Barry Lee Alvarez (born December 30, 1946) is a former American football coach and athletic director at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He served as the head football coach at Wisconsin for 16 seasons, from 1990 to 2005, compiling a career college football record of 119–72–4. He has the longest head coaching tenure and the most wins in Wisconsin Badgers football history. Alvarez stepped down as head coach after the 2005 season, and remained as athletics director until July 1, 2021.
Since retiring, Alvarez has served as interim head coach on two occasions. He coached Wisconsin in the 2013 Rose Bowl, after the departure of Bret Bielema to the University of Arkansas, and in 2015 Outback Bowl, following the departure of Gary Andersen to Oregon State University.
Alvarez was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2010. In honor of his accomplishments, the Badgers announced in 2021 that the field within Camp Randall would be renamed to Barry Alvarez Field.
Early life
Alvarez was born and raised in Langeloth, Pennsylvania, where his family settled after his grandparents immigrated to the United States from Spain. He graduated from Burgettstown Union High School in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, and is a graduate of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he played linebacker from 1966 to 1968 under Bob Devaney, who became one of his major coaching influences along with Hayden Fry and Lou Holtz. Alvarez intercepted a pass in a game played between the Cornhuskers and the Badgers in Madison. Alvarez was an assistant coach in charge of the defense at Lincoln Northeast High School football team in Lincoln, Nebraska where his undefeated team won the City Championship, Trans-Nebraska Championship and were Co-Champions for the State of Nebraska, Class 'A' in 1972. The team also won the I-80 Conference Championship Trophy, the Omaha World-Herald Merit Award and the Lincoln Journal and Star State Class 'A' Football Champion Award. They have just celebrated their 50th Anniversary, on 23 September 2022, of that monumental event in which no team has matched that record in 50-years at the school. During that year his team played against and beat the Southeast Knights football team, coached by Frank Solich. Alvarez later became a head coach at Lexington High School in Lexington, Nebraska and then Mason City High School in Mason City, Iowa where the Mohawks won the 1978 class 4A state title, 15–13, over Dubuque Hempstead before becoming an assistant coach at University of Iowa and then at the University of Notre Dame.
From 1979 to 1986 at Iowa, Alvarez would coach linebackers such as Leven Weiss, Todd Simonsen, Mel Cole, James Erb, Jonathan Hayes, and Larry Station.
In 1987, Alvarez would coach linebacker Wes Pritchett. In 1988, he led the defense of a Notre Dame team that finished 12–0 as national champions. They finished 3rd in points allowed on the season. The players he coached that year included DL Jeff Alm, LB Frank Stams, and DB Todd Lyght. In 1989, the Notre Dame defense finished 9th in points allowed and the team finished 12–1.
Head coaching career
In 1990, Alvarez was named head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers. He inherited a program that had not had a winning season since 1984, and had only won seven games in Big Ten Conference play in that time.
Considering the awful state of the program he'd inherited, Alvarez engineered a very quick return to respectability. In recruiting players, Alvarez made the decision to "build a wall" around the state of Wisconsin, to make sure all of the state's top recruits were going to be recruited to the program. He also encouraged walk-on players to try out for the team. According to Alvarez, he looked for two kinds of players for his team: Players who loved football, and players that were tough. He won only eleven games in his first three seasons (including a 1–10 record in his first year). However, the 1992 team showed signs of the future to come. That team upset Ohio State on national television, and four of its losses were by a touchdown or less. One of those losses, to Northwestern, kept Wisconsin out of a bowl.