When you think of Wisconsin athletics, several things immediately come to mind.
Whether it’s Barry Alvarez, Bucky Badger or “Jump Around” at Camp Randall Stadium, there are just certain people and traditions that have become synonymous with Badger sports.
Though he may not be widely known among Wisconsin fans, for the past half-century, Otto Puls has been a fixture with the UW men’s basketball team.
Puls, 82, serves as the team’s assistant equipment manager, a position he’s held for over two decades, and is currently in his 51st season as Wisconsin’s official scorekeeper.
He got his start as the team’s official scorekeeper in 1964, when then-head coach John Erickson hired him and three others. He has remained in that capacity ever since, serving under nine head coaches.
Though this marked the beginning of his working relationship with the basketball team, his involvement with Wisconsin athletics actually goes even further back.
Puls attended Wisconsin in the 1950s, lettering for the baseball team from 1952 to 1954.
“[Baseball] was one of the sports that I always did like,” Puls said. “I never did play any football and wasn’t big enough for basketball.”
Puls earned his pharmaceutical degree from the university and got a job as a pharmacist in nearby Middleton, but his love for sports never wavered and he parlayed that passion into a second career.
In need of extra money after graduating college, Puls began officiating football and basketball at both the high school and collegiate level in 1955. After 17 years there, he was hired by the Big Ten in 1972 to officiate football games.
Puls spent 20 years working for the conference, working a total of six bowl games, including two Rose Bowls and an Orange Bowl. He even officiated two games during the peak of the bitter rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State, when legendary coaches Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes were still patrolling the sidelines for the Wolverines and Buckeyes.
A knee injury suffered from a collision with a player during a football game led to Puls retiring as a basketball official in the mid-1980s, but he continued to work Big Ten football for several more years before finally hanging up his whistle in 1991.
Upon his retirement, Puls received letters from both Jerry Seeman, then the NFL’s senior director of officiating who had worked with Puls in the Big Ten, and Schembechler, who praised him for his honesty and integrity.
His work as an official has earned him numerous accolades, including induction into the Madison Sports Hall of Fame, the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
In January, Puls was also announced as a member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame’s class of 2015 and will be enshrined in August.
It was after his retirement as an official that he was approached to work as an equipment manager for the UW men’s basketball team to go along with his duties as official scorer. Puls accepted, and has worked both jobs ever since.
Since Ryan’s arrival in Madison in 2001, Puls’ involvement with the team has only increased. He officiates practices and travels with the team for road games as well.
“I have not missed a win or loss since [Ryan’s] been here,” he proudly states.
His relationship with Ryan actually began before he took over the Badgers, dating back to when Puls officiated UW-Platteville games during Ryan’s tenure at the school. Even back then, Ryan wasn’t afraid to let the officials hear it when he disagreed with a call.
“I worked when Bo was at Platteville and he wasn’t an easy guy to work for,” Puls said. “You really had to have your game.”
Still, Puls notes there was always mutual respect between the two, and that his wife particularly enjoyed Platteville games.
“My wife used to always love to go to the games and see you parading back and forth and giving me a hard time,” he once told Ryan.
After seeing the ups and downs of the program, Puls is impressed with the job Ryan has done and is thrilled to see him gaining greater recognition since last year’s Final Four run, including him being named a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
“He deserves it. He deserves every single bit of it,” Puls said. “His biggest asset is his teaching ability. He’d rather go out there on the court and practice than play a real game. That’s where he shines.”
However, it’s his relationship with the players that continues to drive him at this stage in his life.
“The kids are almost like my own kids, my own grandkids,” Puls said.
That sentiment certainly seems to be mutual, as the players are quick to express their respect and admiration of Puls.
“Every time you see him, your day kind of brightens up a little bit. He brings a positive, high energy to practice every day,” redshirt senior guard Josh Gasser said. “Otto loves Wisconsin basketball; he’s what it’s all about.”
Junior forward Sam Dekker says the relationship between Puls and the players is lighthearted, with the players often rubbing his head for good luck before games.
“He’s a great friend of the program, everyone gets along with him,” Dekker said. “When I first got here, he wore a Big Ten Championship ring from the past team and was always telling us how he wanted a new ring. Now that we got him one last year in the Final Four, he wears that one everywhere he goes.”
As far as when he’ll decide to call it quits, Puls has no intention of retiring anytime soon.
“As long as they tolerate me and Coach [Ryan] still wants me,” Puls said.
For now, he’ll continue to work for the team and will be with them every step of the way as the Badgers pursue their first national championship since 1941.
If all goes well, he might even have a new ring to wear come April.
