Wisconsin, 1964
• 1962 Academic All-America®
Pat Richter was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 1995.
Born and raised in Madison, Wis., Pat Richter was one of the most heralded student-athletes in the state of Wisconsin. Richter earned nine letters as a varsity athlete at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the sports of football, basketball and baseball. At tight end, he earned All-America honors twice during his career. In the 1963 Rose Bowl game versus top-ranked USC he set a Rose Bowl record with 11 catches for 163 yards.
Again in 1963 he earned Wisconsin’s Big Ten Medal of Honor for academic and athletic excellence. Also in that same year, Richter was a first-round draft pick for the Washington Redskins, where he went on to play eight seasons after graduating with a UW bachelor’s degree in 1964.
After numerous athletic successes Richter moved to distinguish himself off the field, returning to UW to earn his law degree. Following his law school graduation he worked at a Madison law firm and then served for 17 years as Vice President of Personnel at Oscar Meyers Food Corp. before he was recruited to return to the University of Wisconsin as athletic director in 1989.
During his years as UW athletic director Richter overcame challenges to turn UW Athletics into an outstanding program. In 1989 he inherited a program in disarray with outmoded facilities, struggling teams, eroding fan support and a deficit of $2.1 million. Working with what Richter described as “a sense of purpose and integrity,” he overcame all these challenges so that his department ranked as the nation’s 10th-best in a 2001 Survey by The Sporting News and had a new building budget of $6.4 million. When he stepped down as athletic director on April 1, 2004, he was the longest tenured director of athletics in the Big Ten Conference with 14-plus years.
Richter was given an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award in 1988 for post-collegiate accomplishment, was named to the National Football Foundation's College Hall of Fame in 1997, and to Sports Illustrated's NCAA Football All-Century Team.