Green Bay Press-Gazette from Green Bay, Wisconsin • Page 58

1 He wasnt sure he really wanted the UWjob By LKN WAGNER Press-Gazette Sports Editor LROY HIRSCH'S smile evaporated and his normally twinkling eyes fixed a hard 5 WWW I J' ft i 1 Or stare at the questioner, "Why should a school like the University of Wisconsin even have a football team?" the young man had asked. "Why shouldn't it?" Hirsch retorted. "Did you ever play football? Did you get something out of it?" he pressed on. Then, noticing the inquirer's affirmative nod, Hirsch relaxed. The smile returned and so did the twinkle.

"I'd hate to go through school just rooting for my math class," he chuckled. It was not the sort of answer one usually receives from a school athletic director. Normally, the question launches a wave of cliches dealing with sportsmanship, discipline, sacrifice, etc. But Hirsch, the newly appointed head of University of Wisconsin athletics, Is a leading exponent of the Tell-It-Like-It-Is generation despite the fact that his undergraduate days were well before the philosophy received that label. His answer, however, was the product of a football and athletic career that has already spanned 33 years but is just now reaching maturity.

That career gave Hirsch personal fame, a sizeable bank account, a ludicrous but readily recognizable nickname like Crazylegs, a fractured skull and an almost mystical aura that defies understanding. Though he played just one season of varsity football for Wisconsin, Crazylegs is as much part of UW tradition as Pat O'Dea, Bascom Hill, "Varsity" or The Brathaus. And though his association with the school since that lone 1942 football season has, by his own admission, been "practically nothing," Crazylegs Hirsch has been welcomed back to the campus and the city of Madison with arms that stretch from Mendota to Monona. The Wisconsin State Journal captioned a picture of his introduction to the crowd at the Badgers' final home basketball game, "The Second Coming of Hirsch." He was hired for the athletic director's position on Feb. 28 and one Madison sports columnist cited that as the likely reason for the burst of beautiful weather that descended on the city immediately thereafter.

Why this adulation? Well, there are those who remember back to that 1942 season. Tom Butler, a UW student at the time and now assistant sports editor of the State Journal, is one of them. "It's hard to explain," Butler admits, "but Wisconsin had been down for so long that when Hirsch and Pat Harder came along, well, everything just seemed to pick up. And Hirsch had a personality that caught on. He just took hold of Madison like nobody ever has." And indeed the Badgers had been down prior to Ilirsch's first coming.

They had not enjoyed a really big season since the 6-1-1 record of 1932. And they had gone 8-15-1 in the three years previous to the Hirsch-Harder splash. But Crazylegs turned all that around. In 1942, Wisconsin surged to an 8-1-1 record, beaten only by Iowa, 6-0, and tied by Notre Dame, 7-7. And Hirsch, a swift and shifty sophomore from Wausau, collected 767 yards that season, a mark that still ranks him second only to Alan Ameche as the Badgers' TURN TO PAGE 3 2 i fear aw :7 1 1 -Wll.

Stat Jjrnl fho Froy HirxhBucky Badger's hope 2 Sunday, April 6, 1969 Green Bay Press-GazetU.