital One Bowl in Orlando — except the Badgers. Alvarez’s friend Bob Davie, the former Notre Dame coach and TV broadcaster, warned him privately that number-seven Auburn was unbelievably talented. Boosters told Alvarez they felt sorry for him because his last game was against Auburn. Even his wife was doubtful.

“We finished a pregame news conference and Cindy said, ‘You did a great job. The media down here loves you, but you’re probably going to get beat,’ ” Alvarez recalls.

John Stocco at the 2006 Capital One Bowl. UW Athletics

With that negative feedback, Alvarez pointedly sold his players on the idea that it was a great matchup and that they could win. On the Badgers’ last full practice day — dreaded by players because of its intensity — Alvarez gave them the day off, something he’d never done.

Wisconsin defeated the Tigers 24–10, ending the game with a kneel-down at the Auburn one-yard line.

“They went in with a great attitude and the belief we could win,” Alvarez says. “The way the guys played was amazing — a pretty special way to go out.”

A Big Win for Women’s Hockey

The Badger women’s hockey team skated to a national championship in 2019 at the People’s United Center in Hamden, Connecticut, defeating border rival Minnesota 2–0 for the fifth NCAA title of coach Mark Johnson ’94’s career. The others came in 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011, plus another this year.

Though Alvarez couldn’t attend the game, he took particular pride that day in how Johnson and his athletes forged success.

“He has such a nice manner, and it’s obvious that the women love playing for him,” Alvarez says. “That’s hard to do, year in and year out, without some complacency. They are so productive and successful and consistent.”

Badger women’s hockey skates to a national championship in 2019. UW Athletics

Johnson, a star on the USA’s “Miracle on Ice” team that won Olympic gold in 1980, was feted as part of the 40th anniversary of the achievement. “For all of us to be able to relive that moment and honor him was so exciting and meaningful,” Alvarez says.

Final Four Fever

For Alvarez, winning is meant to be savored. “I tell everyone: don’t ever take success for granted. Winning is hard.”

That’s one reason the 2015 men’s basketball season, in which Coach Bo Ryan’s Badgers went to the NCAA title game against Duke, stands out for Alvarez. “For a long time, we didn’t experience tournament games, let alone playing for a national championship,” he says. “When you’re part of that, and you’re there for the shoot-around and a part of the inner circle, that’s fun.”

The Badgers, who made it to the Final Four in 2014 but lost to previously unbeaten Kentucky 74–73 in the semifinal game, came back to defeat the Wildcats 71–64 to advance to the marquee game. But Duke proved too much for the Badgers at Indianapolis’s Lucas Oil Stadium, defeating Wisconsin 68–63. The game was a pinnacle for Wisconsin basketball, which under Stu Jackson went to the NCAA tournament in 1994 for the first time in 47 years. Alvarez notes that Dick Bennett followed up by fashioning a winning tradition that took Wisconsin to the Final Four in 2000. Ryan built on that foundation.

“There’s no better basketball coach than Bo,” says Alvarez. “The guys knew exactly what he wanted, and they delivered. He could play a lot of different ways, but his swing offense was effective. And they played good defense.”

Alvarez calls the 2015 squad a close-knit, fun-loving group. After the game, a downcast Frank Kaminsky ’15, the nation’s college player of the year, said: “These guys are my family. … It’s going to be hard to say goodbye.”

Some Real Coaching

Coach Kelly Sheffield’s volleyball team earned a berth at the national semifinals in Pittsburgh in December 2019, building on a record of excellence.

After the Badgers defeated top-ranked Baylor to advance to the NCAA title game, a jubilant Alvarez gave a brief, thunderous locker-room pep talk: “You made us all proud. And, man, did you COMPETE!”

Although the Badgers lost to Stanford in the title game, Alvarez greatly admires Sheffield’s coaching ability and drive for consistency. In 2013, Sheffield’s Badgers surprised the nation by advancing to the NCAA championship game, and Sheffield has been on a steady course since.

“That’s some real coaching,” Alvarez says. “That’s what it’s all about — developing kids and taking them to the highest level.”

Scoring a Hat Trick

In 2016, Alvarez was looking to hire a men’s hockey coach. He was intrigued by the idea of picking Tony Granato ’17, a former Badger and NHL star who was an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings.

“Every hockey guy I talked to said, ‘You can’t hire Tony. He’s an NHL guy,’ ” Alvarez says.

But he called Granato to ask about good candidates for the Badgers’ opening. Among others, Granato suggested his brother, Don ’93, along with Mark Osiecki ’94 — both former Badgers with strong résumés. Then Granato asked, “What about me?”

“He said, ‘If I come, I’m really close to Don and Oz,’ and those were the guys people were recommending,” Alvarez says. “We hit the trifecta when we hired Tony and got all three. That was exciting.”

Osiecki remains on Granato’s staff as associate head coach, while his brother moved on to the Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres.

“Tony’s a guy who’s going to get it done,” Alvarez says of Granato’s quest to rebuild the program.

The Biggest Thrill

At the end of his career, Alvarez is also proud of the administrative team he’s built, including its response to the challenging landscape for college athletics brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For him, the deepest fulfillment came not from the scoreboards or the record books. It came from his teaching role.

“The thing that gives me the biggest thrill is when former players come back and say, ‘Coach, I still use the principles that I learned from you in how I raised my family or how I run my business. Some of the things you taught us echo in my mind, and you had so much influence.’

“I always answer, ‘This is why I was in the business. This means more to me than anything.’ ” •

Photo by Bryce Richter

Jeff Miller

The No. 10 jersey of Mark Johnson ’94 is finally where it belongs: hanging from the Kohl Center rafters. The UW women’s hockey coach and leading goal scorer in the history of the men’s program had his jersey retired in a February ceremony, becoming the first hockey player to earn such honors. Johnson gained international fame in 1980 for his starring role on the “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympics team and recently became the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division I women’s hockey. His jersey now hangs above the rink that bears the name of his late father, Hockey Hall of Fame coach Bob Johnson. “As I’ve told people for many years, hockey has been good to my family,” Johnson says.

Associated Press/Scott McKiernan

“They should make a movie,” U.S. women’s hockey forward Hilary Knight ’12 (number 21, middle) said, summing up her team’s 3–2 win in a shootout over archrival Canada to win gold at the PyeongChang Olympics in February. Knight was one of four Badgers on the U.S. squad, which included Brianna Decker x’13, Meghan Duggan ’11 (right), and Alex Rigsby ’15. Team Canada had five Badgers: Emily Clark x’18, Ann-Renée Desbiens ’17, Meaghan Mikkelson ’07, Sarah Nurse x’17, and Blayre Turnbull x’15. “We had all the drama,” Knight said. “It’s sort of a storybook ending to an incredible series of accomplishments.”

Courtesy of Howe International Friendship League

When Alex Frecon ’09 left his home in Minnesota to play hockey against the North Korean men’s national team in Pyongyang in March 2017, he didn’t tell his parents — or anyone else except for two close friends.

“I didn’t want to hear everyone’s opinion,” Frecon says. “I wanted to do it for myself.”

Frecon had read and admired Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self-Reliance” as an English major at UW–Madison after transferring from Connecticut College his junior year. And today, working in advertising in Minneapolis, he retains the nonconformist, seize-the-day spirit the campus gave him. Which might explain how Frecon ended up spending a week on skates in one of the world’s most notorious dictatorships.

In late 2016, Frecon came across an internet link to the Howe International Friendship League, which promotes goodwill sports trips around the world. One of them was an opportunity to travel to Pyongyang and play hockey against the North Korean national team.

“It looked like a real trip,” Frecon says. “But I had no intention of going, originally. It was just so crazy.”

Still, he was intrigued. Frecon had played hockey growing up in Minnesota and recreationally as an adult. He emailed Scott Howe, the league’s founder, and peppered him with questions. Was it even legal for an American to go to North Korea? Could he take his GoPro camera? Yes and yes. Frecon signed up.

In Pyongyang, the visitors were met by English-speaking guides, who were a constant presence during the trip. “If you’re not provocative, they’re very polite,” Frecon says. “They were curious about life as an American.” Frecon found the city to be modern with respect to auto traffic, though lacking in electric stoplights and indoor heat.

The tourist team was outclassed on the ice, but the camaraderie with the North Korean players was the highlight of the trip. Although the Friendship athletes typically competed against their hosts, they did play one game mixing the visitors with the North Koreans. With everyone wearing Friendship League jerseys, laughing, and scrambling after the puck, it might have been an outdoor rink in Minneapolis.

“We knew we had the love of the game in common,” Frecon says. “A government doesn’t always represent its people.”

Afterward, Frecon traveled to Beijing and called his parents.

“They were in a state of shock,” he says. “But I think they came to realize it was a profound experience — a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

When the Winter Olympics open February 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, these Badger alumni will represent the United States as members of the U.S. women’s hockey team. The squad won silver in the last two winter games, but is coming off of its fourth consecutive world title.

Brianna Decker x’13 — 2014 silver medal

Meghan Duggan ’11 — 2010, 2014 silver medals

Hilary Knight ’12 — 2010, 2014 silver medals

Annie Pankowski x’18 — First Olympic appearance

Alex Rigsby ’15 — First Olympic appearance

Badger men’s hockey coach Tony Granato ’17 — who skated for Team USA at the 1988 Calgary Olympics — is the head coach for the U.S. men’s team, and Chris Chelios x’83 will serve as an assistant after four Olympic appearances.

“It’s a great day for hockey,” was the signature saying of the legendary “Badger Bob” Johnson UW Archives S11583

Pro Football Hall of Fame

Elroy Hirsch x’45: In 12 seasons, including nine with the Los Angeles Rams, he was named to three all-league teams and three Pro Bowls.

Mike Webster x’74: “Iron Mike” played more seasons — 15 — and more games — 220 — than any other player in Pittsburgh Steelers history.

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Walter “Doc” Meanwell: The UW’s first basketball coach (a practicing physician) lost only one game in his first three seasons.

Harold Olsen 1919: A first-team All-American at Wisconsin in 1917, he later spearheaded efforts in 1939 to create what is now known as the NCAA Tournament.

Chris Steinmetz LLB1905: At 5’9” and 137 pounds, he scored nearly 70 percent of the team’s total offense during the 1904–05 season.

Harold “Bud” Foster ’30: The Badger captain went on to serve as head coach, leading the UW to the 1941 NCAA title.

Hockey Hall of Fame

Bob Johnson: Coached the Badgers to three NCAA titles, the U.S. national team from 1973 to 1975, and the U.S. Olympic team in 1976. He also led the Pittsburgh Penguins to their first-ever Stanley Cup in 1991.

Chris Chelios x’83: A member of the 1983 NCAA men’s ice hockey championship team, he played for the United States in four Olympics and won three Stanley Cups in 27 NHL seasons before retiring at age 48.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Allan “Bud” Selig ’56: The ninth commissioner of Major League Baseball, he also brought baseball back to Milwaukee after the Braves left for Atlanta.