The 2020 class of the UW Athletic Hall of Fame has been selected and new members will be announced from June 15 - 26. 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. — It didn't take Jeff Braun long to draw a distinction between his two remarkable legacies.
One was as a student-athlete with the Wisconsin men's track and field team from 1976 to '79. Braun had unprecedented success as a shot put and discus specialist, setting records that still stand more than four decades later.
One was as an assistant coach with the Wisconsin women's track and field and cross country teams from 1983 to '89. Braun was a central figure in a dynasty that produced 10 top-10 finishes in NCAA meets and 14 Big Ten Conference championships overall.
Together they help explain why Braun is part of an 11-person class that will be inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in September.
But asked to weigh those two loaded resumes and their place in his competitive life, Braun answered pretty quickly.
"My throwing is where I feel is where it's at," he said. "Coaching was good, but I feel I had a really good (competitive) career."
Gallery: (6-25-2020) 2020 Hall of Fame: Jeff Braun
Braun won eight Big Ten titles overall, including seven in the shot put. His lone stumble was as a freshman in the 1976 outdoor meet when he placed second to Bruce Adams of Indiana. He remains the only shot putter in league history — indoors or outdoors — to win four in a row.
Braun was just the second man in Big Ten history to win a single field event four consecutive years. Charlton Ehizuelen of Illinois prevailed in the indoor long jump and triple jump from 1974 to '77.
Braun capped his UW career in 1979 with Big Ten record-setting efforts in the indoor and outdoor shot put, as well as the outdoor discus. He also finished third in the NCAA indoor meet in the shot.
After earning a degree in physical education, Braun competed on the world track circuit from 1980 to '88. He was the U.S. champion in the indoor shot put in 1982 and was part of an American squad that took part in the Pan American Games in 1987.
Now 62, retired and living in Pulaski, Wisconsin, Braun said the one thing that bugs him about his athletic career is that he only placed in the NCAA meet that one time.
"I was better than that," he said.
For all his individual achievements, though, Braun might have had more impact on his alma mater as a coach. He began as a volunteer for the men's and women's teams, working with the weight specialists, before he was hired full-time by the legendary Peter Tegen to focus on the women's side.
"Assistant coaches are incredibly important and he was a very good one," Tegen said of Braun.
"I don't know how it happened, but it happened," Braun said. "He asked me if I wanted to come on board and that got me going."
Tegen built the Wisconsin women's track and field and cross country programs from scratch starting in 1973. Before stepping down in 2004, he led the Badgers to an astounding 39 Big Ten titles — 15 in cross country and 24 in track — and two national championships in cross country. He was inducted in to the UW Hall of Fame in 2013.
It says a lot that Tegen entertained the notion that Braun might have contributed more to the cause than he did. Tegen said it started with his attitude.
"I don't remember ever having a bad day with Jeff, ever," Tegen said.
Braun may have intimidated people with his 6-foot-3, 250-pound presence, but that wariness was misguided and it disappeared shortly after introductions. He was friendly, engaging, astute and genuine. Tegen said he was liked by everyone in the program.
"I don't know how he fits his heart into his body," Tegen said. "He's just a great guy. He was such a big part of our program."
Mary Grinaker was a pentathlon specialist who won the Big Ten outdoor title in 1979 and, later, was an assistant coach under Tegen handling many of the same duties as Braun. She saw Braun compete, tapped into his knowledge as a thrower — her five-event discipline included the shot put — and benefitted from his handiwork as a teacher and recruiter.
"He was a ton of fun," she said. "People really dug him."
Braun had a hand in tutoring four Big Ten champions in the throw events — Karen Nitsch in the outdoor shot put in 1983; Kristi Kropp in the outdoor javelin in 1985; Marcia Christiansen in the outdoor javelin in 1986 and Helen Stoffel in the indoor pentathlon in 1986 — and did so in a way that resonated with his charges.
Tegen was renowned as a developer of runners — middle and long distance — and the Badgers were best known for cultivating elite talent in those events. Sometimes everyone else got lost in the publicity shuffle.
"He made all those throwers really feel like they were a big deal," Grinaker said of Braun. "He made them feel a huge part of the dynasty."
Nitsch, now Schliesman, said Braun worked everyone really hard, but treated everyone the same. She told a personal story about how he looked out for them.
In 1983, Nitsch Schliesman, from Indianapolis, won the Big Ten outdoor title in a meet staged at Purdue. One of the local newspaper reporters referred to her as "the 6-foot-1, 200-pound sophomore from Wisconsin" as part of a homecoming story.
Braun sought out the author and, according to Nitsch Schliesman, mentioned that he didn't print the sprinter's heights and weights, so why use them in a story about a thrower?
"Ultimately the person who wrote the article came and found me and apologized," Nitsch Schliesman said. "It was that kind of thing that shows that it wasn't just about the performance necessarily, but it was about the person also, that (Braun) cared about us as people."
Tegen found out quickly that Braun was not your ordinary throws guru.
"They have this reputation that they just care about throws," Tegen said. "Jeff was totally different. He was so interested in all the stuff I was doing on the track and was able to transpose it to the throwing event.
"What impressed me with Jeff was he was not solely a throwing coach. He became a track coach, interested in every event."
The sports world is littered with great athletes who underwhelmed as coaches. Why was Braun different?
"Technically he was an awesome coach," Grinaker said.
Nitsch Schliesman said Braun brought patience, adaptability, caring and enlightenment to every practice.
"Everyone learns differently, so everyone needs to be coached differently," she said.
Nitsch Schliesman offered the story of Dave Niemuth, a shot putter and discus thrower who competed for the Badgers in the mid-1980s. He was deaf, so Braun learned sign language to communicate with him.
"To me, that speaks volumes of what lengths he went to in order to make sure people got what they needed," Nitsch Schliesman said.
Sometimes Braun would take a step outside the box. One instance came when he took his throwers to hear his old football coach, hall of famer Bill Collar, speak. Collar, a former Wisconsin Teacher of the Year and Coach of the Year, was a motivational speaker of note.
"He thought it would be good for us to hear the things he was sharing with people," Nitsch Schliesman said of Braun.
Tegen said Braun was a natural teacher who was always asking the right questions and who paid close attention to the details.
"Jeff had an incredible eye," Tegen said. "He had a great ability to visually find where there might be a flaw, what could be done better or why this jump or throw or start wasn't quite working."
Braun became the point person for recruiting, which means he had a hand in landing the likes of Cathy Branta, Dorothea Brown, Sue Gentes, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Stephanie Herbst, Katie Ishmael and Lori Wolter among others.
"What mom or dad wouldn't believe in Braunie?" Grinaker asked rhetorically.
"He was always involved with absolutely everyone that we recruited," Tegen said. "He did a lot of great stuff. He was a great force."
Braun grew up in Seymour, where he wrestled and played football before he became enamored with track and field as a sophomore in high school. His first attempts at the shot measured around 33 feet. He threw 63 feet, 1¼ to win the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association state title as a senior.
Braun said his first Big Ten meet, staged in Madison, remains one of his favorite career memories. He trailed the thrower from Minnesota going into his last attempt.
"I knew how to talk to myself to get to another level," he said. "I really hit it that day. Then I felt like I really belong here and that this is going to work."
A place in the UW hall of fame would seem to confirm that.
"This is special," Braun said. "This is neat."
2020 UW Athletic Hall of Fame
- Aaron Gibson, Football
- Carla MacLeod, Women's Hockey
- Ted Kellner, Special Service
- Jackie Zoch, Women's Rowing
- Mike Wilkinson, Men's Basketball
- John Byce, Men's Hockey and Baseball
- Tom Burke, Football
- Jessie Stomski, Women's Basketball
- Dick Bartman, Boxing
- Jeff Braun, Men's Track and Field
- Bo Ryan, Men's Basketball
