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Pat Richter ’64, JD’71

Pat Richter holds the record for the longest tenured UW-Madison director of athletics — even through three administrations. He brought the department out of a $2.1 million budget deficit, a budget that now has a reserve of $6.4 million.

2006 Distinguished Alumni Award Honoree

Pat Richter holds the record for the longest tenured UW-Madison director of athletics — even through three administrations. He brought the department out of a $2.1 million budget deficit, a budget that now has a reserve of $6.4 million.

He led a 12-year battle to get the department in Title IX compliance and is the man who first lured Barry Alvarez to head the university’s football program. Wisconsin student athletes earned more Academic All-Big Ten honors during the 1990s than any other school in the conference.

A three-sport letterman himself (baseball, basketball and football), Richter is credited with saving the UW athletic program.

Said Chancellor John Wiley MS’65, PhD’68 of Richter, “Through his leadership and ability to assemble a strong departmental team, UW Athletics is more fiscally sound, more highly competitive and more visible worldwide than ever before.”

Under Richter, the UW won three national championships, 49 Big Ten championships and eight football bowl games.

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