ST. LOUIS — Tom Landry coached the Dallas Cowboys for 29 seasons. Jim Boeheim is in his 40th year leading Syracuse. Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for a half-century.
Not to be outdone is Otto Puls.
Puls, 83, is in his 53rd year as the scorekeeper for the Wisconsin men’s basketball team. He is seated at the middle scorer’s table of every Badgers game.
He is also an equipment manager, practice referee and jack-of-all-trades for the Badgers.
“He’s probably a damn astronaut,” the Wisconsin junior Nigel Hayes said.
Puls, his white hair trimmed in a 1950s-style cut that he calls the Marine, is an emblem of Wisconsin’s recent consistency.
Before Dick Bennett took over as coach in 1995, the Badgers had made the NCAA tournament only twice since winning their sole national championship in 1941. Since Bennett’s arrival, they have missed the tournament only twice and are currently playing in their 18th straight — the fifth-longest streak in NCAA tournament history — under Bennett, Bo Ryan and now Greg Gard.
Did Puls ever believe Wisconsin would become such a tournament fixture?
“Never, never. No,” he said, adding, “And then when we went to the Final Four in 2000, I thought, ‘That was a dream. Oh my God, we’ll never get back again.’”
The Badgers, he noted, have made the past two Final Fours.
Puls was born in east Madison, an industrial area where many denizens worked in an Oscar Mayer processing plant. His father died when he was 12; his mother raised him and his younger sister. “We struggled,” he said.
His main sport was baseball, and during his teenage years the batboy on one of his teams was a standout athlete nine years his junior named Pat Richter, who as the university’s athletic director from 1989 to 2004 would help turn around Wisconsin’s football and men’s basketball programs.
Puls graduated from Wisconsin, married his wife, Barb — now of 62 years — and worked for 52 years as a pharmacist at the Central Wisconsin Center, a home for the developmentally disabled. He also worked as a basketball and football referee at the high school level before officiating games at Wisconsin, then for the Big Ten, including two Rose Bowls.
These days, his officiating is limited to Wisconsin practices.
“I can’t run,” Puls said. “I can’t get in place to see the plays — I guess from a distance.”
Jordan Smith, a fifth-year senior, had a slightly different evaluation. “It depends if you’re on the scout team or the first team,” Smith said. “If you’re on the first team, you get every call from Otto. If you’re not, you might have to beg a little bit.”
Smith caromed into Puls during practice a few weeks ago, knocking him to the ground. Puls departed with his right arm in a sling, and later showed Smith a sizable bruise.
The injury did not diminish Puls’ enthusiasm, something that has not been lost on the players.
“Every day you show up and he’s ready to go,” the junior Zak Showalter said. “You might not be feeling up to practice every single day, but you look at Otto and you’re like, Man, he’s really pumped up.”
Being around the players has helped Puls as well. “I love the idea of working with the kids,” Puls said, adding that errant foul calls aside, “they like me.”
About the Author
