MADISON – The University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame once stood In the shadows of Camp Randall Stadium.
Its new home will be in front of the other major athletic venue on campus, the Kohl Center.
The athletic department announced the new home for the hall of fame display on Feb. 13. Its former home was along the outside wall of the Camp Randall Sports Center, better known as the Shell. That facility was torn down to make way for the Kellner Family Athletic Center, the indoor football facility that is being built next to the stadium.
In announcing the move, UW officials noted the hall's new central location on campus will expose it to an estimated 750,000 visitors each year.
“I think the exposure being at the center of campus is huge and we're excited for having more people to be able to walk past, observe (and) share moments with their family,” said Chris Solinsky, the W Club’s executive director and a hall of fame inductee in 2017. “We see this as an ideal place to celebrate accomplishments.”
The new location will be in front of the Kohl Center on the east side of the green space along Frances Street. A series of walls will be constructed to display the 300-plus hall of fame plaques.
The previous hall of fame display also included a brick walk that allowed fans to purchase a brick with a personalized message of their choice inscribed on it.
Those bricks will not be moved to the new hall of fame location. UW athletics spokesman Lou Hernandez said the bricks will remain at Camp Randall and the location will be announced this week.
Solinsky said construction of the hall of fame is expected to be completed by September when the athletic department usually inducts its next class. He also noted that the space has room for 20 to 25 more years of hall of fame inductees.
In addition to the annual hall of fame inductees, this year other hall of famers inductees will be invited back to see the new display.
That is one part of the hall’s move that excites NFL Hall of Famer Joe Thomas.
“I think it's awesome because when I got into the Hall of Fame in 2019 it almost felt like it was closing the chapter for me on my athletics career, finishing up with my NFL career, being done as a Badger,” he said. “But this is like the opening and beginning of a new chapter.
“Some of my kids were very little and remember none of it and now they're old enough to wear the Badger red. … being a Badger is so much about family to me.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame gets a new home