On an airplane ride over the Pacific Ocean and several time zones away, members of Wisconsin's football team celebrated a victory against Michigan State to clinch the Badgers' first Rose Bowl appearance in 31 years. All the emotion and commotion would not have been unusual except for one simple fact:
Wisconsin hadn't even played the game.
As the story goes, Wisconsin and Michigan State shared a double-decker Boeing 747 airplane for the teams' 1993 regular-season finale in Tokyo, Japan, as part of the Coca-Cola Bowl. Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez, always one to look for an edge over his opponents, told his players they weren't allowed to sleep for the entirety of the 15-hour plane ride as a means of adjusting to the time zone change.
So when Wisconsin players snuck down mid-flight to the bottom floor and saw Michigan State players already asleep, the Badgers jubilantly returned to their seats, as though they'd already triumphed.
"They're sitting there sleeping," recalled Joe Panos, the Badgers' left tackle and a team captain that season "We're staying up playing cards, killing time and their lights are off and they're snoring. We're as loud as can be."
Wisconsin would go on to crush Michigan State, 41-20, and advance to the program's first Rose Bowl since 1962.
It is a story that has grown in Badgers lore since it occurred 19 seasons ago. And it's one that speaks to the tremendous preparation habits of the 65-year-old Alvarez, a master motivator and confidence builder, who will come out of retirement for Wisconsin's Jan. 1 Rose Bowl game against Stanford.
In addition to the airplane no-sleep idea, Alvarez also convinced players to wear sunglasses from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to help adjust their body clocks in the days leading up to the Tokyo game. He sometimes held practices at 11:30 p.m. and told his team to keep lights on well after midnight. By the time the game arrived, Wisconsin was ready to destroy Michigan State.
"Anything that he could do to make us think that we had an advantage, he did," Panos said. "And he used it just brilliantly. The one thing he's very gifted at is letting the players think they have an advantage. Letting the players believe that they are really, really prepared for this thing. He was a master at it."
If any coach knows how to push the right buttons to maximize his players' efforts, it's certainly Alvarez. Perhaps that is the biggest reason he is 8-3 in bowl games, the best mark in college football history among coaches with at least 11 bowl game appearances. He is also a perfect 3-0 in the Rose Bowl and has a chance to tie Ohio State's Woody Hayes for the most Rose Bowl victories among Big Ten coaches.
Those characteristics certainly played a role in Wisconsin's team captains asking Alvarez to return to the sideline this month to coach the Rose Bowl, even though he stepped down as Badgers coach in 2005 to focus on his athletic director duties full time. Alvarez will fill the gap between former coach Bret Bielema, who left to take the head coaching position at Arkansas on Dec. 4, and new Badgers coach Gary Andersen, who takes over following the Rose Bowl.
Alvarez's former players say his attention to detail and motivation tactics separated him from his peers.
Former Wisconsin offensive tackle Chris McIntosh played in Rose Bowls under Alvarez in 1999 and 2000. In 1999, Wisconsin advanced to the Rose Bowl ahead of Michigan and Ohio State because the Badgers had gone the longest between appearances. In the weeks before the big game, members of the media called Wisconsin the worst team to ever play in the Rose Bowl.
McIntosh distinctly recalled Alvarez using those words as fuel for his players.
"I think one of the gifts that Barry has is that he's able to instill a belief in his team in that no matter what the odds or the outside perception, that the team can do it if they believe in themselves," McIntosh said. "Kind of the us against the world mentality. He's able to instill that kind of culture into the program, whether it's for a game or for a season frankly."
Wisconsin beat UCLA 38-31 that season, by the way, to capture the Rose Bowl.
To understand how good Alvarez, a College Football Hall of Famer, truly was as Wisconsin's coach, one must also recognize how terrible the Badgers were before his arrival. Wisconsin endured five straight losing seasons before Alvarez, who inherited a team devoid of talent in 1990. The Badgers finished 1-10 during Alvarez's first season but three years later were 10-1-1 with a Rose Bowl victory and a No. 6 national ranking in the Associated Press top-25 poll.
Alvarez's plan included pumping up players with high expectations from the start.
Every fall when players reported to camp, Alvarez handed out playbooks and manuals with a list of goals.
"I remember our player manual that we'd get every year, it wasn't, 'Let's get to a bowl game.' It was, 'We're going to win a New Year's bowl game,'" said former Badgers offensive tackle Mark Tauscher, who also played in two Rose Bowls under Alvarez. "You just get in that mindset."
McIntosh said bowl games were treated like a business trip, and Alvarez encouraged players to eliminate all distractions.
"He addressed the little things like by Tuesday, you'd better have all your tickets taken care of for your family because that can't be a distraction the day before a game," McIntosh said. "The preparation went from work at practice and in the meeting rooms to getting sleep and eating well."
So, what does Alvarez have in store for this year's Rose Bowl team in his swan song as coach? Chances are, he still has a few tricks left up his sleeve.
"You give coach Alvarez three weeks to prepare for a game, three weeks to motivate kids, he's hard to beat," Panos said. "He really is."
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