Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez made it official today. He’s retiring on June 30, 2021 after 17 years on the job.
Alvarez came to Madison in 1990, resurrecting a long-dormant football program before succeeding Pat Richter as Athletic Director in 2003.
Wisconsin athletics logged 73 conference championships during his watch with 16 national titles: women’s hockey won six, women’s light-weight rowing five. Badger football and men’s basketball set an NCAA record with 15 straight years of making bowl games and the March hoop tournament.
Ben Brust, member of 2013-2014 Badgers Final Four basketball team, tells WTMJ Alvarez changed UW-Madison forever.
“At the end of the day, he will always be, and is, a legend. The presence that Barry Alvarez has walking in any room in the state of Wisconsin is felt. And I think it was felt from the time he came on campus.”
“You have to give a lot of credit to former Athletic Director Pat Richter, who brought Barry in to a Wisconsin football program that was horrible, to be quite frank. Ever since Barry took on that head coaching role as the football coach and then moved onto the Athletic Director position, Wisconsin athletics just have always won.”
For the full interview with Brust on Wisconsin’s Morning News, click in the player above.