MIKE LUCAS Senior Writer Related Content • Varsity Magazine

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. — At the Saturday afternoon shootaround, Otto Puls was seated in a folding chair facing the court; a few steps away from his customary gameday roost at the middle of the scorer's table; a seat that he has kept warm for 55 years as Wisconsin's official scorer.

As Ethan Happ was limbering up with his teammates during an hour workout in preparation for the Big Ten matchup that night against Northwestern, he saw that Puls was engaged in conversation on the sidelines and couldn't resist a playful tease, "Are you going to give me a shout-out, Otto?"

Puls smiled at the request. It's part of a familiar and comfortable give-and-take with the players, young and old alike. Moments later, Brad Davison came over and handed Puls his two wrist bands for safe keeping. Puls slipped them on his right wrist and continued talking without missing a beat.

"I've never been too big to pick up a towel or what have you," Puls was now saying of his role as an assistant equipment manager, a non-entitled position that includes swabbing wet spots on the floor with a Swiffer during practice and filling up cups for water breaks, among other things.

"The dressing room will be a pig pen sometimes. And I'll ask them, 'Do you kids do this at home? Does your mom pick up your clothes? And if they say, 'Yeah, my mom does' — I will tell them, 'Well, I'm not your mom, so pick up the stuff on the floor.'"

And they listen because they love the 86-year-old Puls.

"He has always been a constant, if you will, in the program," Happ said. "Good game, bad game. Good practice, bad practice. His demeanor doesn't change. If we lose, you can tell that he's still proud of us."

It didn't take long for Davison to learn that Puls is so much more than just a score keeper.

"Every time I see him, I give him a left-handed handshake and hug because we say the left hand is closer to the heart," he said. "He never fails to brighten your day."

On road trips, Puls will help unload the bags from the plane to the bus. At the hotel, he will be the first to grab a luggage cart and the last to get on the elevator making sure everything is going to the right rooms. He's not above any task. "I do it," he said, "because I'm still part of the team."

And the team has become an integral part of his life. "I think it's a way to keep him young, too," said Davison, who revels in Puls' storytelling and the historical perspective that he brings to this program. "Being around us, he loves the energy, and he adds that energy, which is awesome."

After going through the pre-game handshake line with the opposing coaching staff, Wisconsin assistant Joe Krabbenhoft will veer back to rub Puls' head, a lucky charm ritual popularized by players long ago. "I have a Marine cut, flat on top, and as short as you can get," said the white-haired Puls, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army reserves. "Never had any other haircut."

Puls was raised on Madison's East Side (largely by his mom since his dad passed away when he was in his early teens) and that's where he still goes for his haircut every three weeks. "My barber hates athletics," he said, laughing. But he's trustworthy and reasonable. "Fifteen bucks including tip."

Many things are priceless about Puls. Like his impact on multiple generations.

"To this day, when my mom and dad call, they ask, 'How's the team doing?' and then right away they say, 'How's Otto?'" said Krabbenhoft, a former UW captain. "The personal relationship that he has invested in each of us is special. He has taught us all what it means to be true friend. He takes the time to get to know you as an individual. He is Badgers basketball in a lot of ways. He has seen it all really."

UPDATE: 64th-year senior Otto Puls is in the building and available for tonight's game at Penn State

— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) January 6, 2019

Puls' service over five-plus decades as the official scorekeeper for home games will be celebrated before Saturday's tipoff against Penn State at the Kohl Center. During the ceremony, Otto and Barb Puls will be recognized along with their three children: Julie, Jeff and Joanne.

"He has been the grandfather figure for so many guys for years and years and years," said Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard. "He doesn't have his name in the record book in terms of scoring or rebounding or anything like that. But he's an icon in the program.

"What he has done for 55 years is unheard of and amazing."

• • • •

Bring up Barb's influence to Otto and he gets choked up. "Listen," he said, his voice cracking, "I wouldn't be able to do all of this without her saying, 'Yes.' She has stuck with it. She's an amazing girl."

Barb is 84. She'll be 85 in May.

"And I'm still kicking," she wants everybody to know.

Otto and Barb, a Middleton, Wis., native, have been married for 64 years. They have lived in the same house for 54 years. "I don't move around too much," Otto reasoned.

Barb remembers meeting Otto at an office picnic through a friend of a friend.

"I said, 'Oh, you must be little Otto,'" Barb recounted. "We were talking later and I said to him, "Well, what do you do?' And he said, 'I still have a year of pharmacy school at Wisconsin and I don't want to say anything … but I played baseball for the UW for three years.'

"I said, 'Were you any good?'"

Otto didn't answer. Didn't have to. Lettered for three years with the Badgers. Once had three hits off Minnesota's legendary Paul Giel. Took over at shortstop for Harvey Kuenn, a 10-time MLB all-star, a batting champ and the manager of Harvey's Wall-Bangers with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Barb spent a lot of their courtship watching Otto play baseball.

"Nicest guy I've ever met," she said. "And he's still nice."

UW athletic trainer Henry Perez-Guerra has a solid understanding of their makeup.

"They're probably the most perfect couple on earth," he opined. "Barb is the eternal optimist and realist. She calls it as it is."

Perez-Guerra drives Puls home after every road game. It's the payback for Puls herding players into Perez-Guerra's room for pre-game taping. "I do the dirty work," Puls said. "I get them there. If they don't answer when I call on their cell phone, I go to their room and knock on their door."

Puls' entwinement with basketball in the state of Wisconsin extends everywhere you look. Take his seatmate on the team bus, Andy North, for example.

North was a competitive basketball player at Monona Grove (Wis.) High School in the late '60s and Puls officiated many of his games. "Really good ballplayer and very rough, all elbows," Puls said. "We kid about it to this day, he always says, 'You almost fouled me out of every game.'"

The irony is that one of the first prep basketball games that Puls ever officiated involved Andy North's dad, Stewart, who was a high school head coach in Tomah, Wis. Puls was in his early '20s and just out of college and he was looking to make some money after starting out with intramural games.

Little did he know then that he would wind up officiating 14 WIAA state tournaments and well over 1,000 basketball games at the high school and Wisconsin State University Conference levels. In the early '70s, the late Gene Calhoun opened a new door for Puls as a Big Ten football official.

Along with working a couple of Rose Bowls, high-water marks, he was a personal witness to several chapters of the Ten Year War, the historic conflict (1969-78) between Ohio State's Woody Hayes and Michigan's Bo Schembechler. Both had intimidating, ill-tempered, bigger-than-life personalities.

But it was Schembechler who penned a complimentary letter to Puls on his retirement.

Schembechler cited Puls for his professionalism and integrity, the ultimate compliments.

"I still have the letter — and it's posted nicely in our basement," said Puls, whose day job as a pharmacist for 38 years at the Central Wisconsin Center for the developmentally disabled afforded him the opportunity to work Big Ten football games on Saturdays.

Years later, Puls brought his whistle with him to Wisconsin basketball practices.

"I wasn't hired to be an official," he said. "But Bo Ryan scrimmaged almost every day."

Ryan wasn't about to waste Puls experience.

And it was not unusual for players to challenge Puls calls during possessions.

"When I was playing," said Krabbenhoft, "he'd give it right back to us."

Today, Krabbenhoft serves as a player-coach on the scout team. He hasn't mellowed.

"Oh, gosh, the other day Joe got on my case," Puls said.

But it was nothing compared to Rob Jeter and Tony Bennett.

As Ryan assistants, they also played with the scouts.

"We didn't have a very good scout team, so they had to suit up," Puls remembered. "And it was unbelievable how bad at times they would get on my case. Bo even said to me during a practice, "Next time, they say something to you, hit them with a technical.'

"Rob and Tony were just so competitive. And they'd come over and hug me and say they were sorry after practices. They'd tell me, 'You know, Otto, we're two steps behind where we were 10 years ago and not as quick as we used to. So, we have to make up for those two steps."

Puls can relate. He also has lost a step or two. "I still feel pretty good, but my legs …" he said, without having to complete the thought. He has had hip and knee replacement. Right now, the left knee is better than his right knee which has acted up, the result of an old injury, and slowed him down.

Then again, let's not forget that he will be 87 in September.

"But I'm still here every day," he said in a reassuring, prideful tone.

Puls couldn't remember the last time that he missed a game, but his total games scored is well over 1,100 since former Wisconsin coach John Erickson hired him as the official scorer in 1964.

Ten head coaches and countless players have benefited. North has seen how Otto and Barb have become a special part of the Badger experience for everyone who has played here. "Otto," he said, "has done so much for so many guys over the years, which is pretty cool."

Asked if he has thought about his own legacy, Puls said, "What would you say is a legacy? What does that actually mean? … Every day is another good day … Being around the kids, that's the key ... They've been good to me. I've been good to them. It has been a lot of fun."