The 2018 class of the UW Athletic Hall of Fame has been selected and one new member will be announced each day from July 9-19. Visit UWBadgers.com each day to celebrate each new member of this distinguished and historic class of Badgers!
BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Tim Gillham's love affair with fencing has endured through some pretty challenging circumstances.
There have been twists of fate that caused him emotional discomfort.
There have been injuries that caused him physical pain.
There have been moments of separation and abandonment that left him frustrated.
Yet it's a relationship, now more than four decades old, that endures and is about to be warmly embraced.
Gillham is part of an 11-member class that will be inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame on Sept. 7.
He will be the first representative of his sport to be enshrined, a development that left the Madison resident and former La Follette High School product quite pleased when he got the news.
"Surprised and happy," Gillham said.
The honor comes more than 30 years after Gillham became the first and only male fencer in Big Ten history to win three individual conference titles.
He prevailed in his specialty, the epee, as a freshman in 1983 on the way to finishing third at the NCAA championship and being named Wisconsin's Most Valuable Player.
Tim Gillham
Gillham defended his league individual championships in 1984 and '85 — earning All-America honors in the process — before finishing second in the Big Ten in 1986.
Watching closely, and proudly, was Anthony Gillham, who coached the Badgers' fencers for 18 years starting in 1972 and produced seven Big Ten championship teams.
What was it like coaching his son?
"It was a great pleasure, let me say that much," Anthony said.
The same could be said for hearing that his son would soon have his hall of fame plaque displayed with all the other legends on the outer wall of the Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center.
"I was delighted," Anthony Gillham said.
The elder Gillham began to fence when he was a teenager growing up in England. His middle child started to follow in his footsteps when Tim was 12.
Gillham won a national Midwest regional title while at La Follette before enrolling at Wisconsin and making history.
According to unofficial statistics, Gillham finished his college career winning nearly 80 percent of his matchups (174-47, .787).
"He was very patient," Anthony Gillham said of his son. "He'd wait for his opponents to make a mistake and then take advantage of it.
"When I was fencing — I was a sabre fencer primarily — I didn't have that patience. I wanted to get on with it."
The epee, foil and sabre are the three combat disciplines of modern fencing, which was one of the first sports to be contested in the Olympics and remains one of five to be included in every Olympiad since 1904.
The epee is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons. It's the only one whereby the entire body is a valid targeting area. The other two are restricted to specific sections above the waist.
"It's a much more complicated sport than people understand," said Anthony Gillham, who, at 83, still teaches fencing at Brookfield Academy in Brookfield, Wis. "They have visions of Hollywood and it's nothing like that at all.
"It takes a lot of one-on-one practice, very much like learning a complicated musical instrument."
Tim Gillham said practices in the Natatorium took place daily from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and "could be grueling."
In addition to competing for the Badgers, Gillham said he also took part in open tournaments during the season.
"I enjoyed it," he said.
Tim Gillham said he and his father talked about their family dynamic before he enrolled, harkening back to the late 1970s and early 1980s when Bob Johnson was the Wisconsin men's hockey coach and his sons Mark and Peter played for him.
What was it like having dad on the sidelines?
"It actually turned out pretty well," Tim Gillham said.
A year after Gillham graduated from Wisconsin with degrees in political science, history and international studies, the Big Ten discontinued its sponsorship of fencing in 1987.
Four years later, Wisconsin cut men's and women's fencing — as well as baseball and men's and women's gymnastics — in order to address a $2.1 million budget deficit in its athletic department and Title IX concerns.
Anthony Gillham retired from college coaching in 1990 — a year before the cuts — and said he offered to return and coach the men's and women's teams for free if the sport was retained.
Tim Gillham said the decision to discontinue fencing at Wisconsin was painful.
"We were upset," he said of his fellow alums. "We wrote a lot of letters, but we knew there was nothing we could do about it. We knew the athletic department had some serious financial problems."
But that moment doesn't prevent Gillham from seeing the big picture.
"Even though you may never go to the Olympics or the NFL, the NHL or the NBA, you still get something from being a college student-athlete that helps you get through your whole life," he said.
Such as?
"All sorts of things," he said. "Staying in shape. Teamwork. I think you get something from that experience that the average student doesn't get."
Gillham, 54, retired from competitive fencing in his late 20s due in part to a back injury and spent more than 20 years on the sidelines.
He got married to Jenny, his wife of 22 years, and worked in the local automotive industry before shifting gears earlier this year.
"Time to do something different," Gillham said of the decision to leave his job four months ago. "I left on my own, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do."
It helps that Gillham has rediscovered fencing, competing against other 50-and-overs for the past four years.
"It's very popular and very, very strong competition," Gillham said. "It's ex-college stars, ex-Olympic Team members. Guys like that.
"I did miss it and wanted to get back in it. I got back in and I'm glad I did."
Gillham compared it to the Champions Tour in pro golf minus the financial payout.
"Just a love of the game," he said.
What's the payoff then?
"It's a lot of fun," Gillham said. "We all know each other, so when we go to the national competitions it's not quite as cutthroat as it was back in the college days."
Perhaps, but it still has its risks.
Gillham, who competes through the Madison Fencing Academy, recently returned from the national championships in St. Louis with a hamstring injury that he figures will sideline him for two months.
"I'll be back," he said. "My goal is Sept. 1."
Just in time to reconnect with his alma mater as a Hall of Famer.
"It was an overwhelmingly positive experience," Gillham said of his career at Wisconsin. "It will stay with me forever."
UW Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2018
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