Wilkes University alumnus Bo Ryan, former University of Wisconsin head men’s basketball coach and 1969 Wilkes graduate, was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on Sunday, Nov. 21. The 2017 Induction Celebration took place at the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland in Kansas City, Missouri.
Ryan’s remarkable coaching career included 27 postseason appearances as the coach at three different University of Wisconsin campuses. Ryan began his head-coaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and won 353 games from 1984 through 1999. He also guided the program to four NCAA Division III national titles. He spent two years at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, and gave the team its first back-to-back winning seasons in nearly a decade.
In 2001, he moved to Division I coaching when he was hired by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ryan spent the next 14-years in Madison racking up 364 wins for the Badgers. He took all of his Badger teams to the NCAA Tournament, including a Final Four appearance in 2014 and a spot in the national championship game in 2015, his last season on the sidelines. He never finished lower than fourth in the Big Ten standings and won four conference titles.
The Hall of Fame’s 12th induction celebration preceded the two-day 2017 Hall of Fame Classic. Joining Ryan in this year’s Hall of Fame class is Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan, Winston-Salem State’s Cleo Hill, Indiana’s Scott May, Purdue’s Rick Mount, Creighton’s Paul Silas, Gonzaga’s John Stockton and Duke’s Jay Williams.
You can read more about Ryan’s successful career at www.gowilkesu.com.
