Former Badgers Coach Bo Ryan Elected to Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

The North American Honors Committee finally saw what Wisconsin Badgers basketball fans and eight other Hall of Fames have already known for over 20 years: Bo Ryan is among the best in the game of basketball.

The former University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan has been selected for induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2024, announced Saturday morning before the national semifinals in Glendale, Arizona.

The 76-year-old Ryan got the necessary 18 votes from 24 voting members composed of Hall of Famers, basketball executives and administrators, members of the media, and other experts in the game of basketball. He joins 12 others in a class that includes eight-time all-star Vince Carter and 2004 NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups. The class will be inducted on August 17 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

"How many coaches do you know who started in junior high school?" Ryan said during the induction announcement. "I coached in junior high, high school, NAIA, Division 3, and then Division 1. My love for the game is on paper w/ 42 years of trying to help young people find a better path and to do things the right way. We tried as hard as we could.

"I had great assistants, tremendous leaders in their own right, and also the players. I've always said the most important words that are spoken are in the locker room by the players when the coaches aren't around. That's where your chemistry, your culture, and everything else comes from."

The honor comes nine years after Ryan was first named a Hall of Fame finalist and is the crowning achievement for one of the more influential college coaches in the state of Wisconsin, not to mention completing an aggressive campaign for his inducted by the University of Wisconsin athletic program.

Ryan had previously been inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017, but the Naismith Hall of Fame - one of the more complete halls of fame among major American sports, honoring players, coaches, referees, and other major contributors to the sport at the college, professional, and international level – had eluded him despite a worthy resume.

Spending 32 seasons as a collegiate head coach before retiring in December of 2015, Ryan finished his career 26th on the NCAA's all-time wins list with a record of 747-233 (.762), accumulating all his wins in the state of Wisconsin.

He established himself as one of the nation’s top college coaches during a 15-year tenure at UW-Platteville, guiding the Division III program to a 353-76 (.822) overall record and four national championships (1991, '95, '98, '99). The Pioneers were the winningest NCAA men's basketball team of the 1990s (all divisions) with a 266-26 (.908) record, winning eight WIAC titles, going 30-5 in the NCAA Division III tournament, and never winning fewer than 23 games.

After a short two-year stop at UW-Milwaukee, coaching the Panthers to their first back-to-back winning seasons in eight years, Ryan was named the head coach at Wisconsin in 2001. He wasn’t Wisconsin’s first choice (Utah’s Rick Majerus turned the job down), but his 14 years in Madison put the Badgers’ program on to the national landscape.

Leading the Badgers to seven Big Ten championships, Ryan guided UW to 14 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including seven Sweet 16s, three Elite Eights, back-to-back Final Fours, and the 2015 national championship game. Ryan received four Big Ten Coach of the Year honors (2002, 2003, 2013, 2015), was a recipient of the Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award (2007), NABC Outstanding Service Award (2009), and Coaches vs. Cancer Champion Award (2013).

Ryan remains the winningest coach in program history at 364-130 (.737), including a 172-68 (.717) mark in conference play that remains a Big Ten record.

No coach has supported Ryan’s induction more than Wisconsin coach Greg Gard. He joined Ryan’s staff as an assistant at UW-Platteville in 1993 and followed Ryan to Milwaukee and Wisconsin before taking over as the Badgers’ head coach upon Ryan’s retirement.

Ryan was a finalist in 2015, 2016, and 2017 before falling off the final ballot. In recent years, Gard has pushed Ryan’s induction with several hall-of-fame coaches, including former Villanova coach Jay Wright (class of 2021) and Michigan State coach Tom Izzo (class of 2016).

“Tom obviously recognizes the validity of Bo being in,” Gard said. “And I know Tom has been a proponent and a voice to help with this, as have others. I think for those that really understand it and know the history and step back and really look at it, it’s a no-brainer.”

Ryan's coaching career began in the fall of 1972 at Brookhaven High School in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where he was hired as a history teacher and head basketball coach. After just one year at Brookhaven, Ryan began his collegiate coaching career in 1973 at Dominican College of Racine (Wisconsin) as an assistant under Bill Cofield, who later hired him as an assistant with the Badgers.

When he got his chance to coach Wisconsin, Ryan had immediate success. He led the Badgers to a share of the Big Ten regular season title in his first season in 2002 (UW’s first regular season title since 1947) and won the outright title a year later. UW never finished outside the top four of the Big Ten or missed the NCAA Tournament in his tenure but

The Badgers made only one Elite Eight appearance in Ryan’s first 12 seasons but broke through in 2014 with the program’s first Final Four appearance in 14 seasons. Wisconsin advanced to the national title game a season later for the first time since 1941.

Ryan became the third individual with ties to the Wisconsin men’s basketball program inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, joining Harold E. “Bud” Foster and Walter Meanwell.

“There is no doubt that my roots in Chester, Pennsylvania shaped who I became as a coach," Ryan said in a statement. "My parents were incredibly supportive role models for me and I’m forever indebted to my high school and college coach, Ron Rainey, for helping lay the foundation for later success.

“I’m proud that this honor will represent all the places I’ve coached, starting with Brookhaven Junior High to Sun Valley High School to Dominic College and Coach Cofield to Wisconsin as an assistant to UW-Platteville to UW-Milwaukee and then back to the Badgers for an incredible run."

GREG GARD

“We are thrilled for Bo and proud that he has earned this well-deserved honor. When you look at the numbers and success of his legendary resume, the case for Coach Ryan in the Naismith Hall of Fame is a no-brainer. He has the highest win percentage in Big Ten history, and even more impressive is the consistency at which he won. When you consider Bo’s accomplishments at UW-Platteville alone, you realize that the level of success he achieved there may never be duplicated again. It was a pleasure to learn and coach with him for almost 25 years. If there’s one thing that I know about Coach Ryan, it’s that you will rarely find him speechless. This honor might find even Bo at a loss for words.”

WISCONSIN ATHLETIC DIRECTOR CHRIS McINTOSH

“Selection into the Naismith Hall of Fame is one of the most prestigious honors in the game of basketball and Coach Ryan is tremendously deserving of this recognition. Bo’s record of accomplishments in Platteville, Milwaukee and Madison is remarkable. His teams set a standard of excellence wherever he went and, for Badger men’s basketball in particular, raised the bar higher than it had ever been. This is a great moment for Coach Ryan and, on behalf of our entire athletic department, we could not be happier for him.”

FORMER WISCONSIN ATHLETIC DIRECTOR BARRY ALVAREZ

“My congratulations go out to Bo for this incredible honor. As a fellow coach at Wisconsin and later as director of athletics, I had a front-row seat to see the Badger men’s basketball program rise to new heights under Bo’s direction. His teams were talented, tough, and fundamentally sound. They were a pleasure to watch. I am very pleased that Bo will be joining the greats of the game of basketball in the Naismith Hall of Fame.”

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