University of Wisconsin Athletic Director and former Head Coach, Barry Alvarez is set to be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame on July 15-16.
The festivities will take place at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana where 19 other football standouts will also be joining Alvarez in this prestigious honor.
“Barry Alvarez took a program that had won six games in the three seasons prior to his arrival and turned them into a perennial powerhouse for more than a decade. There was never a doubt that he was headed to the Hall of Fame,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “He’s the ultimate competitor, recruiter and tactician, and he has been a great mentor to a slew of current head coaches.”
Alvarez has elevated his self to a living legend in the state of Wisconsin after leading the Badgers to a 118-73-4 record and three Big Ten Championships in his tenure as the head coach. He’s the only coach in Big Ten History to ever win back-to-back Rose Bowls and sports the highest all-time bowl winning percentage (.727) for coaches with at least 11 bowl appearances.
He coached 12 First Team All-America players, including three-time First Team selection and 1999 Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne, 62 First Team All-Big Ten picks, and two NFF National Scholar-Athletes (Jim Leonhard and Joe Thomas).
In 1993, Alvarez was named Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year, AFCA National Coach of the Year and College & Pro Football Newsweekly National Coach of the Year. The 1999 Victor Award (National Coach of the Year) winner, Alvarez was a finalist for ESPN National College Coach of the Decade.
Named Wisconsin’s athletics director in 2004, Alvarez continued to coach for two years before retiring and focusing solely on his administrative position. Alvarez serves on the NCAA Football Issues Committee, the Board of Directors of the MACC Fund and was appointed as one of the chairs of the NCAA’s Football Academic Enhancement Group. Alvarez and his wife Cindy have three children.
Other fellow Big Ten inductees include Purdue QB Mark Herrmann (1977-80) and Michigan WR Desmond Howard (1989-91).
Including the 2011 FBS class, only 896 players and 192 coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame from the nearly five million who have played or coached the game over the past 142 years. In other words, less than one percent (.0002) have been deemed worthy of this distinction.
Founded in 1947, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame inducted its first class of inductees in 1951. The first class included 32 players and 19 coaches, including Illinois’ Red Grange, Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne, Amos Alonzo Stagg and Carlisle’s Jim Thorpe. 284 schools are represented with at least one College Football Hall of Famer.
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Nick Grays is a senior writer at the Sports Bank where he covers the Wisconsin Badgers, Green Bay Packers, and Milwaukee Brewers. He also enjoys to share Fantasy Advice from time-to-time. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here or visit his blog Nick Knows Best.