Pat Richter

East High School in the late 1950s. Earned nine letters in basketball, football and baseball, at the UW. He was also an academic All-American. Played pro football with the Washington Redskins. Executive at Oscar Mayer. In 1989, UW Chancellor Donna Shalala tapped him to be the UW's athletic director. He presided over UW athletic department for 14 years. He is credited with turning the UW athletic program into one of the nation's finest.

Pat Richter stands as one of Madison's all-time great athletic figures. From his days as a legend on the sandlots of Madison's East Side to his years at UW, where he lettered nine times in three sports, to his days with the NFL's Washington Redskins to his stint as the Badgers' athletic director for the 1990s and beyond, Richter raised the bar on sports at UW, and helped usher in a new era in UW athletics. As he told the State Journal for a 2004 story: "How fortunate can you be?"