Badgering Doesn’t Faze Richter : Wisconsin: One of the stars of 1963 Rose Bowl comeback returns as the school’s athletic director.

There is an axiom in sports that nobody remembers who comes in second, but it doesn’t necessarily apply to the 1963 Rose Bowl game.

After a football career in which he was a two-time All-American at Wisconsin and a first-round NFL draft choice, Pat Richter looks back upon the Badgers’ near miss against USC in Pasadena as his most unforgettable experience.

The Badgers of Coach Milt Bruhn made such a spectacular comeback against Coach John McKay’s Trojans in that incredible game that even in defeat, they emerged as heroes. Their rally from a 42-14 deficit in the last 12 minutes took just enough time that the Trojans were able to hang on for a 42-37 victory.

The national championship was at stake--USC was ranked No. 1 and Wisconsin No. 2--and the thriller those teams staged has been acclaimed as the greatest Rose Bowl game ever played.

The 6-foot-6, 229-pound Richter played a big role in making the game a classic, catching a record 11 passes for a record 163 yards. Now 48, he is Wisconsin’s new athletic director, and he recalled the historic happening last week when he spoke to alumni clubs in San Diego and Los Angeles.

“From an entertainment standpoint, we didn’t lose,” Richter said. “I can’t think of any other event after which the people didn’t care who won or lost.

“Over the years, I’ve run into a couple of hard-liners who said to me, ‘But you did lose.’ Nevertheless, most people appreciate the effort we made. In Missouri or somewhere, it was a great evening watching a football game.”

Richter used the word “evening” advisedly. With Wisconsin’s Ron VanderKelen throwing 48 passes--a record that still stands, along with his 33 completions--the game lasted into semi-darkness under what was then an inadequate lighting system.

The length of the game led Times columnist Jim Murray to write, “It was only slightly less long than the War of 1812. If it had lasted one more quarter, they would have run into next year’s Rose Bowl traffic.”

As difficult as it was to see from the stands and on television, Richter said the players had no problem following the football.

“The visibility was adequate,” he said.

Adequate for the players, perhaps, but not for the officials. Roy Bellin of Elm Grove, Wis., a Wisconsin halfback in the 1930s and later a Big Ten official, was on the sideline during the game and remembers that the timer had trouble in the waning minutes.

“I served as Wisconsin’s representative to assist the timer,” Bellin said. “There were times when the timer couldn’t see the referee signal to stop or start the clock, so I went onto the field to help. I usually had a better view.”

In any case, Richter could see so well that when Wisconsin went on its late roll, he and VanderKelen seemed to be playing catch. His last reception produced the score that put the Badgers in position to win with one more touchdown, but time ran out before they could run another play.

“A lot of people say we would have won if there had been a little more time,” Richter said. “It’s true that momentum was in our favor, but I think USC’s defense would have bristled at that point.”

It was Wisconsin’s third loss in as many visits to the Rose Bowl, and its second to USC. The Badgers were beaten by the Trojans, 7-0, in 1953, and by Washington, 44-8, in 1960.

“After the 1960 disaster, Coach Bruhn decided the players had had too good a time,” Richter said. “For the last two or three days before our game, he took us to the Passionist fathers’ monastery in the Sierra Madre Mountains. With the Spartan atmosphere we had in that place, there wasn’t any risk of guys running around.”

Richter’s total of 11 catches is still the Rose Bowl record, although Ronnie Harmon of Iowa tied it in 1986 and blew a chance to break it when he dropped a pass in the end zone. Harmon, who signed with the San Diego Chargers last week as a Plan B free agent, also fumbled four times in the Hawkeyes’ 45-28 loss to UCLA.

After 22 years, Richter’s yardage record of 163 fell to Cris Carter of Ohio State, who gained 172 yards on nine receptions during a 20-17 loss to USC in 1985.

“I’m surprised those records weren’t broken long ago,” Richter said.

Later in 1963, Richter scored on a 73-yard pass play--again with VanderKelen on the throwing end--in the College All-Stars’ 20-17 upset of the NFL champion Green Bay Packers in Chicago.

“That was the longest pass I caught,” Richter said. “I should say it was the longest run I ever made. It was the last time the All-Stars ever won--the game was scrubbed in 1977. We were really in awe of the Packers, but it was a hot night, and we were probably in better shape.”

After that, Richter spent eight seasons with the Washington Redskins as a wide receiver, tight end and punter. He had his biggest day in the season opener of 1968, catching three touchdown passes from Sonny Jurgensen against the Bears in Chicago.

“I didn’t have the speed of a wide receiver,” Richter said. “Mostly I was a tight end, but I never really mastered blocking, so in ’68 and ’70 I played out wide.”

Richter played under Vince Lombardi in 1969, the legendary coach’s final season.

“That was perhaps my greatest learning experience in terms of how to look at life in general,” Richter said. “Lombardi had a philosophy that if you didn’t have dedication to football, you wouldn’t have dedication later on.”

Richter’s appointment as Wisconsin’s athletic director last December marked his first direct connection with sports since he retired from pro football after the 1970 season.

Having studied law throughout his career, Richter received his degree in 1971 and was a practicing attorney for a year. Then he became an executive for Oscar Mayer Food Corp. in Madison, Wis., and was vice president and director of personnel when Wisconsin offered him the athletic directorship.

He succeeded the deposed Ade Sponberg, who had held the job since Elroy Hirsch, the Hall of Fame receiver and former general manager of the Rams, retired in 1987.

With the Badgers’ football fortunes on the skids and the athletic department wallowing in red ink as a result, university authorities wanted a man with the background, ability and respect to rekindle interest in the program. Richter had an impeccable image and was one of Wisconsin’s all-time sports heroes, having won three letters each in football, basketball and baseball, so he was a natural for the job.

“If people say I was drafted, I guess I was, in a sense,” Richter said. “I didn’t really apply for it. I was happy where I was. Not that it wasn’t a neat job. The question was whether it was right for me.”

A key factor in Richter’s decision to leave the business world was that since Oscar Mayer had been taken over by Philip Morris, he had lost some of his independence.

“The university gave me an opportunity to run my own operation,” Richter said. “There are only a few jobs like it.”

Among the athletes now under Richter’s direction is his 19-year-old son, Barry, a freshman wing on Wisconsin’s hockey team, which has reached the semifinals of the NCAA tournament. Richter and his wife, Renee, have three other sons.

After taking over, Richter’s first official move was to hire Barry Alvarez from the Notre Dame staff as football coach, to pick up the pieces left by the disastrous tenure of the ousted Don Morton. Wisconsin had a 6-27 record in Morton’s three seasons, during which average home attendance plunged more than 30,000 a game.

“With Barry, our football program is in good hands,” Richter said. “We had the fifth-best recruiting class in the Big Ten, and that’s a good start. It gives me great satisfaction to have people feeling good about Wisconsin again. It’s been a long time since we’ve done things the right way.

“I realize it will take time. I told Barry my objective is the national championship, but if we go 6-5 or 7-4 and get a bowl bid, I’ll think he’s bringing us the moon.”