Alvarez has won three Big Ten Championships at Wisconsin

Wisconsin head coach Barry Alvarez shared his personal stories and experiences at the KeyBank Gridiron Legends Luncheon on Tuesday, June 7. The all-time winningest coach in Badger history, Alvarez has experienced success wherever he has been.

Alvarez served as the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame (1987-89) before taking the Wisconsin head coaching position in 1990. During his time with the Fighting Irish, Alvarez worked under head coach Lou Holtz, who is notorious for being hard on his defensive coordinators.

Catering to the Notre Dame faithful in the audience, Alvarez shared some of his favorite stories on the popular and fiery head coach.

“I was playing golf about a month ago with Lou and some Notre Dame graduates and they wanted to talk about Notre Dame’s great teams in the late 1980’s,” said Alvarez. “Lou looks at me and says, ‘third-and-42.’ We won 23 straight games and it didn’t make any difference to Lou. He just remembered Miami converting a third-and-42 in the game we lost.”

Despite the 1989 Miami loss, Alvarez led Notre Dame’s defensive unit to great heights during his three-year stay, including a National Championship in 1988.

Upon taking the Wisconsin head coaching position, Alvarez was warned not to take the job by several of his peers, citing the Badgers seemingly hopeless outlook in both the short and long term future.

Alvarez didn’t listen to the cynics, having to only look into his past for an example of what hard work and a talented staff can do for a program. Bob Devaney, his college coach at Nebraska, was his coaching inspiration and faced similar obstacles with the Cornhuskers.

“He (Devaney) took Nebraska, who had never had success before, and made them a national power and sustained it,” said Alvarez. “I wanted to take a university that was down, bring them back up, and put my stamp on it.”

Alvarez has definitely put his stamp on the Badger football program. In 15 years at the helm, he captured three Big Ten Championships and three Rose Bowl victories. His teams annually finish in the top 25, and in 1993 and 1999 Alvarez received National Coach of the Year honors.

These days Alvarez is performing double-duty at Wisconsin, serving as the university’s athletic director in addition to his coaching responsibilities. Not bad work for someone stuck in a hopeless job.