Wisconsin Badgers Football – Barry Alvarez And The Badger Revival
The Wisconsin Badgers have, from the beginning, been a football program where success and failure have come in waves. Though the team’s overall 614-465 record is a positive one, it does not tell the entire story of Badger football – a tale that involves not only prolonged periods of success, but prolonged periods of failure as well. In the wake of their successful 1901 campaign, the Badgers went through a three and a half decade time of poor play that was only broken by their undefeated season in 1912. They nearly repeated that era of mediocrity with another after their defeat in the Rose Bowl of 1962 – another three decades of miserable results. However, the 1990 arrival of Barry Alvarez as Wisconsin’s Head Coach would signal the return of the Badgers to national prominence.
The Alvarez history
Barry Alvarez had a strong pedigree in college football when he first arrived at Wisconsin. As a player in the 1960s, he was coached by the great Bob Devaney. He later tried his hand as a high school coach in both Nebraska and Iowa, until he was given an assistant coaching position at the University of Iowa under the legendary Hawkeye coach Hayden Fry. A brief tenure as an assistant at the University of Notre Dame completed the Alvarez journey to the Badgers’ front door. His arrival at the school in 1990 was to be the beginning of the Badger revival – though the first three seasons of play gave little indication of the outstanding results that would soon follow.
It’s never easy
As often happens with new head coaches, Alvarez found the first several years to be difficult ones. It takes time to rebuild a football program, and such was the case for the Badgers. Their first Alvarez-led campaign was almost winless, as they lost ten of their eleven games. While the team improved to five win seasons over the next two seasons, they still remained in the bottom of the Big Ten standings. Alvarez stuck to his plan, however, ignoring the many calls for his dismissal. His faith was rewarded in the fourth year of his coaching tenure.
Three Rose Bowls
The Badgers looked like a different team altogether as the 1993 season started. They went through that season with only two losses, earning their fourth trip to the Rose Bowl. Though they had lost the first three Rose Bowl contests earlier in their history, Alvarez had his team ready to play that year and they achieved their first Rose Bowl win ever. In addition, his 1993 squad was honored with an Associate Press poll ranking of number six. Throughout the rest of Alvarez coaching years, the Badgers would have winning seasons every year but two, become consistent bowl-goers, and remain at or near the top of the Big Ten standings. Best of all, the Alvarez Badgers would repeat their performance in the Rose Bowl twice more, winning the Bowl in 1998, and again in 1999.
When he left the program after the 2005, the most successful coach in the program’s history left behind one unassailable fact: Wisconsin football was back at last!
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