The UW’s Coolest Job

Riggins: “It’s really cool when you see someone try skating for the first time and then they grow to love it.” Althea Dotzour

At his office in UW–Madison’s Bakke Recreation & Wellbeing Center, Bill Riggins ’98, MBA’17 jokes that he has a “closed-door” policy.

He’s not unfriendly, just sensible. He needs to keep the cold out.

As the Bakke assistant director of ice operations, Riggins manages the Sub-Zero Ice Center. His office abuts the National Hockey League–sized rink, where temperatures can dip to 50 degrees.

The campus ice center opened in 2023, taking over blade-related activities from the now-departed Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center (the “Shell”). Interest in ice activities like hockey and figure skating has surged, with skate memberships doubling since the final pre-pandemic academic year at the Shell.

Riggins, a navy veteran, started his 21-year, ice-focused career at UW–Madison in an apt manner, atop a Zamboni. In 2004, he took a second-shift job smoothing ice at the Shell so that he could spend days with his three young daughters. To move up the management ranks, he earned an MBA at the Wisconsin School of Business.

Riggins credits his coursework with helping him generate ideas for improving ice operations. When a Thursday late-night skate became so popular that it jeopardized the safety of participants and forced the staff to turn students away, Riggins purposely “cannibalized” it by creating a Saturday theme skate. It’s an approach businesses take when a product becomes so popular they can no longer fulfill demand and must create an alternative to lure away consumers. Saturday theme skates are now a huge draw, averaging 150 skaters each week. Favorite themes include TikTok hits, Bollywood music, and ugly sweaters at Christmas.

Recently, Riggins secured a grant from the Madison Area Sports Commission to fund free field trips to the rink each academic year for five local elementary schools.

“I wanted to broaden our reach and get young people here who otherwise may not have had access to a rink,” Riggins says.

Introducing ice activities to newcomers is a big part of why he loves his job.

“It’s really cool when you see someone try skating for the first time and then they grow to love it,” he says.

Published in the Summer 2025 issue