The 2019 class of the UW Athletic Hall of Fame has been selected and one new member will be announced each day from June 25 - July 6.
Visit UWBadgers.com each day to celebrate each new member of this distinguished and historic class of Badgers!
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Pat Richter had the wheels, a 1949 Dodge, so he'd chauffeur his circle of friends — Jim Nettles, Merritt Norvell, Lou Holland and Elzie Higginbottom — around the Madison campus.
All but Higginbottom were on the Wisconsin football team.
Higginbottom was a runner, a Hall of Fame runner.
On the track, not the gridiron.
"He was super in the 440," Richter recalled fondly.
He was speaking in yards, the 440-yard dash; the precursor to the 400-meter run (437.4 yards).
The 440 was Higginbottom's specialty, his signature event with the Badgers.
In 1963, not long after Richter and his teammates stirred passions with a furious rally that fell short in a Rose Bowl loss to USC, Higginbottom was creating lifetime memories as a quarter-miler.
Not only did he win the 440-yard dash at the Big Ten Outdoor championship, one of his three league titles, but he earned All-American recognition by finishing among the top five in the NCAA meet.
Higginbottom held the school record indoors and outdoors for more than 20 years. Morphing 440-yards into 400-meters, his converted time still ranks among the UW's all-time outdoor leaders.
Since his undergrad days, leadership has always been synonymous with Higginbottom, a Chicago native and the CEO of East Lake Management & Development Corp.
After getting his start with Baird and Warner, he went on to become the founder of East Lake and what he grew into the largest minority-owned real estate company in Illinois.
"I'm a builder," he recently said. "I build buildings. I build businesses. I even build movements. My supporters call me a serial entrepreneur. My detractors often call me crazy."
At Wisconsin, he built a legacy on the track and in the classroom.
So much so, the next time he meets his two sons, William and Carter, both UW students, at Der Rathskeller in the Memorial Union, one of his favorite places on campus, he will be a Hall of Famer.
"Let me tell you, it was one of shock and it was very humbling," Higginbottom said of his reaction to learning that he was a member of Wisconsin's 2019 induction class.
"I've been away from the school for 55 years. It was totally unexpected. But I'm very appreciative that they would consider me for the Hall of Fame."
Gallery: (6/28/2019) Hall of Fame 2019: Elzie Higginbottom
Making it more special for Higginbottom is the fact that his college roommate, Holland, an explosive running back who led the Big Ten in scoring in back-to-back seasons, was inducted in 2011.
Holland, who passed away in 2016, was also a sprinter on the Badgers track team. One of his sons, Tyler, a UW grad, now works for Higginbottom as a development manager at East Lake.
"Lou and I used to joke all the time and now I often tell his son Tyler, 'You know how your dad learned how to spell Higginbottom?" he posed. "He'd say no.
"And I'll tell him, 'He read it off the back of my jersey.'
"Lou was a sprinter, he wasn't a quarter-miler and after about 110 yards, I'd overtake him."
Because he was living with a football player, and hanging out with Richter and others, did Higginbottom ever considering talking to coach Milt Bruhn about going out for the sport at Wisconsin?
"I was a little too small," he said, chuckling. "When I met all these players — I was recruited at the same time with Pat (Richter) and Lou — I saw that they outweighed me by a few pounds.
"So, I said, 'I'm better off staying with track.'
"One guy who ran track and played football was Billy Smith. He was great sprinter, but he was always beat up. I was a quarter-miler and I had to be my best every time I got out there."
Coming out of Bloom Township High School (Chicago Heights, Illinois), the 5-foot-10 Higginbottom weighed all of 140 pounds. Though he had other track options, he fell in love with Madison.
"No matter what other offers I had, I thought, 'This is the place for me,'" said Higginbottom, who was recruited in the same class with another touted quarter-miler, the Indiana state champion.
Head coach Rut Walter, a former Big Ten and NCAA 440 champ, had just left Northwestern to take over the Wisconsin track program and the Chicago area was one of his recruiting priorities.
Enter Higginbottom who was a state champ, too. But he wasn't the No. 1 recruit in his event. The Hoosier was. And yet, it was Higginbottom who won the 440 in an intrasquad meet.
"That was a turning point," he said after defeating all-comers.
Throughout his climb in the business world, Higginbottom credited the lessons that he learned as an athlete for shaping the focus and discipline needed to overcome any level of adversity.
"Most of what I am today is a result of my years at the University of Wisconsin," he said. "It was all the wonderful people; it was all the moral support that I got from the university.
"It was one big family and over the years I've always reflected on how good it was for me … Some of the greatest people I've met in my life are people that I met at the university.
"Madison has nothing but good memories for me."
The ol' roommates, Higginbottom and Holland, blazed quite a trail after graduation in 1965. Both majored in agricultural economics. Both turned everything that they touched into gold.
Holland worked 40 years as an investment management executive and entrepreneur.
By his own account, Higginbottom is working all the time at "sniffing out problems" and "designing solutions." In 2000, he was inducted into the Chicago Association of Realtors Hall of Fame.
Higginbottom was a driving force behind the Friends of Track and Field which has paved the way for the construction on the south side of Chicago's first public indoor track and field complex.
In May, the 77-year-old Higginbottom received an honorary degree during the spring commencement at Columbia College Chicago. Here's how he was introduced, in part, to the graduates:
"Despite many obstacles — (The speaker cited how, "African-Americans were not welcome in the commercial real estate industry" when Higginbottom started out) — Mr. H, a national ranked athlete from the University of Wisconsin, used his competitive spirit and skills to compete …
"And he became one of the leading financiers of multi-family housing in the federal housing association program. Mr. H then used the financing experience gained to start his own developmental company (East Lake) … a company that owns and manages over 15,000 multi-family units.
"Mr. H is a very talented businessman. His ability to create the big picture and his incredible focus on the details significantly contributed to his outsized success. Finally, Mr. H's commitment to the community is unequaled. He's always focused on the question, 'How can we help the community?'"
During his remarks, Higginbottom suggested any reflection on his business career would entail "looking back over 50 years of experimenting, strategizing and pulling out my hair (while) looking for common threads, meaningful stories and lessons to live by."
It's safe to say that Higginbottom will get over to the Memorial Union during Hall of Fame weekend in Madison. And he'll be in the company of his sons, William, a senior transfer from the University of Alabama, and Carter, a sophomore walk-on with the UW basketball team.
Five decades ago, Higginbottom staked out his real estate on Langdon Street.
"As you walk into the Rathskeller," he reminisced, "my favorite spot was on the left side.
"It wasn't a booth then; it was a table and chairs."
It's still home today.
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UW Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2019
