Len Shapiro graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1968 with a bachelor of science in journalism and earned a Masters in journalism at the University of Missouri in 1969. During his four years in Madison, Shapiro worked for The Daily Cardinal and was sports editor in 1967-'68.
He then went on to work for a number of publications including: The Washington Post, The Wisconsin State Journal and the Columbia Daily Tribune. Shapiro has worked for The Washington Post since 1969, and was sports editor of the Post from 1986-1991. His byline has also appeared in The Sporting News, Golf Magazine, Golf.com, NBCSports.com, Golf World Magazine, Pro Football Weekly, Readers Digest, TV Guide and The International Herald Tribune.
Now retired, Shapiro continues to cover golf for the Post and writes weekly columns. However, Shapiro has just finished what might be his toughest endeavor: teaching a course at UW-Madison on sports journalism.
Shapiro sat down with the Daily Cardinal before his final class to talk about sports, his memories of Madison, his time at the DC and the impact it has made on his life.
The Daily Cardinal: How has the atmosphere changed since you graduated in 1968?
Len Shapiro: Things have changed dramatically in terms of the physical plant. There are more buildings then I can ever remember, more construction then I can ever remember. But the basic campus: Bascom Hill, Langdon Street, State Street, all look very much the same to me. I get that déjà vu feeling all over again."" I am staying at Lowell Hall and my fraternity house is a block-and-a-half up the road. So every time I walk down to State Street from Lowell Hall, I get this unbelievable feeling. It's a neat feeling, it's sort of been kind of fun.
DC: What is your most memorable moment as a student?
LS: My most memorable moments were writing for The Daily Cardinal as a student and being sports editor of the DC, and seeing the whole wide world of sports sort of open up in front of my eyes. I had never been in a press box before until I was in Camp Randall's press box, never in a locker room until I was covering the basketball team at the Field House.
Those were great days, even though the football team was so terrible - I think we won five games in my four years here - but it was a great experience. Generally, what I think I learned in four years here is how to live in the world. I was a naive kid from Long Island thrust into the Midwest, and you learn how to live, you learn how to survive and you get a work ethic. To me that was the best thing about my four years here.
DC: Most memorable sports moment?
LS: Well it was memorable only because I remember it distinctly until this very day. It was 1967, it was one of the few times I got to go on the road to cover a game. Wisconsin was playing Indiana that year, and Indiana had a Rose Bowl team. The Badgers went to Bloomington, [Ind.] and I was on the sidelines, I watched the game from the sidelines. It was right before the half and I think one of our linebackers intercepted a pass or picked up a fumble, and was heading for the end zone and literally tripped on the 40-yard line.
Later in the game we had a chance to go ahead, and if we had beaten them we would have knocked them out of the Rose Bowl. Our quarterback threw a pass to a wide receiver named Mel Reddick. He went for the ball and caught the ball in the end zone, but before he came down his leg came up and kicked the ball out of his hands. We lose the game and I went into the locker room after the game, and the head coach, a guy named John Coatta [1967-'69] starts answering questions and looks at me and starts to breakdown saying 'Tell them Len, tell them.'
He wanted me to tell the reporters how this had been going on all year. It's something that has always stuck in my mind, literally the agony of defeat that brought Coatta to tears in the locker room. It would have been a great moment in Badger football history if we would have knocked them out of the Rose Bowl because our team was so bad, we might have been a 28-point underdog in that game. But it was a great experience and something that I will never forget.
DC: What was it like working for the DC?
LS: I mostly covered football and basketball. But I also remember the Cardinal played a role in my mind, in hockey. We had a hockey writer named Steve Klein who was a hockey nut. Back then the hockey team was playing in a real dinky little rink that might have had 2000 seats in it, and Steve started writing about the hockey team.
They had a new coach in town and the school decided it was going to put more emphasis on the program; his name was Bob Johnson, Badger Bob. And we would encourage students to go to the games; I remember a headline that read 'Who the heck is Michigan Tech?' we sort of got the students psyched up. And because of Steve and the kind of flavor we were giving it in the Cardinal, a lot more people started going to those hockey games, and really started getting the program some energy, to the point where they had outgrown that place by the time I left.
Students would go and sit behind the goalie with 'Sieve' signs. We really beat the drums unashamedly and probably unprofessionally. I really think we helped put hockey, and Steve helped put hockey on the map here.
The cool thing was I graduated in '68. Eight years later I am covering 'Badger Bob' in the 1976 Olympics, he coached the Olympic hockey team in Innsbruck [Austria]. Four years after that I'm covering his son Mark Johnson on the Lake Placid Olympic team, it sort of came full circle.
DC: How do you see the condition of college athletics?
LS: I grow more and more concerned about it with each passing year. I think it has gone way beyond what anyone thought was possible in terms of the money involved, the pressure involved, the cut-throat nature of it all - coaches getting fired with .750 winning percentage records - it's crazy. The money has gotten so far out of hand. I don't think the college presidents have done a good job of managing this. I still think there are widespread abuses around the country.
There is a big scandal erupting now at the University of Michigan, I think there is a lot of that going on. There are a lot of kids at a lot of places who probably should start at a junior college and are now being carried. I think there are a lot of kids who are taking pipe course just to stay eligible. I think it is a real concern, and in my mind, another scandal waiting to happen.
DC: Favorite interview?
LS: A couple of people come to mind. Milt Bruhn, who was the football coach [1956-'66] was a really neat guy. We used to call him 'Uncle Milty' after Milton Berle who was a great comedian at the time. But Bruhn was just a really nice man, who couldn't have been more accommodating to young reporters. He knew part of his job was that he was an educator. He was a football coach first, but he did everything he could to make our lives a little bit easier. Bruhn was a terrific guy.
I was interviewed A.C. Nielsen, you know the Nielsen ratings and the Nielsen tennis center, that was a cool interview. He donated the money to build that thing because he learned how to play tennis by hitting a ball up against the student union brick wall as I recall, or some building around here.
DC: Any final thoughts?
LS: I think we ought to have a baseball team. It's stunning to me that there is not varsity baseball at the University of Wisconsin, it's a great tradition. Harvey Kuenn, one of the greatest players in Detroit history, was a Badger. Rick Reichardt was a great player for the California Angels was a Badger. A guy I played with my freshman year, Burt Geishert, who has a big hard-throwing fastballer from up north - could knock the barn down - played in the pros. It has a great tradition, and I think it is a mistake not to have a baseball team, no matter how much it costs.
- Interview conducted by Nate Carey
