Few recent graduates can know just what images UW-Madison athletics called up in the minds of alumni who were on campus before the Richter era. Through the sixties, seventies, and eighties, the UW was a powerhouse in several sports — especially cross country, track, rowing, fencing, women's badminton, and, occasionally, men's hockey. But the sports that generated the most interest among students and alumni — and thus the most revenue — were models in futility.

For thirty years, between 1963 and 1994, the football team went without a conference championship, compiling a record of 119-196-9. During a stretch between 1966 and 1969, the Badgers won just one game out of thirty. The men's basketball team had an equally unfortunate dry spell, going fifty-five years between Big Ten championships with a combined record of 651-750.

Since Richter arrived in 1989, Badger sports have undergone a renaissance, piling up fifty Big Ten titles, three NCAA championships, and nine football bowl games, including three Rose Bowl victories. The UW has taken on an athletic tradition of winning — and to most alumni, it's kind of bizarre.

But a good kind of bizarre — a proud bizarre for fans and a profitable bizarre for the athletic department. It's the sort of weird thing we'd like to continue.