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 ’74 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.

UW Athletics

The Washington Wizards scooped up Badger basketball star Johnny Davis x’24 with the number 10 overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft, making him the first UW player drafted in the first round since 2015 and the 10th in history. The sophomore from La Crosse, Wisconsin, helped the team win a share of the Big Ten championship last spring and was named the conference’s Player of the Year. We’ll miss Davis’s competitive fire at the Kohl Center but can’t wait to see how far it takes him in the pros.

“I am especially thrilled for our West Coast alumni,” UW athletic director Chris McIntosh said of the expansion. Bryce Richter

If you enjoy catching some rays while cheering on the Badgers, we have good news: the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) are soon joining the Big Ten Conference.

On June 30, the council of Big Ten leaders voted unanimously to admit the California schools effective August 2, 2024. The criteria for admission included academics, competition, diversity and inclusion, and financial sustainability.

“UCLA and USC are two of the premier athletic and academic institutions in America,” UW athletic director Chris McIntosh ’04, MS’19 said in a statement. “Their addition further strengthens the Big Ten’s stature as the nation’s most impactful athletic conference, on and off the fields of play.”

There was a mixed response from fans of Big Ten teams, though many acknowledged that consolidation into “mega conferences” appears to be the future of college athletics. In August, the Big Ten cemented its status as a powerhouse conference by reaching a new broadcast-rightsagreement with Fox, CBS, and NBC for more than $7 billion over seven years.

The Big Ten Conference has expanded several times in recent years. It admitted Penn State in 1990 as well as Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers between 2011 and 2014. The addition of USC and UCLA in 2024 will increase membership to 16 universities.

“I am especially thrilled for our West Coast alumni,” McIntosh said of the expansion. “They will now be more connected than ever to the conference and to their alma mater.”

UW athletes will be able to earn $5,980 per year for academic awards. Jeff Miller

In July, the UW Department of Athletics committed to providing academic-based financial awards to student-athletes for the 2022–23 school year and beyond.

Under the plan, all UW student-athletes — regardless of whether they’re on an athletic scholarship — will have the opportunity to earn up to $5,980 per year. That dollar amount represents the maximum allowable award for academic performance following the landmark NCAA v. Alston Supreme Court case last year. The court ruled that universities may not limit education-related benefits for student-athletes, opening the door to direct financial payments for academic achievement. However, the ruling allows the NCAA to cap the amount proportional to the financial value a student-athlete can receive from athletic-performance awards.

“As soon as the Supreme Court ruling was determined, we knew we wanted to commit the full allotment to our student-athletes,” says UW athletic director Chris McIntosh ’04, MS’19. “I’m really proud of the fact that we can provide our athletes with a significant amount of money to start their postgraduate lives.”

In April, ESPN reported that Wisconsin was the first Big Ten school to have a plan in place to provide academic bonus payments in 2022. At that time, only 22 of the 130 schools that ESPN surveyed had committed to such payments this year.

In addition, the UW’s approach to disbursing the payments will incentivize the completion of a degree. Student-athletes who are academically eligible for the award will receive $980 per year until their athletic eligibility has expired. Once they graduate, they will receive the additional $5,000 for each year, up to $25,000. The university’s commitment totals more than $3.8 million per year.

“This is a game changer for Wisconsin,” says women’s soccer coach Paula Wilkins. “For me to be able to offer every athlete, including walk-ons, this award money can’t be [overstated]. I think about this from my own personal perspective as a former student-athlete and the impact $20,000 upon graduation would have had for setting up my future. I’m thrilled for our players.”

Sheffield invests in the development of his players as people whose lives extend beyond volleyball.

This may come as a surprise: Kelly Sheffield, the winningest volleyball coach in UW history, has never played the game himself. While Sheffield may never have stared an opponent in the eyes through the weave of a net, he makes up for it with more than 30 years of an arguably more valuable perspective.

Sheffield joined the UW as the head coach of the volleyball team in December 2012, just as the Badgers were coming off one of the lowest slumps in the program’s history.

“I thought that this was a place that could be great in this sport,” Sheffield says. “I thought that with the fan base, and the location, and the academics here, it could be a place that people would want to be a part of — that this could be a monster.”

Today, he’s led the team to four Big Ten Conference championship titles and nine consecutive NCAA tournaments, including three of the program’s four appearances in the NCAA championship, the latest of which resulted in the Badgers’ first national title in 2021. At this point in his career, turning fledgling teams into forces on the court is Sheffield’s signature play.

Sheffield assumed his first head coaching position at the University at Albany in 2001. His first team ended its season 4–20. By the time he left in 2007, the Great Danes had won three regular-season and three conference-tournament championships. He then spent five years as head coach at the University of Dayton before joining UW–Madison, where the Badgers had spent their last five seasons failing to qualify for the NCAA tournament, left out of the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s (AVCA) Top 25 Poll, and ranking in the bottom half of the Big Ten.

Enter Sheffield. In his first season, the Badgers tied for fourth in the Big Ten, were ranked second by the AVCA, and became the lowest NCAA seed to ever qualify for the championship when they made the program’s first appearance in the tournament since 2007 and first championship appearance since 2000.

The secret to these turnarounds, Sheffield says, is no secret at all: shared goals, strong players, and sheer passion.

“You’ve got to give everybody a vision of where it is you want to go. Then, every single day, you’re just working toward it, trying to find ways to get better,” he says. According to his players, he conveys that vision in no uncertain terms.

“[He] tells you how it is whether it’s what you want to hear or not,” says middle blocker Danielle Hart ’21, MSx’24. “In Kelly’s mind, to be anything but honest is to not care enough about that person and their improvement.”

But there’s a little more to it than that for the coach. As much as Sheffield invests in the success of his team on the court, he invests more in the development of his players as people whose lives extend beyond volleyball.

“If it’s just about volleyball, to me, that’s boring,” Sheffield says. “We’ve got the opportunity to teach life skills through sport and through competition. Finding ways to help make a connection between these things won’t only help you become a better volleyball player or a better team, but it will help you through challenging times of your lives.”

In his 10th season with the Badgers, Sheffield’s goals haven’t changed much since his first: be elite and remain elite. (Check and check.) His coaching philosophy also remains the same, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in favor of changing it.

“I want [players’] time here to catapult them toward their future,” Sheffield says. “I want them to know that I care about them more as a person than what they can do as an athlete. I care about who they are right now, and also about their future. … And along the way, hopefully, we teach them a thing or two about the game of volleyball.”

UW Marching Band director Corey Pompey ushers in a new era for the Badger Bash at Union South. Bryce Richter

Fifty years ago, Badger Bash — the ultimate pregame festivity for Wisconsin football fans — was born.

When the original Union South opened in 1971, former Wisconsin Union manager Merrill “Corky” Sischo noticed a sea of Badger fans passing through the building for food and drinks before home football games. He connected with Mike Leckrone, then the fresh-faced director of the UW Marching Band, and together they threw the first official Badger Bash outside Union South in 1972.

The event started as a low-stakes opportunity for the marching band and pompon squad to warm up in front of a small audience. But by 1974, more than 3,000 fans were packing Union South’s grounds. They came for increasingly razzle-dazzle performances as well as brats and beer. In the early years, the event extended to after the game, with polkas and jazz by the Doc De Haven ’58 band in the Carousel room.

“As the crowd continued to grow, the performance became more ‘formulated’ but was still very relaxed,” Leckrone said shortly before his retirement in 2019.

Today, Badger Bash’s recipe largely remains the same. The free tailgate begins two and a half hours before every home football game, hosted by local celebrity emcees. Classic Wisconsin tailgate fare is still served, alongside more than 100 food and beverage options. (Bloody Mary bar, anyone?) The marching band, UW Spirit Squad, and Bucky himself take the stage around 90 minutes before kickoff with a preview of the halftime show and a plentiful helping of hip-swinging UW hits. The event is rounded out with kid-friendly activities and rivalry-related competitions. And fans without a ticket to the game can stick around and watch on the big screen at The Sett.

Badger Bash has become so beloved that the new Union South was practically built for it. The southwest plaza is roughly double the size of its predecessor, and architects specifically designed the space to accommodate the band’s staging needs.

In 2019, Corey Pompey made his public debut as the marching band director at the home-opening Badger Bash. The band delighted the crowd with the usual Badger hits, including the “Beer Barrel Polka.” But Pompey also introduced contemporary songs from the likes of Adele, The Killers, and Cardi B. Welcome to the new era of Badger Bash.

YouDub Marketplace is helping players like Badger football’s Graham Mertz navigate the new landscape of college athletics after the NCAA adopted a policy to allow student-athletes to profit from their use of name, image, and likeness. Jeff Miller

Good news, Wisconsin sports fans: you can now book your favorite Badger.

In April, UW athletics launched the YouDub Marketplace, where businesses and Badger fans alike can pitch profitable opportunities to UW student-athletes. The online marketplace is helping players and the public navigate the new landscape of college athletics after the NCAA adopted a new policy to allow student-athletes to profit from their use of name, image, and likeness (NIL).

While companies can use the platform to arrange formal sponsorship and advertising deals, fans can pitch any concept — a social media shout-out, an autograph, a special appearance — at a starting rate of $30. The student-athlete then has seven days to review the pitch. UW athletics recently partnered with Altius Sports Partners, an NIL education firm, to provide guidance to student-athletes. The players also have access to free campus resources, including legal advice and contract review from the UW Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic and business coaching from the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center.

YouDub Marketplace visitors are greeted with a photo grid of Badger student-athletes, and clicking on each profile brings up a biography, links to social media accounts, and a list of personal interests. Quarterback Graham Mertz x’23’s profile displays his personal logo and his interest in food, gaming, and music. Volleyball star Devyn Robinson x’24’s profile notes she’s a pet owner.

The marketplace, developed by NIL technology company Opendorse, is one of the first of its kind in college athletics.

“When you slide over those 18 inches [on the bench] … all hell may break loose,” Gard half-joked during his introductory press conference.

It’s a saying that has proven true several times over during his seven-year tenure as head coach of the Badgers. Adversity has become a fact of life for Gard: his father’s death from brain cancer, an unimaginably tragic car accident involving an assistant coach, a confrontation with a rival coach that led to a slap heard ’round the basketball world, a pandemic, and a leaked locker room recording that threatened the program’s viability.

It’s ironic that drama follows Gard these days. His personality is measured and understated. He prefers a low profile. For more than two decades, he served quietly in the background for Ryan, following his mentor from UW–Platteville to UW–Milwaukee to Madison. Despite opportunities to seize the spotlight elsewhere, Gard stuck around as college basketball’s most loyal soldier. Loyalty runs in his DNA. So do his addiction to hard work and his close attention to detail, traits that trace back to his hog-farming childhood in rural Wisconsin.

Through it all, Gard’s ever-steady approach has helped the Badgers sustain nearly unmatched success in the NCAA under his leadership: five March Madness appearances, two conference championships, two Big Ten Coach of the Year awards, and a 144–78 record.

“I tell my players, ‘If you haven’t faced any adversity, you will,’ ” he says. “You can read all the books you want. You can have the greatest mentors. But the best lessons in life come from experience in adversity.”

And in that regard, Gard may be the most experienced coach in college basketball.

Feeling the Pressure

As I sit down with Gard in his Kohl Center office, he points to a large white pillar across from his desk. It’s peppered with decals chronicling the program’s achievements: a national title, four Final Four appearances, 20 conference championships. It also lists the school’s NCAA Tournament bids, with Wisconsin earning a spot 22 out of the last 23 occasions. Something of a perfectionist, Gard admits the missing year — 2018 — still bothers him.

“You talk about pressure on the job? I stare at this every day,” he says.

This past year, Big Ten media picked the team to finish 10th in the conference. But the underdog squad led by emerging star Johnny Davis x’24 and fifth-year guard Brad Davison ’21, MS’22 scrapped its way to a 25–8 record. They became Big Ten cochampions, earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“We’ve embodied what Wisconsin is — blue collar, hard hat, lunch pail, put your best foot forward,” Gard says. “You don’t get bonus points for how a victory looks. I always told them, just keep that same fight, that grittiness, that togetherness, that will, that look in your eye. And it will serve them well for the rest of their lives.” Fans will remember an ugly incident from a February game, when Wisconsin and Michigan came to blows over a late time-out with the game already decided. With 15 seconds left and a 15-point lead, the Badgers’ bench players were struggling to break Michigan’s full-court press. They had just turned the ball over the previous possession, so Gard took a time-out to realign his untested players and reset the half-court clock. Michigan coach Juwan Howard was visibly upset with the move.

“Those guys deserve to be coached with my same intentions and effort as my starting five do,” Gard explains. “He has every right to coach his team. I felt my guys deserved that, too. That means they deserve to get every opportunity to have success. Success was getting the ball across half-court without another turnover.”

When Gard approached Howard in the handshake line, Howard pointed at him and said, “I won’t forget that.” A heated confrontation between coaches and players ensued. Howard swung and hit Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft ’09 in the face, which resulted in a five-game suspension and a $40,000 fine. Gard was fined $10,000 but not suspended.

When I ask Gard whether he’s spoken to Howard since, he offers a one-word response: “No.”

It’s little wonder that Gard’s players have bought into his hard-nosed style. Their coach, after all, has become living proof of the power of grit in the face of adversity.

A Maturity beyond His Years

The village of Cobb, Wisconsin, 60 miles west of Madison, has a population of 400. Growing up, Gard and his two younger brothers got their hands dirty at their grandparents’ farms, with humbling tasks such as scooping out hog manure from the stalls. Any job not done perfectly had to be repeated. Hard work and attention to detail were simply the ways of life in Cobb.

“You understand what it’s like to get up early in the morning before the sun and work until it’s dark. And then, hey, guess what, we’re doing it again tomorrow,” Gard says.

His parents also modeled loyalty. From the age of 18 to her retirement 44 years later, his mother, Connie, served as a secretary at the county high school. His father, Glen, worked for the same agricultural loan company for more than four decades, helping local farmers keep their operations running through increasingly difficult conditions.

It’s no coincidence, then, that their son has shown such loyalty to Bo Ryan and the UW. Gard first met Ryan as a college student at UW–Platteville, where he helped to run the coach’s summer basketball camps for extra cash. After Gard was cut from the college baseball team as a sophomore, he responded to a local newspaper ad seeking a junior high basketball coach.

“The teaching, the competitive nature of it, all those things came very natural to me,” he says.

Before long, Gard was recruited to help coach the varsity teams at Southwestern High School and Platteville High School. Still a college student, Gard made an outsized impression with a maturity beyond his years and a farmer’s work ethic. Observing him stay late at camps and take on increasing responsibilities with ease, Ryan asked Gard to join his college coaching staff as a student assistant. When Gard graduated in 1995, Ryan convinced him to stay on at Platteville despite opportunities elsewhere. He would stay with Ryan for 23 years, following him to Milwaukee in 1999 and Madison in 2001.

“His ideology of how to play the game aligned a lot with what I was learning and believed in,” Gard says. “He kept things simple, but you had to do it right.”

Gard’s reputation grew alongside the Badgers’ success. After Wisconsin upset previously undefeated Kentucky in the 2015 Final Four, Ryan told the media: “Greg Gard had an incredible scouting report. If he isn’t the best assistant in the country, I don’t know who is.”

Gard had plenty of chances to defect. He went deep into the head coaching interview process with several schools, but it never felt like the right time to leave. When he was recruited by Wayne State College in Nebraska, his now-wife, Michelle, told him: “If you go to Wayne State, you’re going alone.”

Family — both off the court and on it — always came first.

“Bo told me 100 times when I was working with him at Platteville, ‘Make the job you have the best one.’ And I’ve always been able to see the value of that,” Gard says. In July 2015, a few months after the Badgers lost the national championship game to Duke, Ryan announced that he was going to coach one more season and then retire. In his statement, he noted that he was doing so with the explicit “hope that my longtime assistant Greg Gard eventually becomes the head coach at Wisconsin.”

But on December 15, with a rebuilding Badgers team scuffling to a 7–5 record, the winningest coach in Wisconsin history decided to step down early and give Gard an extended job audition.

Ryan’s reciprocation of loyalty proved to be the ultimate validation for Gard, who’d lived out his favorite coaching and life mantra: Be where your feet are.

“I never worried about being a head coach by 35 or 40,” he says. “There were more things to enjoy as part of this journey than worrying about where I wasn’t. I tell our players all the time, ‘Enjoy your time here in college. If you’re thinking about what’s next all the time, you’re missing the best part.’ ”

For Gard, the best — and worst — was yet to come.

The Opportunity of a Lifetime

Before his first game as interim head coach against UW–Green Bay, Gard tucked a folded-up piece of paper into the breast pocket of his suit jacket. It was his father’s funeral program. Glen Gard, 72, had passed away six weeks earlier from brain cancer.

For six months, Gard had stayed up late poring through treatment literature and had accompanied his father on flights around the country in a desperate search for the best cancer treatments.

Still grieving the loss of his lifelong role model, Gard threw himself into the career opportunity of a lifetime. One of his first official moves as head coach was to fill his own vacancy. He convinced his old colleague Howard Moore ’95 to leave a broadcasting gig at the Big Ten Network and join him as an assistant. Moore’s familiarity with the program — having played for the Badgers from 1990 to 1995 and served as an assistant from 2005 to 2010 — proved to be a luxury for a midseason hire. After the Badgers stumbled to a 1–4 conference record, Gard made a key adjustment: getting back to the basics with an inexperienced roster. At practice, he drilled fundamentals. He also reintroduced core tenets of the swing offense, an equal-opportunity system that he and Ryan first perfected at Platteville.

“We gave the guys tracks to play on,” Gard says. “It gave them a plan. It gave them some absolutes.”

The changes worked, and the team won 11 of its last 13 games. As the No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Badgers advanced to the Sweet 16 on a buzzer-beating Bronson Koenig ’17 three-pointer that remains one of the most memorable plays in Wisconsin sports history. Gard became the second rookie coach to win the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award.

“I’ve had an extra assistant coach all year — my guardian angel,” Gard told USA Today after the season, referring to his father and the funeral program in his jacket pocket. On March 7, 2016, Gard was named the permanent head coach of the Badgers. For the first time in his career, he received a multiyear contract. He promptly confirmed the wisdom of that decision by leading the Badgers to another Sweet 16 appearance in 2016–17.

But the good times did not roll forever. The 2017–18 team finished 15–18 and missed the NCAA Tournament. The following year, the Badgers bounced back to a 23–11 record but were upset by No. 12 seed Oregon in the first round of the Big Dance.

And in May 2019, tragedy struck the program.

The Worst Day

In the early morning of May 25, 2019, Howard Moore and his family were driving to the Detroit area to visit his in-laws. A wrong-way drunk driver collided with Moore’s vehicle at high speed. His nine-year-old daughter, Jaidyn, died at the scene. His wife, Jennifer, was in critical condition and taken off life support at the hospital later that day. Moore suffered severe burns on the left side of his body. His 13-year-old son, Jerell, escaped with minor injuries.

Gard still gets emotional discussing the incident. One of the hardest conversations of his life was telling his children that their friend Jaidyn was gone. He also had to console his players about an unspeakable tragedy.

“We cried together and prayed together,” says Davison, who had just finished his sophomore season. “It was a very dark and sad day.”

A month later, the situation went from bad to worse when Moore suffered a major heart attack. Still in recovery, he returned to his Madison home this past December from a long-term rehabilitation facility. During our conversation, Gard has his cell phone face up next to him. I notice him tap it periodically, checking notifications with an almost obsessive impulse.

“I tell my players all the time, I have an open-door policy,” Gard says. “You can come in here — this door never locks. And my cell phone never shuts off. I had my phone off the night of Howard’s accident. And then I vowed, it never goes off. So it’s by my bed, on, 24/7.”

The 2019–20 Badgers dedicated their season to Coach Moore and welcomed his son as an honorary member of the team. They won their final eight games and a share of the Big Ten regular season championship.

“Tragedy and adversity can either draw you apart or draw you together,” Davison says. “That was one of those cases where it really brought us together. We were playing for something bigger than ourselves.”

Coming Apart

But before one of the hottest teams in the nation could prove its mettle in March, COVID-19 shut down the country. The Big Ten and NCAA tournaments were canceled.

And the pandemic wasn’t done wreaking havoc on the program. After sending his players home, Gard didn’t see them in person for five months. The 2020–21 season eventually tipped off with strict pandemic protocols. Players had to eat meals alone in their rooms. There were no off-court team activities.

“Everything we did was anti-team,” Gard says. “You agree with the protocols to keep everyone safe, but looking back, you see the erosion that it created within a team.”

After starting the season ranked No. 7 in the nation, the Badgers had fallen to 9–7 in conference play by mid-February. The day after a blowout loss at home to Iowa, the team’s seven senior players asked for a closed-door meeting with the coaching staff. What followed was an emotional two-hour discussion. The players aired their grievances. The word “disconnect” came up often. They told Gard that they felt he didn’t care about them off the court and didn’t have their backs on the court.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever talk to you again after this [season],” one player said.

Gard listened to the players vent without interrupting and later addressed their concerns.

“It was a very healthy meeting, and it was beneficial for all parties,” Davison says. “Everyone got criticism, everyone got encouragement, everyone got coaching. And when we left that meeting, everyone was feeling good.”

The Badgers responded with some of their best basketball down the stretch, and it seemed that the meeting had achieved its purpose. The only problem was that someone had secretly recorded it.

Restoring Trust

On June 23, 2021, the Wisconsin State Journal published a story with excerpts from the previously private meeting. An anonymous email account had sent the reporter an audio recording that was edited down to 37 minutes, cutting almost everything but the criticisms of Gard. The source of the recording is still unconfirmed.

“I felt hurt and betrayed,” Davison says. “The locker room is supposed to be a safe place where you have tough conversations.”

Gard immediately worked to restore trust in the program, reaching out to all players and recruits individually and holding a team discussion about it. And he adapted, too, with an assist from his college-age children. He knows that students today seek more frequent communication and closer relationships with parental figures.

“I had a coach tell me a long time ago, ‘You’ll become a better coach the day you become a parent.’ He was right,” Gard says.

“I’m Here for You”

When I ask Gard how he’d like to be remembered, his mind goes back to Cobb and the core values that his parents passed down to him.

“That he was a guy who gave his best every day, and he tried to help a lot of people, and he made it better for the people coming behind him. He did it the right way. Didn’t take any shortcuts. Prepared people for what was going to be next. And they always knew they had somebody they can lean on.

“I tell our players all the time, ‘Hey, I’m here for you. Until they shovel dirt on me, I’ve got your back.’ ” •

Fortunately, the former Badger football star and native of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, seems up to the task. Measured and even-keeled, McIntosh isn’t fazed by change. He welcomes it.

“I’m really proud of the way our staff and our administration have worked through this change,” says McIntosh, who returned to the UW in 2014 after a successful business career and quickly rose through the administrative ranks. “I’m even more proud of the way our student-athletes have dealt with it. They’re the ones who are the most inspiring out of this.”

What has been your approach to dealing with all the uncertainties?

Our focus is to embrace the change. Don’t resist it. Advocate for what we think is most important, which is education. And then seek opportunity to enhance our program in ways that we couldn’t have prior to this change.

The graduation rate of student-athletes is more than 90 percent. What is the department doing to maintain that level of academic success?

We talk about coming to the University of Wisconsin as a 40-year decision, not a four-year decision. The experience that our student-athletes have here within their sport and within the classroom are two major components of it. But then there’s this other dimension, which is the human being. And we’ve got an incredible team of people who help position our student-athletes to be successful in the long game, in their lives and in their careers.

Last year was a difficult one for men’s basketball coach Greg Gard, culminating in a leaked locker room recording of senior players criticizing him. You stuck by him in the aftermath. Why was that the right decision?

I’ve been on some successful teams that have had difficult conversations throughout the year. I think it’s a healthy thing when players feel comfortable having real conversations. Those are closed-door meetings, meant for the team and for the coaches. It was an incredible breach of trust that those conversations were shared. And I thought it was important to support Coach Gard through that. He’s done a great job turning that experience into something that has helped this team achieve their success.

In December, the women’s volleyball team won its first NCAA title. How did you feel watching that five-set championship match?

My short answer is that it was torture. I’m kidding, obviously, but there were very few moments of those games that were comfortable. And that’s because it was competition at its highest. It was everything you could have asked for in a volleyball match. I was so happy for the players and for the coaches and for our staff. There have been so many sacrifices made, so many decisions over the course of years and years that have led to the culmination in winning a national championship. And I was just moved to be there and to witness the joy they experienced.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Title IX legislation. What do you see as its lasting impact on college athletics?

It would have been impossible for me, a long time ago as a student-athlete, to appreciate the impact of Title IX. It’s not impossible for me now as a father of three, including two daughters. My oldest is going to go play college volleyball next year [at Colorado State]. My youngest daughter, who’s a sophomore, aspires to do so. And my wife, Deann [’99], was an athlete here in our rowing program. So it’s personal to me. I’ve talked a lot about what access to a world-class education did in terms of developing me as a person and what it meant for the trajectory of my life. And Title IX has made that opportunity available to tens of thousands of women athletes here who are just as deserving.

In your introductory press conference, Chancellor Rebecca Blank talked about the Wisconsin way and the charge to maintain that culture here. How do you define that phrase?

In its simplest form, it’s about being successful in the classroom and competitive in our sport programs. And it’s as much about doing it the right way. That means doing it with integrity as an extension of this university. It’s shepherding a program that has been here for a long time before I came along and will be here for a long time after I’m done.

How do you think the NCAA’s new NIL policy has played out here?

I think it’s been very healthy, and I’m really supportive of it. It’s been a great opportunity for our student-athletes to capitalize on these new flexibilities. It’s a great learning experience for them, one they can take with them once they leave here. We continue to enhance our programming so that they can both be successful and avoid some of the pitfalls that may exist.

You’ve helped to develop the new Department of Clinical and Sport Psychology. Why is supporting the mental health of student-athletes important to you?

Mental health is just as important as physical health. It’s only been relatively recently that it’s been treated that way. And it’s the right thing to do. I’ve been public about my own experience here as a student-athlete. It was taboo to admit [mental health issues]. If you were talking to somebody or seeking help, you didn’t want it to be found out. And I’m proud of the fact that’s not the case today.

Did you receive any advice from former Athletic Director Barry Alvarez that sticks with you today?

Barry has always been there for me, in different ways, in different roles. All I have to do is pick up the phone and give him a call. The first question that Barry would always ask in every decision is, “What’s best for the kids?” And I don’t think that asking that question will ever serve us wrong.