UW Athletic Hall of Fame: Monsignor Michael Burke
August 11, 2022 | Football, General News, Mike Lucas
‘Father Mike’ beloved to generations of Wisconsin football student-athletes, staff and supporters
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Hit rewind to August of 1988.
David Wings, a Chicago-area linebacker, was speaking from the practice field at what was then Holy Name Seminary, the site of Wisconsin's preseason training camp. He was talking about the physical and mental toughness required to survive at this sequestered location on Madison's far westside.
"I can't say that I will ever miss the place," Wings was confiding. But in the next breath, a deep breath, he was saying that he would miss the person who ran the place, Father Mike. "Great guy. He goes out of his way for us because he cares. If you need him, he's always there for you.
"You know, a lot of guys still come back here (the seminary) every year just to see him."
Wings, a co-captain, was going into his senior year along with classmates Paul Chryst (the eighth-year Wisconsin head coach) and Todd Nelson (dad of starting left tackle Jack). Wings promised to be one of those who returned. Such was the unmistakable bond with Monsignor Michael Burke aka 'Father Mike', the rector at Holy Name.
Father Mike touched hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of players.
So many felt his warmth without seeing his collar. So many felt his love and saw his sincerity.
"What they see when they get here," Father Mike was saying about freshmen, "is the rapport we have with the older kids and I think they feel comfortable with it. There's no sale pitch from anyone here. We simply live together for two weeks during the month of August every year for training camp.
"They respect us. And we respect them. That's just how it is. I can't say enough about the kids who stay here. Bishop O'Donnell, 14 priests and seven sisters also live in this facility. It's home for them. Yet the players do a good job respecting the people, the property and the building. They make this home.
"We truly miss them when they leave."
What was being said then — 34 years ago — still resonates today with multiple generations of former Badger players. Scholarship. Or walk-on. Starter. Or sub. They have truly missed him, too, since he left. Father Mike passed away in September of 2020. He was 72.
Through decades of unrelenting support and service, Father Mike's compassion was unrivaled in bringing comfort to those who sought reassurance during troubling times in their lives. Humanity was his calling card. So now will be the UW Athletic Hall of Fame with his Class of 2022 induction.
"How would he react to the Hall of Fame?" posed Frank Burke, the second oldest (to Father Mike) of Laurence and Claribel Burke's eight children. After giving it some thought, Frank wrote that his brother would be, "Humbled, honored, optimistic, hopeful. He lived his faith through serving others."
There were four boys (Mike, Frank, Joe, Tom) and four girls (Mary, Kathy, Ann, Maggie) in the Burke clan. Maggie had Down syndrome and passed away when she was 11. Mike was the oldest, Maggie was the youngest. Moreover, she was the "epicenter of the family" according to Frank.
"That experience probably had a lot do with his formation," Frank went on to say about his older brother. "I think that it had a lot to do with Mike's development and vision of service, his priesthood and what he dd with the players and coaches and their families (at UW)."
As a youngster, Mike was a pretty competitive guy, a gym rat. He was a quarterback at Darlington (Wis.) High School (Class of '66). He ran track and played the cornett in the band. After graduation, he expanded his education at Loras College, Edgewood College and St. Francis de Sales Seminary.
In 1974, he was ordained as a Catholic priest. In 2000, he was named a Monsignor. Anyone who had contact with him, however fleeting, called him a friend. For 21 years, he was the pastor of St. Maria Goretti Parish. Before retiring from the active ministry in 2017, he made a lot of friends. Lifelong friends.
"I don't know if I could really measure the impact he had on me and my life," said quarterback Brooks Bollinger, who helped guide the Badgers to a Big Ten title and a 2000 Rose Bowl win as a redshirt freshman. "As a young player and person, he was the rock — a calming influence through the ups and downs.
"These are the swings you go through when you're a college athlete at this level. Certainly, just football-related, there are huge highs and lows. And then, you have school and life and everything else that is going on. Athletes are on the big stage and they have huge responsibilities.
"At the same time, they're just kids trying to figure it out in the middle of a fishbowl."
Here was where Father Mike was the most valuable. He was always there. Always consistent.
"Beyond that, he was a unifier," Bollinger said. "I grew up Catholic. To have a Catholic priest at a place where you have all these walks of life from all over the country with different backgrounds and religious beliefs, it was a special gift he had to bring those people together and be their support system.
"He delivered a message that united the group."
Father Mike's perspective on game days was telling. He'd work that rosary when warranted.
"I'd always make sure I got a fist bump as I'm sure a ton of guys did before the game," Bollinger said. "When you're at the Big House, or the Horseshoe or in Camp Randall getting ready to play a big game, the look in his eyes was just different. He had this calmness and belief in things working out."
Technically, Father Mike was a preacher. But he didn't preach. Never preached. He listened.
"I learned a lot from him, I learned to listen," confirmed Father Jay Poster of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Baraboo, Wis. "One time, I said, 'Hey, Mike, someone's coming in to talk about so-and-so.' It was something I really didn't know much about, a personal problem. I said to him, 'What do I say?'
"And he said, 'You just listen.'
"Later on, I don't know if it was within a few months or a year, but it happened again. Somebody was coming in and I just didn't know what to say. And I said to him, 'What do I say?' He was probably thinking, 'You dummy, you didn't hear me the first time.' And he said it again, 'You just listen.'
"A lot of times people will come in with problems and if you just listen, they will thank you when they're done, and I'll say, 'Gosh, I really didn't do anything.' And they'll say, 'Yeah, but you listened.' I learned that from him."
Prior to the ministry, Poster was a sportswriter for 14 years. He covered motor sports and Badgers hockey for the Wisconsin State Journal. When he was ordained and assigned to St. Maria Goretti Parish, he got to know what others already knew about Father Mike. He was a source of inspiration.
"He was just so open to people," Father Jay said. "And he was warm, he was very warm."
He was very trustworthy, too, regardless of the situation. Or the status of the person involved.
"He was a guy who was just a great sounding board," said Scott Nelson, a four-year letterwinner in the secondary (1990-1993). "You never felt that he was pushing an agenda on you at all. He wanted to be your friend. He wanted to take care of you. He wanted to make sure you were watched out for.
"With Father Mike, it was easy to connect with him and trust him — knowing that he was doing things the right way and his heart was in the right place. You just felt really comfortable with him no matter what your discussion was. It could have been about school. About football. About family.
"Through the spring and fall of 1990, I lost one full set of grandparents on my dad's side and then my grandfather from my mom's side. He would check in on me. He didn't need to. Not at all. But he'd check on me and that meant a lot because you felt like someone was truly watching over you."
On Father Mike being a good listener, Nelson said, "That's hard to do. So many of us, we listen to argue. We don't listen to listen. Father Mike was great at that. Through his experiences, you'd hear a lot of different things, but he always had great, sound advice if you had questions.
"But, again, he wouldn't push it. Unless you'd ask for it. He was tremendous when he did that."
After Wisconsin's win over UCLA in the 1994 Rose Bowl, Nelson got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Becky Kliefoth, on the 40-yard line. Nelson had been planning it out for a couple of weeks and Father Mike was entrusted with the details and the wedding ring.
Father Mike married well over 100 UW football players, including Brooks and Natalie Bollinger.
"We got married in a Catholic church in St. Paul (Minnesota)," Brooks recalled, "and it was amazing how many people came up to us — Catholic and non-Catholic — and said the highlight of the whole thing was Father Mike. The comments were, 'I never thought a Catholic Mass could be that way."'
From Randy Wright to Jeff Dellenbach, from Bob Landsee to Paul Gruber, Father Mike married all of these players and more from the Dave McClain era alone. That included Paul and Robin Chryst. Not so long ago, Father Jay interviewed a couple on their wedding plans after Father Mike had passed away.
"The groom was sitting in my office, and I don't remember exactly how he put it, but he said, 'I think you were supposed to do our wedding,"' he recounted. "He told me a story on how he went to the Masters golf tournament one year with this priest and they just had great fun. They really hit it off.
"And then he pointed to a picture on my wall, and he said, 'That's him. You were meant to do the wedding because I wanted him … Father Mike.' The picture was of Mike and me. He had a grin on his face and I'm in the background laughing because I'm sure he said something — jabbing me in the ribs."
Many have been on the opposite end of those verbal jabs. None will soon forget his wry grin.
"That little smirk of his," Nelson said, "still brings a smile to your face for sure."
Most players rarely smiled at the thought of an annual ritual: a grueling preseason training camp at Holy Name Seminary. The Badgers began using the facility in 1974 under coach John Jardine. Besides saving legs by practicing on grass fields, the camp built team chemistry and unity during two-a-days.
Sandwiched between South High Point Road and County M — a little less than seven miles from Camp Randall Stadium — Holy Name later morphed into the Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center. And it all came under the province of Father Mike between his arrival in 1977 and 2004.
During that span, the Badgers skipped only one year. In 1989, under Don Morton, they moved their preseason camp back to campus. Morton had no interest in the tradition. Plus, the school was looking to save money. Practices were conducted on the intramural fields near Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
Shortly after Barry Alvarez replaced Morton, he toured the seminary. He couldn't believe his eyes. How could such an ideal training facility — the envy of many NFL teams — go to waste and be deemed expendable? Alvarez was big on tradition and how it applied to winning. He got his way.
The Badgers returned to the Holy Name training site for Alvarez's first season. He reasoned that it was a critical investment that could "make a difference in our ability to compete" with other programs in the Big Ten. What followed was three Rose Bowls. And a budding friendship with Father Mike.
Though the school relocated the camp to campus in 2005 — a business decision that was also predicated on the ever-changing world of the NCAA and how it viewed preseason training — the Alvarez/Father Mike relationship grew and flourished. They just liked being in each other's company.
"He was someone I could trust, he was a confidant, he was someone who could keep things confidential and give me some guidance when I needed it," Alvarez said. "I always knew I could bounce things off him. And I always knew how much our players really respected and loved him."
Father Mike had the only air-conditioned room at the seminary. Players would sleep on his floor. Mostly the upper classmen. Seniority had its privilege. "Father Mike," Nelson said, "was a nice break from the pain and the agony of two-a-days, let's put it that way."
Father Mike's room was a safe haven. When the weight of the world was coming down on the shoulders of players, they knew where to find comfort. "The room was filled with memorabilia — wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor Badger stuff," Father Jay recalled. "He loved the Badgers and it showed."
It showed in his interaction with all people. Not just the players, coaches, administrators. But the boosters. When Butch Strickler recreated his landing on the beach of Normandy, France during World War II, Father Mike joined him on the trip along with Jim Kalscheur and Ken Kruska among others.
From Wayne Esser to Hans Lenzlinger, Father Mike cultivated and cherished the fellowship.
"He always pitched right in at the booster outings, he always had a smile on his face and never saw a negative," former UW Athletic Director Pat Richter said of Father Mike. "He was a very special person and a gentleman. He always had a kind thing to say about everybody. He kept you upbeat."
He was a team psychologist, Richter pointed out, long before teams had psychologists.
Father Mike had his own driving force. He was bound and determined to "keep hope alive." Every day. In the process, he meant so much to so many. In addition to his legendary spirit and generosity, Father Jay said, "He was just a nice guy. A good fellow well met. He was there for people."
With that wry grin lighting the path and showing them the way.
