"Working hard, respecting people,
being humble and doing things
the right way,'' said Richter, "is
what I've learned from my dad.''
HC) and five more in Switzerland (EV Zug).
In the Swedish Elite League, he competed against
the likes of Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg,
who are now fixtures with the Detroit Red Wings.
Zetterberg is the captain.
"The Swedish style is very skilled, but it's a puck
control game,'' Richter said, "whereas the Swiss
were much more run and gun. You tried to score as
many goals as possible. It's crazy.''
Richter has always been a hybrid forward/defenseman, so his game meshed perfectly. Sean Simpson, a Canadian, was his coach with EV Zug (former UW winger Chris Tancill played there, too).
Simpson was also the coach of the Swiss Na-
tional team that earned the silver medal (its first
medal of any kind since 1953) in the 2013 IIHF
World Championships. Sweden won the gold.
"Switzerland was beautiful,'' Richter said. "It
was like you were on a vacation every day ― waking up in the mornings to the Alps. The travel
wasn't bad and the hockey was really fun on a
big pond.''
Richter retired in 2008 and relocated the family to Madison.
"Five years before I retired, I was preparing
for it,'' he said. "I was doing internships with
insurance agencies and talking to people and
networking because eventually it all comes to an
end.''
Richter got started locally with Fish & Schulkamp Agency. For the last three years, he has
been working for Hausmann-Johnson. Barry
and his wife, Kim, have four children.
"I grew up here (Madison) and I didn't want
to go anywhere else,'' said Richter, 42. "I was
gone for 15 years so it was exciting to come back
and go to Badger football, basketball and hockey
games.''
Richter is the son of former UW athletic director Pat Richter, a College Football Hall of Famer.
"I didn't like football,'' Barry said. "I tried it for a
couple of years but I felt it was slow (moving).''
As a result, perhaps, he wasn't engulfed by his
dad's long shadow as an athlete following in his
footsteps. "Not really, I never felt any pressure to
be honest with you,'' he said.
It allowed him to carve out his own identity at
Wisconsin. "Working hard, respecting people, being humble and doing things the right way,'' said
Barry Richter, "is what I've learned from my dad.''
Twenty years later, the lessons are still fresh and
the traits still shared between father and son.
35
