Oral history: How Barry Alvarez transformed Wisconsin Badgers football program

They were considered, by most reasonable standards of college football, a laughingstock. An embarrassment. Young men who put everything into a season but lacked the overall depth of talent to compete with nearly every Big Ten team.

Respect for Wisconsin football was nonexistent. Home attendance in the late 1980s evaporated. General interest from a disillusioned fan base waned. And the train tasked with pulling the rest of Wisconsin's non-revenue sports programs along was leading it right into a disastrous, fiery wreck, a significant reason for the athletic department's $2.1 million debt.

They were, as Barry Alvarez would later put it, "the shittiest program maybe in the country."

How had Wisconsin football fallen so low?

It began when respected head coach Dave McClain died unexpectedly of a heart attack on April 28, 1986 at age 48. McClain's 46 victories in eight seasons were six shy of tying the program record by a head coach in the modern era. What transpired next was a deep dive into the college football abyss.

Defensive coordinator Jim Hilles served as interim coach the ensuing season, but he was not retained following a 3-9 finish. Don Morton then took over after a two-year stint at Tulsa and implemented the veer offense, an option-heavy system that led only to an extraordinarily high number of fumbles -- 111 in three seasons -- and little progress.

The result: a 6-27 record, including 3-21 in the Big Ten, while being outscored by more than two touchdowns per game. The worst offensive season in the past 45 years. A three-year home attendance decrease from 68,052 fans a game to 41,734. And a removal of Morton from the head coaching post by a 10-0 athletic board vote.

It was under these circumstances in 1990 that Alvarez -- a successful assistant at Iowa and Notre Dame -- became Wisconsin's next head coach, tasked with fixing a decaying program that had not produced a winning season since 1984.

As the 25th anniversary of Alvarez's first game as head coach approaches, FOXSportsWisconsin.com presents an oral history of how a football team lifted itself from the stench of misery and, four seasons later, remarkably came up smelling like roses during a landmark period that forever changed the program.

Warning: This story contains explicit language.

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Well, Bernie hadn't even talked about it yet. Bernie wanted to come up and take a look at everything, talk to Barry, then make a decision, then call his wife. He had not let Hayden Fry know that he was taking the job. He sure didn't let Barb, his wife, know. Bernie is up on the stage, and here's the microphones and we're doing interviews. And Bernie looks at me and goes, "Mac, that damn Alvy got me again." How are you going to say no now?

Barry Alvarez: That was spring and fall. Yeah, there was a constant exodus. Our out-of-season (program) was what I did the whole time. They weren't accustomed to someone being on their ass. We were coaching hard. I think some of them realized they couldn't play.

Cory Raymer (center, 1991-94): Dan McCarney was the first guy that I talked to. Alvarez always came with McCarney. Dan McCarney could make you feel comfortable and laugh at your mother's funeral. There was something about him. He was always on Cloud 10. He was fired up.

Mark Montgomery: The first thing that absolutely got my attention and sold me was Barry had a huge wooden desk in his office with this big leather chair on wheels. The first thing he did, he rolled the chair from around his desk and he sat right next to me side-by-side. And that said something because when I was at Iowa, Hayden Fry stayed behind his desk. I was on a couch like 20 feet away. And the arrogance of Hayden Fry really annoyed me. When I got there, I absolutely hated Hayden Fry. With Barry being more personable, it made it more welcoming. That right there was a huge plus. But then also the first thing out of his mouth was, "This school isn't shit. And that's why they hired me. That's why we're going to turn this program around." After that conversation, I was ready to put on a helmet and play for this man.

Eric Unverzagt: When we went to 6-0, we knew we were going to have a bowl that year. I remember coach Alvarez saying, "We're going to a bowl. Now we get to decide which one."

Terrell Fletcher: He told us the cameras are going to be on them. UCLA is going to act like you guys are not here. And that was the angle that he was starting to play with us. He said, "They're not as tough as you are. They're prettier than you are. But they're not as tough."

Everybody on the defense was acting like they knew we were going to throw the ball to the ground. So they were just kind of standing flat-footed. I drop back to throw the five-yard out. Well, everybody on my side of the field thought we were going to throw the ball to the ground, too. And they didn't do what they normally do.

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