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National issues made for busy summer BEHIND THE DESK BARRY ALVAREZ • UW DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS I 've had two interesting experi- ences this summer with alumni groups in Chicago and Boston. In both cases, I was impressed with what I call "our young lions'' — former Wisconsin football play- ers. Matt Joki, Matt Unertl and young Lou Holland helped spear- head the event in Chicago. They wanted to do something to rally our alums, young and old alike, and they succeeded. It was a first-class deal, a beauti- ful night. They ended up having a group of about 200 people at Trump Tower Chicago. There was a Q-and-A, a raffle and a presenta- tion from doctors that specialize in treating Alzheimer's. Lou's father, Lou Holland Sr., who was inducted into our UW Athletic Hall of Fame last year, has been battling Alzheimer's in a Chicago-area assisted living facil- ity. At the end of the day, they raised $200,000 for Alzheimer's research. They want to make it a yearly deal. From my standpoint, it was re- ally nice to see some of our former players and athletes pulling some- thing like this together — mobiliz- ing our Chicago alums, especially the younger ones. We have to reach out and recon- nect with them. We want them involved. Some of these guys are just starting to make it now, and we need that next generation in the 35-to-50-year-old range. More recently, I went to Boston with Mike Knetter, the head of the UW Foundation. We enjoyed a similarly positive experience over two days with a smaller group of our alums. The first night was very casual and informative. We talked about some projects that we have on campus and we let them know about some of the things that we're doing in fundraising. The next day, we had a func- tion at Fenway Park. We met some great people and it was not just limited to former athletes. Graduates from the UW Busi- ness School and other colleges were involved. I did get to see one of my old players, Rob Roell, who was recruited out of Iron Mountain, Mich., and played on the defensive and offensive line with our Rose Bowl teams in the late '90s. Rob has done very well in the money management business, which is no surprise since he was an Academic All-Big selection. His wife, Andrea, is a former UW trainer. As a head coach, I always tried to talk to my players about giving back someday to the school and the program, and it's nice to see some of them follow through with that type of commitment. As a Big Ten athletics director, I can say that this has been a most eventful summer. I don't ever re- member having so many meetings or conference calls. We've had more communication for a number of reasons, and I take my hat off to Big Ten commission- er Jim Delany, who kept everyone aware and abreast on what was going on. There was the breakdown of the scheduling consortium with the Pac-12. There was the new four- team national playoff that will debut in 2014. And there was Penn State. Trust me, everybody is reading the Freeh Report; everybody is taking a look at their chain of com- mand and their institutional con- trol to make sure that they have a checks-and-balances in place. Then, if something happens, you can deal with it in a proper way. That was kind of the message that we delivered to our people a year ago after issues at Ohio State and Michigan and some other schools like North Carolina, Cen- tral Florida and Miami. We told them, "Put your anten- na up and don't stick your head in the sand. If you see something that doesn't look quite right — talk to us — go to your supervisor.'' We had a couple of situations that potentially could have been larger issues had we not gotten after it and followed through the right way and made some correc- tions. I was very pleased with the way our people dealt with things. 12 » VARSITY AUGUST 9, 2012