Badgers welcome 12 new members to UW Athletic Hall of Fame
September 07, 2019 | Football, General News, Men's Basketball, Men's Cross Country, Men's Golf, Men's Hockey, Men's Track & Field, Women's Cross Country, Women's Hockey, Women's Swimming & Diving, Women's Track & Field, Volleyball, Wrestling
New class includes Olympic Gold Medalist, Future Pro Football Hall of Famer and NCAA Champions
The UW Athletic Hall of Fame was established in 1991, when 35 charter members were inducted. Since its inception, the Hall of Fame has now welcomed 262 members who have been recognized for their athletic prowess and contributions made to the University of Wisconsin. The Hall of Fame includes former athletes, coaches, and special service members.
Donovan Bergstrom
Cross Country, Track & Field
Donovan Bergstrom's defining moment as a student-athlete at Wisconsin might well have come in defeat.
What's strange about that is Bergstrom, a distance specialist who competed in track and cross country for the Badgers from 1988-93, won the 1993 NCAA outdoor championship in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and received the Medal of Honor from the Big Ten Conference as a senior. Read more …
Pat Christenson
Wrestling
Pat Christenson's recruiting visit to Wisconsin in 1972 was one he'll never forget. He left his family home in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and caught an early-morning Badger Bus that ran from Milwaukee to Madison. Upon arrival, he was met by second-year wrestling coach Duane Kleven and his assistant Russ Hellickson.
Christenson received a walking tour of campus, visited the wrestling room located on the sprawling, aging second floor of Camp Randall Stadium and had lunch at the old Brat 'n Brau on Regent Street. At one point Christenson received an offer from the coaches to walk on. He accepted then headed for home.
"I came back on the 5:30 bus," Christenson said. "Not your typical recruiting trip."
He didn't know it at the time, but that was the moment Christenson found his path in life. Read more…
Elzie Higginbottom
Track & Field
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. Read more…
Bill Howard
Hockey
Bill Howard has an unmatched legacy in the history of Wisconsin men's hockey. He's the only person to possess all six NCAA championship rings, a distinctive feat made possible by his role as volunteer goaltending coach for the Badgers from 1972 to 2008.
The Badgers won national titles in 1973, '77, '81, '83, '90 and 2006. During that run Howard worked for three championship-winning head coaches — Bob Johnson, Jeff Sauer and Mike Eaves — toiled alongside 18 different assistant coaches and affected 1,457 games.
Howard tutored four first-team All-Americans, five first-team all-league performers and 11 team MVPs. Read more ...
Trent Jackson
Basketball
Taking part in the Legends of Wisconsin Classic made him fair game for a loaded question. Do you feel like a legend?
"In our own mind," Trent Jackson said before teeing off in the athletic department's annual golf fundraiser at University Ridge last week, "I think we all want to sort of feel like legends.
"But when you look at what the program did when I was playing here, it certainly wouldn't have happened for me without guys like Danny Jones and Tim Locum."
Jones, Jackson and Locum were the leading scorers on a gritty Wisconsin basketball team that ended a 42-year postseason drought with an appearance in the 1989 National Invitational Tournament. Read more…
Gwen Jorgensen
Cross Country, Swimming & Diving, Track & Field
Jorgensen is the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in the triathlon, a feat she realized in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. That accomplishment understandably sits atop her personal competitive resume, but a "close second" is her upcoming induction in the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.
"I hold it in such high regard," Jorgensen said of a college career that spanned 2005-09 and included three sports as well as a master's degree in accounting. "It's such an honor. I really can't tell you how much it means to me." Read more…
VIDEO: 2019 UW Athletic Hall of Fame: Gwen Jorgensen
Jim Kalscheur
Special Service
Shortly after Alvarez was hired to resuscitate football, he was introduced to Kalscheur.
"From the very first week I was here, Jimmy has been one of the guys who has hosted functions for the athletic department and for individual teams," Alvarez said. "For the longest time, he had the big fundraiser at his barn raising six figures for varsity sports."
Kalscheur's steak fry on his Pine Bluff farm was a special fundraising event for decades. From a modest beginning (the first one raised $20,000), it grew bigger and bigger and more profitable. Read more…
Kelly Kennedy Saurer
Volleyball
Saurer had the kind of career with the Wisconsin volleyball team that requires more than a few minutes.
Saurer was a middle blocker for the Badgers from 1996-99 who twice earned second-team All-America accolades, the first UW player to earn two honors, and who was named to the All-Big Ten Conference first team three times.
She led Wisconsin in blocks two times and in kills once. For her career, Saurer ranks sixth in program history in kills with 1,406, sixth in blocks with 555, fifth in average blocks per set at 1.28 and third in hitting percentage at .339. Read more…
Otto Puls
Special Service
When the 2019 class came up for a vote last March, Puls was unaware the committee had tabbed him for induction. Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez broke the news to Puls during the meeting.
"I was stunned," admitted Puls whose response was relatively muted. "I guess I was so surprised when he said my name, I couldn't believe it. What? Are you kidding me? It didn't sink in right away."
When he got home, he immediately sought out his wife Barb. The Puls have been married for 64 years, so there are no secrets.
"Guess what?" he posed.
Not really waiting for an answer, he told her of his selection to yet another Hall of Fame.
"Is this what you really wanted?" she asked.
"Heck, yes," he said. "This is the one I always thought would be nice to have.
"This would be number one by far." Read more…
Joe Thomas
Football
"Being a kid who grew up just an hour down the road (from Madison), it's definitely beyond my wildest dreams of finally being one of those members of the Hall of Fame and having my own plaque up there among the greats," Thomas said of his inclusion among state-bred UW icons.
"I remember when I was in high school and looking at all the plaques of all the other Hall of Famers — the legendary names — and, at the time, I never dreamed of having the opportunity or the good fortune of being one of them. I definitely looked up to those people like they were idols." Read more…
VIDEO: 2019 UW Athletic Hall of Fame: Joe Thomas
Jessie Vetter McConnell
Women's Hockey
The Wisconsin women's hockey program was six-plus seasons and 231 games old when Jessie (Vetter) McConnell made her goaltending debut, so it might be a stretch to call her a pioneer.
By the time McConnell started her first college game — she made 11 saves as a redshirt freshman in a 3-0 road shutout of Wayne State (Michigan) before a crowd of 218 on Jan. 7, 2006 — the Badgers had already played for five coaches and dealt with their share of adversity.
But McConnell was very much a pioneer for the program in the sense that Wisconsin, with former Badgers great Mark Johnson as coach, became a perennial powerhouse on her watch. Read more…
Ben Walter
Men's Golf
Walter got some inspiration from sitting out a season as a redshirt. He watched as the Badgers finished third in the Big Ten meet and qualified for the NCAA tournament for just the third time in program history.
"The expectations were set," Walter said. "When I started playing in my junior year we were going to continue that."
Walter joined and strengthened one of the better lineups Tiziani ever assembled. Walter currently ranks eighth in program history with a career stroke average of 74.60, while Jim Pejka (74.83) and Mark Scheibach (75.22) are in the top 15. Read more…
