Carolyn Fath
Leonard: From walk-on to Hall of Famer.
Jim Leonhard never expected to be retired by age 32. And he certainly didn’t think about entering the Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame a mere decade after becoming one of the best defensive players in Badgers football history.
But here he is, among a class of seven inductees — six All-Americans and a pioneering administrator — who will become official members of the Hall on Sept. 11 at Union South. They also will be honored the next day at Camp Randall Stadium during the Badgers’ home opener vs. Miami (Ohio).
“As an athlete, it’s not really something you think about,” says Leonhard, who returned to Madison full-time this year after 10 years in the National Football League. “To me, when you think ‘hall of fame,’ you think about older guys who haven’t been playing for a while, half of them limping across the stage. Being this young, it was not something on my mind. But to be able to live the rest of my life with this designation is going to be pretty cool.”
Leonhard is one of this year’s youngest inductees, along with Devin Harris, a starter on two men’s basketball regular-season Big Ten championship teams and a National Basketball Association veteran currently with the Dallas Mavericks, and Lizzy (Fitzgerald) Stemke, one of the most decorated volleyball players in UW history and now head coach of the University of Georgia women’s volleyball program.
Other inductees include Mike Gentile, one of only seven Badgers to earn All-American status in UW men’s soccer history; 1995’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s Defensive Player of the Year Brian Rafalski, who also played 11 seasons in the National Hockey League (winning three Stanley Cups) and skated in three Olympics (winning two silver medals), and women’s hockey trailblazer Kerry Weiland, a member of Wisconsin’s inaugural 1999-2000 women’s hockey team and an Olympic silver medalist.
Longtime UW athletic department administrator Paula Bonner is the seventh inductee. She oversaw 11 women’s sports from 1974 to 1989, and today is president and chief alumni officer of the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
Leonhard, who is settling into retirement with his wife and two boys, ages 3 and 1, by booking speaking engagements and building a house in the Cross Plains area, joined the Badgers as a walk-on in 2001 after starting at quarterback and playing strong safety for Flambeau High School in Tony, Wis.
UW’s walk-on program has long been praised as one of the finest in the country. Along with Leonhard, such players as Jared Abbrederis and Chris Maragos, as well as the coauthor of this article, walked on for the Badgers and kept on going straight to the NFL.
Leonhard played in every game of his four-year Wisconsin career, beginning on special teams as a freshman. By his sophomore year, he was starting at safety. He earned a scholarship as a junior and went on to snag 21 interceptions during his time at UW — fourth-most in Big Ten history.
Undrafted but undeterred, Leonhard joined the Buffalo Bills in 2005 and went on to play with four other teams, including the Baltimore Ravens in 2008, when they came within one win of Super Bowl XLIII, as well as the New York Jets, Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns. There also was short stint on the New Orleans Saints practice squad.
“There are so many guys that I played with at Wisconsin who I feel are deserving of this honor,” Leonhard says. “To come here as a walk-on and leave as a Hall of Famer is really special.”
And he may not be done.
“The door isn’t completely closed,” the 5-foot-8 Leonhard says about returning to the NFL, adding that he’s staying in shape and maintaining his 188-pound playing weight. “It would take a very, very unique offer, but if the right opportunity came up, I’d think about it.”
What’s the “right opportunity”?
“Close to home wouldn’t be bad,” he smiles, suggesting the Green Bay Packers or another unnamed team with a “legitimate shot” of winning a Super Bowl. If that doesn’t work out, he might consider coaching.
Leonhard says he announced his retirement from the NFL after a dismal 2014 Browns season because he was burned out mentally, more than physically. Although he sustained “a couple” concussions and, for the final three years of his pro career, suffered nothing more serious than a sprained ankle, joining a new team every season or two took its toll.
Ultimately, Leonhard credits his success at UW and in the NFL to a stubborn streak of independence. “I tried to find ways to motivate myself,” he says. “I wasn’t looking outside for that. I was always fighting myself and trying to improve, and I was willing to step back because I knew I was going to be able to jump forward.”
