Advertisement And no one played a bigger role in the growth and success of the state's Olympic-style amateur sports festival than Breitenbach, a legendary coach and UW-Madison Athletic Department administrator who died in 2007.
"He's the one who, by far, built it," said Ron Vincent, CEO of the nonprofit Wisconsin Sports Development Corp., which runs the games. "It's a tribute to him. He put the whole thing together with a skeleton staff. It certainly wouldn't be here today without the work he did."
This is the 24th year for the Games and the final one — at least for now — in Madison before starting at least a three-year run in the Fox Cities.
That raises the question: What would Breitenbach have thought of the decision to move the Games?
"I think Otto would say, 'We have to do whatever is best for the Games,' " said Jack Eich, who was director of public relations for the BSG from 1996 to 2000 and was hired by Breitenbach.
Vincent tends to agree, thinking Breitenbach was pragmatic enough to understand the business motives behind the move to Appleton, which attracted the Games, in part, with a guarantee of $180,000 over the three years.
"When we start losing the sponsors we've had for years in Madison, it made it awful tough," Vincent said. "The last two or three years have been very tough on us economically.
"It's hard to recruit those (sponsors) when you're an event that doesn't have that wow effect any longer."
A great fit
By almost any standard, the Badger State Games and Madison have been a great fit. The Games started in 1985, after a failed attempt to bring the U.S. Olympic Festival here. When Breitenbach was hired in 1988 as executive director, the BSG was awash in debt and little known outside of Dane County.
Breitenbach sold the Games around the state through his connections, enthusiasm and personality.
"It was his baby," Eich said. "He knew so many people in the athletic world, he could just make calls and kind of tell them, 'You're on board.' There's just not a person like that around anymore."
At its peak in the 1990s, the BSG became one of the most successful events of its kind in the nation. Participation numbers, reportedly more than 10,000 athletes per year, ranked the Games among the top four or five in the nation among the more than 40 states in the National Congress of State Games.
In 1989, Breitenbach added the Winter Games in Wausau and the event became the most successful in the nation, attracting about 5,000 athletes per year. That was the same year he expanded the Summer Games to eight regional sites around the state, which served as qualifiers in events like basketball, but have since been eliminated.
Getting a firm count of athletes who have taken part in the Games is tricky due to dubious counting methods in the past. Athletes who took part in the regionals and finals were counted twice and athletes who participated in multiple events in one sport, like track and field, were also counted more than once.
In the past few years, since the WSDC took over, it started using its T-shirt count as a more accurate way to count participants.
Jessica Gammey, BSG director of marketing, estimated about 250,000 athletes have taken part in the Games' history.
This year's Games, which conclude on Sunday, are expected to attract about 9,000 athletes, down slightly from last year.
The buzz is gone
Gammey said she has heard from people who thought the Games already had left Madison. In some ways, it seems like they have.
This year's track and field competition was moved to UW-Oshkosh, due to construction at Madison Memorial High School. That's also why there will be no opening ceremonies, which used to be one of the highlights of the Games.
Some of the BSG events took place the past two weekends, although it might have been hard to notice. Eich said after the first weekend, he has yet to see or hear a single promotion for the event.
"I think there's going to be a void," Eich said of the BSG's departure. "When I was doing the PR ... I always felt there was a buzz and people in town were really excited (the Games) were in town."
The buzz seems to have vanished, drowned out in part by the din of other events in a busy Madison summer.
"We are one of very many events going on — and they're good events," Gammey said. "That has been a challenge."
Steve Amundsen is a former director of development for the BSG, working with it for 10 years before leaving in 2003. A former college basketball player at Western Michigan, Amundsen recalled when the top basketball players in the state, including plenty of former Badgers, used to take part in the Games.
"It was terrific basketball," Amundsen said. "If you weren't playing in the Badger State Games, you were missing out."
But the rise of AAU summer basketball and other sporting opportunities, for students and adults alike in a variety of sports, took a toll on the BSG's appeal.
"The one thing (the Games) had going for them in the early years, they were the only show in town," Eich said. "Over the last 24 years, there are so many opportunities, not only for high school kids, but adults to participate in various events."
Change in facilities
Many of the BSG sports, from ultimate frisbee to badminton, used to take place at UW-Madison facilities. With the growth of summer sports camps, many of the university's fields and courts no longer are available.
"We're playing in high school gyms or Keva," Vincent said of the sports center facility in Middleton. "That's not alluring to a lot of athletes. They like the competition, but they'd also like to have a better venue."
Vincent didn't rule out the chance the BSG would return to Madison, but he also isn't selling the Fox Cities short after the three-year commitment.
"I wouldn't venture to say we would be three-and-out in Appleton," he said. "I think they would see the value and do everything they could to try and keep us."
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