Bo Ryan Court
Photo Gallery of Dedication (Jan. 27, 2007)
One-Minute Video from the Dedication
“Thank you, I realize there are two wagers that were put
out here today. Number one how long- under five minutes or over
five minutes, and I told Coach Gibbons (Terry) and Coach Combs
(Paul) we’d be okay. The second one is people know me as
pretty emotional, except for the officials. I won’t try and
take up this game. What I will try do is be extremely fair to
everyone, I only apologize to some people and I’m not going
to use names yet, but after I mention the first name with George
Chryst, he is the gentleman that is really behind convincing me
that this is something in my career, and my life time, and
something that I needed to do. He thought it would be a good fit
because as Patty and the whole crew are always reminding me, if
George says ‘The Bears and Bo’ one more time… I
think we’ll have some fun. First things first, the
administration here, as well as the coaches and players, the
students and everyone involved at the University to take this time
period to do this, thank you, it is quite an honor, and I know it
wasn’t something that you took lightly because by combining
the fund raising efforts with it, it has been a very, very good
cause and it’s going to help a lot of other people. That is
really exciting. Kelly and I in 1984, were deciding where we were
going, with our lives. People think, ‘oh well, it’s
just another coach, he’s going down to coach another
team,’ but I have to tell you, we came to the city of
Platteville, where the University and the southwest Wisconsin with
a lot of things in mind other than just to develop a
professional career for a coach. We came here to raise a family.
And at this time, they were young- would Megan, Will, and Matt
please step forward? We came with three and we liked it so much we
had two more. Look at what has happened- more fun. But the whole
idea of coming to Platteville was to raise a family and
contribute to a community. From the things that Kelly got involved
in and some of the things we were involved in with the Pioneers, we
were not just Platteville we were Southwest of Wisconsin,
our students, our University what we did here the people in this
area were so supportive that we felt like we represented a whole
heck of a lot more than just the University, and the University is
something that we are extremely proud on this evening, but just
seeing that this family down here just continues to grow and we are
happy to come back to be a part of this. I’d like for the
guys who played when we were here- would you just kind of wave from
where you are- let’s here it for the guys. And now I would
like for those who were responsible for the 76 losses… And
I’d also like to thank the current team- the Badgers. I
can’t tell you enough about them, but this is about the
Platteville experience, and I will always be here. And there is
something I’d like to finish this with, and again trying not
to name individuals because there are so many people that are
responsible for this success this school had long before we came
here, and while we were here, and long now after we are here. But
we do have people here like Dick Wadewitz, who was the coach here
before we came here-He said, Coach ‘What do you need?
I’ve got some films, I’ve got some notes. What do you
want?’ What a tremendous welcoming committee to have the
former coach here, sit down and want to talk to somebody that is
wet behind the ears and wasn’t quite sure which way to turn.
I want to thank you tremendously for that. And all the way
through everyday is about helping other people. There are a lot of
W’s and L’s that were repeated here and columns with
numbers all on one side or one on the other and we’re
extremely proud of that, but do you know what? 15 years is a
whisper on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville lifespan. What
speaks louder to people is how you conduct your personal lives,
what you give back to your communities, and what you want to be a
part of in the long run. And to me, the University of
Wisconsin-Platteville people are the best!"
