Join host John U Bacon on the Let Them Lead Podcast as he delves into the extraordinary journey of Pat Richter, a sports legend who excelled in football, basketball, and baseball, securing both athletic and academic All-American honors. Pat's remarkable path led him to an eight-season NFL career with the Washington Redskins, but his story didn't end there. Rising to the role of Vice-President at Oscar Mayer, he later returned to his alma mater, transforming the landscape of Badger athletics by recruiting icons like Barry Alvarez and Bo Ryan, ushering in a golden era celebrated with a statue outside Camp Randall Stadium. The legacy continues as Pat's son, Barry, carved his own unique path, earning national recognition, the esteemed captain's "C," and All-America honors in the one sport his father didn't partake in - ice hockey. Barry's journey extended to representing the U.S. Olympic team and competing in the NHL, before venturing into a successful business career. Today, Barry serves as the President of Hausman Group in Madison. In this episode, they share compelling stories about the influential leaders, coaches, and mentors who shaped their values, including a glimpse into their relationship with the legendary Vince Lombardi. Through their experiences, we uncover the timeless elements of leadership that have remained constants over the past sixty years. Tune in for an inspiring discussion on sports, success, and enduring leadership principles. For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website: http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com http://www.johnubacon.com You can connect with John via these platforms: https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon https://twitter.com/Johnubacon
Join host John U Bacon on the Let Them Lead Podcast as he delves into the extraordinary journey of Pat Richter, a sports legend who excelled in football, basketball, and baseball, securing both athletic and academic All-American honors. Pat's remarkable path led him to an eight-season NFL career with the Washington Redskins, but his story didn't end there. Rising to the role of Vice-President at Oscar Mayer, he later returned to his alma mater, transforming the landscape of Badger athletics by recruiting icons like Barry Alvarez and Bo Ryan, ushering in a golden era celebrated with a statue outside Camp Randall Stadium.
The legacy continues as Pat's son, Barry, carved his own unique path, earning national recognition, the esteemed captain's "C," and All-America honors in the one sport his father didn't partake in - ice hockey. Barry's journey extended to representing the U.S. Olympic team and competing in the NHL, before venturing into a successful business career. Today, Barry serves as the President of Hausman Group in Madison.
In this episode, they share compelling stories about the influential leaders, coaches, and mentors who shaped their values, including a glimpse into their relationship with the legendary Vince Lombardi. Through their experiences, we uncover the timeless elements of leadership that have remained constants over the past sixty years. Tune in for an inspiring discussion on sports, success, and enduring leadership principles.
For info about the book or this podcast please visit our website:
http://www.letthemleadbybacon.com
You can connect with John via these platforms:
https://www.facebook.com/johnubacon
https://twitter.com/Johnubacon
00:03
Let Them Lead is a podcast about the risks and rewards of leading today. Your host is John Bacon, author of the book Let Them Lead, unexpected lessons and leadership from America's worst high school hockey team, which led to this podcast. On Let Them Lead, John talks to remarkable leaders from every field imaginable, automotive, computers, food service, media, education and athletics, just to name a few. And they share their hard-won wisdom, amazing stories and a few laughs.
00:32
You'll also learn a few things you can use tomorrow, and things you can think about the rest of your life. John always finishes with three takeaways and a discussion of their favorite teacher. In the words of John's fifth grade teacher, Mr. Puddick, it's fast, it's fun, and we get it done. So please join us for an entertaining and inspiring discussion. You'll be glad you did. You can subscribe to the podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
00:58
Please feel free to leave your comments about any and all of the podcast episodes. And by all means, spread the word. That's how the word gets spread. And now here's our latest episode of Let Them Lead presented by your host, John U. Bacon. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Let Them Lead, a podcast about the risks and rewards we're leading today. I'm John U. Bacon, the author of Let Them Lead, Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from America's Worst High School Hockey Team. And as you know, I am not making that up.
01:28
They will get right to it we had not one but two stars at once very richter and his father pat richter both all americans at wisconsin both professional athletes one in the nfl one in the n h l and also both great business successes so plenty to discuss on the leadership front gentleman thanks for joining me today i appreciate it thank you john nice to be here thanks biggs good to see you good to see you guys so you guys both grew up in wisconsin of course in
01:56
I'll start with Pat here on this one. Pat, you were a nine-time letterman at the University of Wisconsin in football, basketball, and baseball. You lettered all three years in all three sports. You can't do that anymore. Of course, you can legally, but that is one record I'm very confident, Pat, will never, ever be broken. Well, today, Bakes, it's really a question of just where do you want to specialize? There's so much money out there that you really don't want to...
02:25
spend a lot of time in three sports and quite honestly, back in those days in the 60s and 50s growing up, we didn't really have any weight training and things like that. And back in my last year in professional ball in eight years, we really just had the universal gym. That was the first time anybody really started thinking about weight training. They always thought their muscles would get too bound up. Swimming would be too soft. So there was a lot of people thinking through it, but no weightlifting to speak of.
02:54
Well, you're lucky as far as that goes, because Barry, of course, got the weightlifting. We'll get to that shortly. How did you benefit by playing three sports in one year versus one sport today? Well, as I say, the pressure was not as great at that time because you really were playing the sport of that season. In fact, I really went to Wisconsin on a basketball scholarship with the intention to play baseball and ended up playing football. So you figure that out. Things were not ironed out before I got to school.
03:21
That's the way it was. And really in that sense I think in terms of the muscle groups, things like that, make it so not as small as it is, but you know, you had a different kind of getting into conditioning and running and speed, things like that. And really quite honestly it was a question of doing something for the spare time. I mean, I knew it between two o'clock and four o'clock or four o'clock and six o'clock. I wasn't going to be spending in the library more than likely.
03:47
They just found out it was a sports and that really paid off. And it was really a lot of fun. And we had great friendships with the people we played with and great memories. And you wouldn't trade it for anything. I often quote your son actually on this one because the two players, when I was at Culver academies, I don't dare claim I coached them. I was on the coaching staff for Al Clark, along with Joe Battisto, ended up being the Penn State head coach. The two players we had the time, of course, Kevin Dean and your son, Barry,
04:17
both future Olympians and NHL players. And they were both captain of the golf team. So you guys didn't see ice for two or three months. And I try to tell parents, it did not seem to hold them back. And Wayne Gretzky, I've quoted him before, he said his happiest day of the hockey season was the day the season ended, and he put down his hockey bag and grabbed his lacrosse stick. A change of season can be a wonderful thing. And I think for you and Kevin, it was as well, correct? Yeah, no, it was, I mean, big's growing up, and obviously it's...
04:44
You know, you grew up in the household of you. I had three brothers, so sports was this nonstop sports, and you just moved on to the next season, and you know, you learned a lot that way. But as my dad said, there wasn't a lot of specialization. It was starting to come a little bit later on, and as I went into high school, and as you started the hockey season a little bit earlier, and you couldn't play a fall sport, and that's why you were there. I called for Military Academy to play hockey and to get exposure, so.
05:11
It was coming, just lightly coming, but it's nowhere near what we have today and the amount of travel and the amount of dedication that these kids have in all these sports. So it's definitely, definitely, they're missing out, unfortunately, on things. And that's where I learned how to play golf. That's where I learned, you know, I played baseball for two different teams in the summer and I played four sports in the summer. You had summer hockey, you had two baseball teams and golf and had thrown some caddying for my dad there. So a lot of activities.
05:40
Some stories there too, I'm sure. Back to Pat. She has some lessons there too. No lessons, like this kid. We'll get to those, no question. One of my fun facts about Pat, he's got a statue of himself outside Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, not his order of course, probably over his objections. But what is rarely discussed about you, Pat, with all your records and achievements, you are also an academic All-American. So despite playing three sports, three seasons of course, and a champion in all of them,
06:08
You took school very seriously. How did you find the time? Well, once I got into the specialty major, which is landscape architecture, I kind of thought I was made to design no golf courses. And once you get into your, what you really want to do, you know, it was maybe easy because you really wanted to be there. And it was really a treat. It's not something you go into saying, well, I want to be an academic All-American or things like that. That was something that came later. Probably the biggest throw was, was very heavy.
06:38
chance to meet a fellow inductee in the Hall of Fame, and that was Dr. J. And that was – you still got that picture hanging out on the wall. That was pretty cool. Probably a lot of fun stories like that along the way. Pat, you were set the record in the Rose Bowl for 11 catches and 163 yards in the game versus number one rated USC. You are, I believe, the only player to this day to lose the game and be named the MVP. An odd distinction.
07:07
Well, I have to correct you. I remember VP, the game was Ron Vanderkellen, the quarterback. He was throwing the ball. And I tell people, I said, they said, how did you catch so many passes? I said, well, when you're behind as far as we are, all you can do is throw the ball. You're not going to run. So, I think that the time was broken with by JJ Stokes at UCLA. And he was in our UCLA versus Wisconsin game and he was behind. And that's how he got the passes caught as well. But, it was a great thrill. And it was a game that was.
07:37
Well, for an entertainment, I think it was more of a piece of lore, so to speak. One of the best things that happened, a book of lists and things like that, coming back from 42 to 14 to make it 42-37. And it was still a great thrill today, but it was better in 1994 when we had a chance to be the athletic director and beat somebody in the Rose Bowl. We'd never won the Rose Bowl. Then, of course, your protege, Barry Alvarez, won it quite a few times. A great record in the Rose Bowl.
08:07
Thank you for the correction on that one, by the way. What's amazing to me, by the way, when you talk to the older athletes, Brad Bantz, we had him on recently, he's 82, these guys can pull up the games from 60 years ago like that, especially, sadly, the losses. Those ones are the ones that seem to stick in there the best. Well, there's no question about that. It's the kind of thing that some people remind you of. I remember having to go to speak to a group in Philadelphia when I was athletic director.
08:34
The man came up to me and he looked a little bit unhappy and surly and he said, he said, I'm mad at you. And I said, what? I didn't even know you. He said, well, my dad wouldn't let us eat dinner until that game was over in the Rose Bowl. And it was like a four hour game and on the East coast, it was like 11 o'clock at night and we wouldn't eat dinner until after the game was over and I was mad. So here you go. All kinds of stories about that. 30 years later, he recalls his delayed dinner. So there you have it.
09:00
From there you went on to be a first round draft pick of the Washington Redskins, eight years in the NFL. A good run there to say the least. Your last coach was a guy named Vince Lombardi from the last years of his career and it turns out his life. What did you learn from all your coaches and perhaps also Lombardi? What were the best lessons and perhaps the lessons to learn from, from what not to do along the way? You had a lot of coaches. Well, we certainly did the Redskins. It was Bill McPeak and then Otto Graham and then Coach Lombardi and then Bill Austin took over for a year and then George Allen came in.
09:29
Wow. And we did not have a winning season until about nine years prior to that time. But Lombardi got a winning season out of us. And it was it was a great thrill because I was a player representative. So I had a chance to interact with him. It was kind of bittersweet a little bit because I was on the All-Star Game team in 1963 when they beat the Packers. And that was something that never happened back in those days. And Lombardi, from what I understand, was not very happy about that. And.
09:57
He said, Mr. He said, you'll never ever embarrass me like that again. And so, uh, but it was a great thrill for us, but we had a good team. He had Leroy Jordan and, uh, Bobby Bell and teams like that, players like that. But when we got to the Redskins, the thing that really stuck in my mind, uh, from coach Lombardi was the fact that he talked about professionalism. You know, when you're out there doing something, you're doing a job, you didn't talk about football. He didn't talk about players or anything, sports.
10:24
he had to talk about professionalism and when you're expected to do something people depend on you that professionalism has to kick in and you have to make sure that you don't slouch around and be careless and have a terrible attitude and people depend on you for their livelihood, their education, lease on fire, maybe their lives and future financial stability and if you don't do that you lose something much more important than a football game and uh... he drove that into us constantly and constantly and constantly.
10:53
There was no example of what we win, the Rose Bowl and games like that. And again, what comes out of that, and even Marty, the Redskins, he was the one that said, you know, you're going to be a winning team, and we put in the hard work, very short practices, but it was meaningful practices, very long, with respect on learning. I love that. By the way, and of course, I have read several times now our mutual friend David Marinus's great book.
11:23
His biography of Vince Lombardi, When Pride Still Mattered. David, of course, is a Madison native and UW graduate and a great mentor of mine. He, of course, included all these in his great book, Great Line About Professionalism. As I recall, he insisted that you guys dressed in coats and ties in your flights on the road. And his argument was, we will dress like the best businessman in your town. And that probably doesn't happen anymore, I don't think, with the sweatsuits and all that, but that was part of his values.
11:53
It was, it really meant, and it was because he was successful. You know, when he came in, he came in with a reputation and that really meant a big time impression on the players and he had been successful. And that was really what they wanted to do. Everybody in the professional ranks wants to win a Super Bowl and a get a ring and Lombardi had proven that he could do that. And so if you put in the time and effort, he was going to make sure you're successful. And unfortunately he passed away after his first successful year.
12:23
And I think he would have been in the Redskins, a much more successful team than they had been if he had lived longer. There you go. You were not simply a great jock, of course, great athlete. You became a great businessman, president and CEO of Oscar Mayer based in Milwaukee, I believe. We'll keep the bacon jokes to a minimum here. Nonetheless, we are not related. How's that for starters? Before we started, John, you promoted me again.
12:50
I was head of human resources and it was in Madison, the corporate office of Oscar Meyer. I can't recall getting more mistakes in one podcast than I have so far today. So I've got my notes, I do my homework. So I'm 0 for 3 on these things so far, Pat. That's an editing score. That's right. Well, sadly, we're going to keep that part in. The listeners need to hear it. So they got to hear me screw up, honestly. So there we have it. So HR, VP, still a great career, obviously. So Wendona Shalala, big name, of course, in politics, and then the president, the chancellor, sorry.
13:20
at university wisconsin she's looking for an athletic director she came to you what did you know what you learn in business uh... that you applied for athletics to business how did the athletic career help you in business and how to help you as an athletic director well i say that uh... the experience at oscar myer foods corporation was the key factor uh... in that respect i was in charge of hiring people for the corporation and it was a question of learning the culture and organization and making sure that you're the right culture
13:49
I wasn't going to tell you, well, this is the best engineer we've got to recruit to Oscar Mayer, but he was in fact a person who fit into the culture and the next person along the lines in the department would decide whether or not he had the skills in terms of the skills of an engineer. So that was the mentality you took into it and it really made a big sense because that was a great company. It was culturally driven and everybody knew.
14:18
everybody on a first-name basis and worked well with them. And the university went hiring coaches and athletic directors in the future with respect to the search firm. So it was trying to match the cultural precepts of the person that you're interviewing with the corporation or the team or the university. And that really made it. And also finding what they're looking for. The motivation to be successful is...
14:46
It's perhaps the greatest one there is. And so if you have people that are from the same town, that friends and their following and things like that, the last thing in the world they want to do is disappoint somebody and not be successful. So that was a great motivation. And that was what we drove us through with respect to the hiring coaches. Unfortunately, knock on wood, we had a really good success rate with the coaches. Mark Johnson's still with the University of Wisconsin and he has done a terrific job. So.
15:16
If you make the right decisions with people, you think you'll never be a surprise and it's really the most important one you can make. Great lessons there, quite a few. I'm taking notes here as usual. One thing of course is the ultimate goal, I think, as a leader is to make it so they don't want to disappoint themselves, you and their teammates. If it's you versus the team, if it's command and control, they're going to find all kinds of ways to undermine you. If it's you versus the team, you lose. You already lost. It's got to be everyone leading each other and you talked about that.
15:46
Man, how many times do you see it that a coach or a CEO or somebody comes into a new organization and they don't care what they did in the past, they don't care what the success rate was, I'm going to do it my way and blah, blah, blah. That guy usually goes down pretty fast. Learn the culture first. You have to humble yourself to do that. I like that. And then I also like the first name basis. My mentor over here, Al Gallup, 96 years old, still bikes every day, a World War II vet, one of my old principals, and now a friend of my eight-year-old son, Teddy's, who loves the military.
16:15
He said, you cannot motivate anybody you don't know. And there's something to it. Well, there really is. And I think that the way that I kind of measure what we did here and the success that we had and the impact it had is very simple. When I retired in my first game, I was gonna go to a football game and I got some shorts on. My wife said, Renee says, oh, you kind of wear pants. And I said, I'm not impressing anybody. They were going to a game and just take it easy. And people came up and just shook their hands and said, thank you.
16:45
And that meant more than anything because I really understood what they meant because I was a fan as well before I took over as athletic director. And to say thank you means that they had kind of bought into the work of the tradition and respect Wisconsin was having and that they felt good about it. They felt proud. And that was a big measuring stick, but it meant very much to me as well with respect to having done a job that satisfied real fans, so to speak. All in your shorts. Well done.
17:14
I can see Renee, your wife, saying that too. You hired Mark Johnson. Of course, he was the legend from the 1980 Miracle on Ice, the winning, sorry, the second goal versus the Soviets, but the leading scorer in the tournament. He is now the head coach, of course, of the Wisconsin women's team. They won a few national titles. You hired Stu Jackson in basketball, and not just Stu Jackson in basketball, of course. You hired Barry Alvarez, the winningest coach, I believe, in Wisconsin history. See if I'm corrected on that one.
17:44
But that's a good list right there, to say the least. When you're trying to hire them, what were you looking for? Well, looking for really the motivation. Why would they want to be the head coach? The success that they had. Had they built a track record? And one of the more important things that I used with respect to the hiring process was brought to me by John Jardine, a former head coach who ultimately was let go at Wisconsin.
18:11
He had a heart transplant, but he was around at the time I was looking for a coach. He said something very important you should ask the question of the coach. Who is going to come with them? And there's have they got somebody that's willing to hang their hat on their wagon, so to speak, and take a risk. And they felt confident enough that people do that, that they would change their job. That meant something. And so that's the question I did pose to a lot of the coaches. And quite frankly, one of the major coaches I won't.
18:40
name here and I asked that question I said who are you going to bring with you and he said well you know I really hadn't thought about that and at that point I said we need to motivate a coach someone that's got people behind him ready to go hit the ground running and that was very important advice. I love that look for the motivation look for the team you're going to bring great line from Warren Buffett if you think you're the smartest guy in the room get a better room.
19:05
It's not your job to be the smartest guy. It's your job to figure out who the smartest guy is and get them working for you. When I was coaching here on hockey team, my goal was to be the dumbest guy on the coaching staff and I greatly exceeded my expectations. So- You won Slapshot too many times. Why? Pat, it's worse than that. I showed Slapshot to my seven-year-old son. You have no idea how much explaining I had to do when that video was over. It was a lot worse than I remembered it, but anyway, that's an aside.
19:33
uh... but that's a great idea find out what your team is that's uh... a great question if you don't have one you've not given as much thought now of course you're the father of uh... a large family but including barry uh... all good kids i remember rj i'm sure are just doing well now it's finest fifties now for crying out loud uh... that's how fast that happens but uh... barry of course was the hot shot athlete of the batch he goes to cover cadmys he's a
20:01
when Al Clark gave me the assignment, one of the few I had that year, to convince Barry Richter that he belonged on the varsity A squad. Now this is a future NHL player, future Olympian, yet you're so humble about it and you wore your glasses back then too. They're called sitting with you in the dining hall to convince you that no, you belong here. You're here for a reason. And don't worry, this is where you need to be. Now, and the year two is very obvious and no longer needed, but you probably don't remember that one, but I do.
20:27
When you got to cover you were not arrogant you were not arrogant now, of course you and Kevin Dean the best players We had were not arrogant at all, which made Al Clark's job a whole lot easier What did you learn from Al Clark? Well, I think Al was a coach that As you know bakes is is he didn't have to say a lot, right? And he didn't and he didn't we didn't but he obviously was very influential with the players and very influential to Kevin and I in terms of our development because he was a
20:56
Obviously a big student of the game, come from Canada and a heck of a collegiate player himself. And, and if he would have played professionally, if he didn't have to have an injury, but, uh, what you learn from Al is that there's, there's a, there's a way you can lead without being the loudest and the most boisterous person in the locker room, you can do it by your actions. And, uh, and also you can set the precedent of, you know, I am disappointed with you just by, you know, when you do speak.
21:25
And so when he did speak, you knew that it was very important what Coach Al had to say and had to correct some things. So he was a disciplinarian. He was very influential for Kevin and I, as he said, just because of, you know, he let you do what you got to do, but he also let you know when you got outside those boundaries as well. He's the kind of guy you did not want to disappoint. He's not going to yell and scream. I don't know if he can physically do this throw. So I recall his big...
21:54
pregame speech. He'd walk in, he's a little pigeon-toed, his shoulders are over. We're playing out in Boston. And this is big. This is the final game. It's huge. We're playing a team from Canada. And he walks in, he says, and I quote, Barry, wow, this would be a great one to win. Yeah. And I'm only 22. I don't know much about what's going on, but I was raised watching coaches like Bo Schembecker and so on.
22:21
And I look over, I'm going, you gotta be kidding me. That's the whole show? But it was, and the man won 1,017 games more than any coach in America, so I guess it worked pretty well. Which brings us back to your point about he didn't say much, he knew his personality, but you don't have to. His advice to me when I said, what should I do this season? He said, just this, do not try to fool these kids. They will know you better than you know yourself by the end of the season. You're not gonna fool them. So if your personality's like mine, you better ride with it.
22:50
and you're if you're out Clark don't try to fake it either and there's authenticity a high school boy big up very quickly soaking your employees and al was always that and you too are as well so from al clark you go on to university wisconsin you play for Jeff Sauer also hall of famer you win a national title you're the captain of the team and then you plan in a chill what you learn from your coaches on your way up
23:16
You know, it runs parallel to business bakes, right? You know, leadership and what you learn from your coaches and there's things that you learn from your coaches what to do. And you also learn, you know, from coaches what doesn't work in the locker room, right? And Jeff Sauer was a coach that, and we had a very talented team at Wisconsin and actually my dad came in halfway through my freshman year which is very interesting. He took over AD. So within three or four months, he had a national, he had a ring on his finger, you know.
23:44
compliments the hockey team right in detroit and i'm sorry not but it's not that the one sport your dad did not like exactly as one story and you're seeing a six-foot six-guy on skates with that kid in ankles is not pretty but he was a is a heck of athlete those other three sports but i don't know that i don't and i'm going to get along with your six-foot six i wouldn't know but uh... i'm not but shorter than that just about but they're you know the call guy like that
24:11
call them a three time All-American. That's what they call them. Exactly they do. So I, you know, when you have coach Jeff Sauer and we just had spectacular teams at Wisconsin back in the late eighties and nineties and everything. And then you, and you move on to, you know, playing the Olympics and then you play in the, the professional NHL and AHL there's, there's, it's a business, obviously, it's a little bit different. And, and when I played, there weren't too many, uh, US college kids, I guess, you know, on the borderline making it. So things were a little bit different then.
24:41
so to speak, compared to the NHL game nowadays where the college game is really thriving. A lot of great college hockey players are doing very, very well in the NHL right now. So the game's in great shape, hasn't been any better. But as you go along, you really do understand what motivates people and what doesn't. And it's the coaches that could adapt. It's very similar, this is not rocket scientists, it's the same thing as running an organization. Can you adapt?
25:11
you know, to the changes. And the coaches that could not adapt don't move on or they're not successful. And if you're gonna talk to John in your office or you're talking to Melissa in your office, they're two very different people and you gotta adapt to those kinds of things as a leader. Great point there. Great point from Darwin himself. Who survives natural selection? Not the biggest, the fastest, the strongest, et cetera, the ones who adapt. That's why the frogs have been around for billions of years.
25:39
So it's not the king of the forest, but hard to beat the frog. Those who adapt, that's a quality that people don't talk about very often, especially get a career that spans, you know, two, three decades, which many folks do in business as well in athletics. Great point. Now back to Pat. You got four kids, I believe. Is that correct? Let's start with that. You got it. Hey, whoo. Still married to the lovely Renee, of course. Also UW.
26:09
Graduate, being Barry's dad, was that tricky for you as a former athlete? Was it trickier for you when you were the AD and basically his coach's, not basically, you absolutely were, his coach's boss? What was it like being the father of a hotshot athlete? Well, this didn't happen overnight, so I think as a hotshot athlete it kind of grew in there and I think actually...
26:36
we moved out east that really kind of kicked it up a notch. He certainly had an opportunity to play with Bobby Suter and some of the youth hockey and things like this, but he played sports, played baseball, little league, hit the ball well, tried to get him to be a switch hitter and one game he was like nine or 10 years old, they hit a home run. He comes back and says, can I hit the left handed now? And so he had to be permissioned to do it. And I think he hit the ball with a dispenser that one as well. But it's, it's, it's keeping them balanced.
27:04
I think with four boys and being a third oldest of the boys, it keeps you humble as well. So his older brothers weren't nearly as successful, but certainly were very important in terms of leading the way and bringing him along and things like that. We were fortunate to have Bobby Souter and a bunch of the fellows that were in Madison to show the way. Kevin Dean, as you mentioned. So he had role models to watch.
27:32
and to keep tabs on him and as anything else. I think when you play against people that are bigger, stronger, faster, and older than you are, you're going to learn something. And that was one thing he did do very well and it's nice to see him doing that with his boy Matt now in terms of giving him an opportunity to show what he can do as well. Any advice for parents of athletes? Stay the hell away.
28:01
He's a part of it. I think today is we've got one boy, Tim, the youngest is big in the officiating game. And some of the stories he tells is just tragic in that respect. And so give them the opportunity to be successful, be what they're going to be. You can't really tell them and mold them in terms of what you might think they are unless the motivation is there. So I think let the coaches coach and parents parent and be that as it may.
28:29
may have a better athlete when you get down to the end of the road. I love hearing that. I'm not surprised. And by the way, I knew what a legend Pat Richter was when I was on the coaching staff at Culver Academies and Barry's on the team. I never once saw Pat Richter yell. All right. Get in the coach's face. Send an email. Back then there wasn't email. Send a note to Al Clark, any of that. He did practice what he preaches. He was an ultimate hockey parent in the best possible sense, as was Renee.
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And that was wonderful to see. And when your two best players are humble and their parents aren't interfering, everyone else kind of has to shut up, which is a wonderful place for a coach to be also. So a great example you set as father as well as player and as did Barry. So all good points there. On that point, I was once doing a story, a lot of stories, on Tara Lipinski, the 1998 gold medal figure skater from Nagano. I was covering that for the Detroit News and she was skating out of Detroit. So I'd see her almost every day. We talked quite a bit.
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At one point I'm with her mom in the rink watching her for a third practice that day and she's wiping out and the ice is hard and they don't have pads. And I said, I got to ask, you know, people have accused you of being a stage mom and pushing her and so on. And she pointed to the ice and said, you cannot push any girl that hard. This comes from her. And show me a gold medalist that is not self-motivated and I'll show you a non-gold medalist. If you're not self-motivated, it's never going to work at that level. You'll get okay to a certain point. You'll hate it.
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and eventually the guy who really loves it is going to beat you. So I like that advice there. I'm about to size things up, but before I do, well, I'm gonna size things up first. A few lessons here. One, be professional. That comes from Vince Lombardi. Other people are depending on you. Two, learn the culture first and learn their names. I love that. Motivation, ask them in an interview, what is your motivation to be successful and who is your team going to be? Those are great interview questions to say the least. And
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I wrote down for Al Clark from Barry himself. Be yourself. Lord knows Al Clark was. And one of the great stories I have to tell, one of our star defensemen is after you, is when I came back to do a story with another hotshot team with Jamie Spencer on that team and others back in the early 90s. And the best player drafted by the Montreal Canadiens was one minute late for the bus. Barry, I don't have to tell you what happens next. It's a 10-hour bus trip to Buffalo.
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All right, this is for the Ridley tournament, St. Catharines, Ontario, actually. All the scouts are there, the NHL scouts, the college scouts, huge tournament, one we definitely wanna win. But he's a minute late and he drops his bag and he's chasing the bus and Al says to the bus driver, go, and that's all. So the bus is going and then he's banging on the side of the glass, I'm keeping his name out of it. He's banging on the side of the door and everyone's yelling, coach, coach, he's banging on the outside of the bus. And Al Clark says, and I quote, key word.
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outside. And that's it. They went to the tournament without him. That amazed me. And there's a lesson in that, of course, that the bus waits for no man. You can't play favorites. And that's how Al did it. So to close it up, I have one more question for you. And that is who was your favorite teacher? And everybody in the world can pull this up in about five seconds. Pat, if you got it on the top of your head, fire.
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A lot of them, Vince Lombardi, I guess probably the high school basketball coach of Earl Belisle. He, I think you notice there was some ability there and he pushed me hard. I was maybe not as motivated sometimes and it was maybe because he's looking at different sports and whatever, but he used to kind of see and tuck little notepads and notepad cases in their pocket and things like this, motivating things. So, you know, come around the hallway and all of a sudden tuck it in the pocket of your shirt and things like this.
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he put me to the point where i think he was uh... he understood there was some as a matter there and something that it may be a very one major unit best your ability for the time to share i love that now that's high school basketball one of the two high schools i believe in madison at the time how do you know pat if i can ask i use was a two-week old okay so this is seventy five no this is sixty five years ago and to this day coach beli off i got that right
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You can still recount off the top of your head on a list, very short list, with Vince Lombardi. That is the impact that great leaders can have. That's a wonderful story. Barry, who is your favorite teacher? Well, I have several. I think, obviously, my mom and dad are very influential. When I say teachers, they were teachers to us as kids. I look at where I'm at today and a lot of it has to do with how you grow up. So they're very, very influential with me.
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whether it's school or in sports, and I just couldn't put any one person, but the teachers that I really gravitated towards, whether it's in the school or on the field, are the ones that made it fun, challenging, and when you can put that together, you really, you are improving as a player because they are making it fun on the court or on the ice. And you don't even know you're improving because they're just, they have that ability.
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to make the practice sessions enjoyable. And it's the same thing in the subject matter. You look back in all the subjects that you take and whether it's history or English, and it comes down to the teachers that really make it interesting and fun for you. And obviously you'll learn a lot more as a student, you know, whether it's in the school or in the game. So that's how I look at it. I mean, there's a lot of influential people, but obviously my mom and dad are very at the very tops on that because just how I grew up and it really is pivotal
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are as a person to this day. I love it. So name one pal, sorry. Name one? Yes. My mom. I will not argue with the lovely Renee Richter. She's no dummy. I've known her for 35 some years. So yes, that one counts. We're going to get a free pass on that one. You'll eat well tonight. I'm sure for the Richter household. So.
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well played uh... this has been a true delight for me of course old friends uh... people admire immensely and it's a wonderful thing when the people who's who got the all-american honors the and see double a ring than any other the olympics the statue outside of camp randall are such fun approachable and decent human beings so i thank you both for that that pleasure thank you very much thanks a lot of eggs we enjoyed it you got in for the for the record your listeners at home base is my nickname you think with the last name like bacon that is a nickname already
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But no, it becomes Bakes because hockey is hockey and every nickname's got to end with an IE or an S. I don't know why. That is true. If you have it, they don't call you Porky. Oh, stick around. They just might. It starts here. Thanks again, guys. You've been listening to Let Them Lead, a podcast about the risks and rewards leading today. Please tell your friends, leave a review and subscribe to our podcast. We're having a great time. Spread the word. You've been listening to Let Them Lead.
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podcast about the risks and rewards of leading today.
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With your host, John Eubaken, author of Let Them Lead, Unexpected Lessons in Leadership from America's Worst High School Hockey Team. We hope you enjoyed this episode, got a few laughs, and picked up some insights you can use tomorrow and think about for years. Please feel free to leave your comments about any and all of the podcast episodes, and by all means, spread the word. Please join us again for another fun, fast, and fulfilling serving of Let Them Lead.