Executive Profiles

Joe Armentrout, owner of Pinnacle Real Estate Group LLC, transformed his success on the Badger football field onto the real estate field. University of Wisconsin Athletics Department

Athletes to Icons, Part Two: Former UW Stars Win Big in Business

November 3, 2009

How did sports affect their careers? What makes them most proud? Read on!

Pat Richter, Former VP-Human Resources, Oscar Mayer Foods; Former UW Athletic Director, 1990-2004

Years playing for UW/Sport/Position: 1960-1963, Football End, Basketball Center, Baseball First Base/Outfield

Coaches: Milt Bruhn (football), John Erickson (basketball), Dynie Mansfield (baseball)

Current Age: 68

Highest sports accolade or "claim to fame":
I was named an All-American in football in 1961 and 1962, and made All-Big Ten in baseball in 1962 and 1963.

What are you doing now?
(From Florida) I am mostly retired; however, I am involved in athletic searches on occasion. Most recently, I was involved as a consultant for the NFL Players Association in their search to find a successor for Executive Director Gene Upshaw, who died unexpectedly last year. I also like to play golf, fish and have fun with our eight grandchildren. I also have been having some fun with art by doing some stone sculpting and fused glass work during the winter.

What were your most memorable athletic moments?
Football: I played in the 1963 Rose Bowl game, which was considered one of the greatest collegiate games of all time. I caught a record 11 passes; however, we lost the game 42-37. I also played in the College All Star game when the All Stars beat the Green Bay Packers in August 1963. I caught a 73-yard touchdown pass in the game.

Basketball: I played in the memorable game where Wisconsin beat Ohio State in a big upset when Ohio State had Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek and Bob Knight on their team.

Baseball: We beat Michigan in both games of a doubleheader the last weekend of the season, knocking them out of the Big Ten championship. I hit a home run in the first game and a walk-off two-run home run in the last inning of the second game to beat them by a run. They still went on to win the National Championship that post season.

Most memorable business accomplishment:
Leaving a comfortable position as vice president of human resources at Oscar Mayer Foods Corporation and accepting the job of athletic director at Wisconsin. We were able to take a program that was in severe financial difficulty and build a financially stable program with a multi-million-dollar reserve. We became a very solid athletic program that achieved a high degree of success financially, academically and athletically. Several individuals who worked with us at Wisconsin have gone on to become athletic directors at other Division I institutions, including Joel Maturi at Minnesota and Jamie Pollard at Iowa State.

How did your involvement in the sports program influence or prepare you for your lifelong career?
Athletic participation played a huge part in preparing me for my career(s) after my professional football career concluded at the age of 30, after eight years with the Washington Redskins. Perhaps the biggest impact was experienced during the year that Vince Lombardi was the Head Coach of the Redskins in 1969. Football was the ultimate team game, and basketball and baseball had a heavy individual component, coupled with a team dynamic as well.

Your career is hard to top, but if you wouldn't have had all that success, can you think of anything else you would have loved to do?
Strange as it sounds, I would play guitar and go on tour with Pink Floyd!

Bryan Renk, Executive Director, BioForward

(No photo available.)

Although Bryan Renk hails from the family known for their seeds (William F. Renk & Sons Seed Company, Sun Prairie, Wis.), he decided early on that seeds were not his future. His father urged him to get an MBA, but Renk instead chose a different career path in meat and animal science. Along the way, he also became a member of the UW Fencing team. Here's his story:

Years playing for UW, Sport, Position: 1978-1983,
Fencing, Men's Foil

Coach: Tony Gillham

Current Age: 49

Highest sports accolade or "claim to fame":
Co-Captain 1983 Big Ten Championship Team; Three-time qualifier — NCAA National Championships; Semifinalist 1984 Men's Sabre — U.S. National Championships

Prior to becoming Executive Director for BioForward, you worked at WARF and served as CEO of aOva Technologies in Madison. And you come from the famed Renk seeds family in Sun Prairie, Wis. How did your involvement in sports prepare you for a life in business?
Athletics taught me how to deal with adversity. It taught me discipline, teamwork, sportsmanship, enjoying competition, strategy and much more. I learned how to be a productive team member and how to adapt to change.

What challenges have you faced while owning/managing a business?
Managing people, raising funds for a start up business, and selling a new product to the market for the first time. Those are top of mind.

What do you think was your most memorable business accomplishment thus far?
I worked for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and I did all of the early licensing work for the Human Embryonic Stem-Cell Technology.

What has been your biggest personal accomplishment?
That's yet to be determined.

What professional goal do you have for BioForward, a Life Sciences member organization?
I want to provide value to our members and achieve growth through the state of Wisconsin.

Favorite hobbies?
Upland bird hunting and UW Men's Basketball.

If you could do anything else (besides what you're doing now), what would be your fantasy job?
I'd be a hunting and/or fishing guide in the Western U.S.

Jim Bradley, President and CEO, Home Savings Bank in Madison, Wis.

Jim Bradley runs a bank in Madison, but he used to run much more, as a member of the UW Track team.

Years playing for UW, Sport, Position: 1972-1975,
Track

Coach: Dan McLimon

Current Age: 56

Most memorable athletic moments:
Competing in the Drake Relays and the Big Ten Championships, and competing against Olympic athletes.

How did your involvement in sports prepare you for a life in banking?
Competing in Division I athletics helped me develop an ability to manage multiple priorities. Daily practices, scheduled competition and travel helped me make the most of the time I had available for studies and enjoying the college experience. As an athlete, you also gain an appreciation for the practice and preparation necessary to perform for a very short period of time. As a track athlete, the shorter the time, the better. As a middle distance runner, my event would take less than two minutes; I would often train over fifteen hours a week for that two minutes.

What lessons, if any, did you learn from your participation in sports that may have followed into the world of business?
Good performance requires a lot of preparation.

What challenges have you faced with owning/managing a business, if any?
Financial services are very adaptable to electronic delivery systems. As a result, we compete against regional and national firms. Differentiating our local bank in a crowded market has been both challenging and energizing.

What is your most memorable business accomplishment?
Having Home Savings Bank recognized as a leader in community investment and environmental stewardship. As a local community bank, these are among our primary responsibilities to [our customers].

Favorite hobbies?
Biking the rolling hills of Dane County.

Joe Armentrout, Owner/Broker, Pinnacle Real Estate Group LLC in Madison, Wis.

Another multi-sport athlete, Joe Armentrout, has transformed his success on the football and baseball fields onto his business dealings in the real estate field.

Years playing for UW, Sport, Position: 1982-1987,
Football Running Back and Baseball

Coaches: Dave McClain (football), Steve Land (baseball)

Current Age: 44

Highest sports accolades:
I was a four-year starter in football, and named two-time, first-team All Big 10 in baseball.

When did you start Pinnacle Real Estate Group, LLC, and what is its focus?
It's a full-service real estate company that I started in 1996.

Did your involvement in sports affect your future success in business?
Absolutely! Athletics gives you the discipline and structure needed to be successful in any business, but it is especially helpful for anyone that is self employed. It teaches many useful attributes including team work, time management and flexibility.

What personal and professional goals do you have right now?
Professionally, to continue providing my clients the best customer service in the industry. Personally, I'm hoping for more vacations and time with family and friends!

Favorite hobbies?
Golf and travel.

If you could do anything else (besides what you're doing now), what would be your fantasy job?
I'd be the General Manager of an NFL Franchise.

Marsh Shapiro, Owner, Nitty Gritty

(No photo available.)

Marsh Shapiro, a graduate of Madison West high school, is a long-time member of the local community, who was first introduced to area youngsters as WKOW-TV's "Marshall the Marshall," then, as Sports Director for the ABC affiliate, and finally, as the owner of the city's "Birthday Bar," the Nitty Gritty, which he has owned for 40 years. But did you know he was once a boxer on the (long-defunct) UW Boxing team?

It was 1960, and Shapiro was a freshman under UW coach Vern Woodward. At the time, Shapiro says freshmen were not eligible for intercollegiate competition. But, in an all-university tournament in the 125-pound class, Shapiro defeated two previous all university champions, both upper classmen. It was one of his proudest moments.

What other memorable sports moments have you had in your career?
Doing the the play by play of the first TV broadcast of a basketball game from the brand new Rupp Arena In Lexington Kentucky: Wisconsin vs. Kentucky in December of 1976. Also, broadcasting three Wisconsin football bowls in the early 80's: the Garden State Bowl, the Independence Bowl, and the Hall of Fame Bowl.

Your career largely centered around sports broadcasting. What personal accomplishments are you most proud of?
In July of 1979, I had an opportunity to do a one-on-one interview with Muhammad Ali in Denver. We talked for over an hour and I produced a two-part TV show that aired on the Wisconsin TV Network Stations.

Another fun memory was the night that Luther Allison's Blues Band was playing at the Nitty Gritty and the Jefferson Airplane, which had just finished a gig at the UW Fieldhouse, stopped by afterwards and jammed for three hours with Allison's band.

Then there was the night in the late 60s/early 70s when a young female singer travelling with the Charles Muselwhite Blues band played acoustic guitar and sang between sets. It turned out to be [a very young] Bonnie Raitt.

What are you doing now?
I am still the owner and operator of the Nitty Gritty on the UW campus, and my wife and I are also partners in the Nitty Gritty in Middleton on North Gammon Road.

What lessons have followed you from the boxing ring in to business?
Almost all the positive attributes of sports also apply to business: teamwork, perseverance, hard work, long hours of preparation, training, being able to make adjustments and changes on the fly, seeing the big picture, building internal and external relationships, being competitive and refusing to lose.

What challenges have there been along the way?
When I left the TV business in the summer of 1985 (to do the Nitty gig full-time), we needed something to get the business jump-started. We brainstormed the birthday theme, established ourselves as Madison's Official Birthday Place and 400,000 birthdays and 2 million birthday visitors, relatives and friends later, the rest is history.

Looking back, would you change anything?
I would like to have discovered the birthday theme earlier, and have established Birthday Places all over the country in college campus environments which has proven so successful for us. Unfortunately, I am now old and tired and lack the energy to make that happen. Perhaps my successors will take it to the next level.

Are there any more goals out there to achieve?
For me, I have been there. Forty years of ownership, 400,000 birthdays celebrated, and now at the age of 70 [Shapiro will celebrate his own birthday early in November], I'm ready to take it a little easier and enjoy life with my wife, two daughters and two grand children in the time I have left.

What do you do for fun these days?
I'm still interested in the Badgers, particularly basketball and football, and I follow all local sports pretty closely. I like to fish and play golf, though not at the same time. Although ... sometimes when golfing, after hitting my ball into the water hazards and seeing the fish in there, I wish I would have brought my fishing rod along....

Read part one and part three of the "Athletes to Icons" series.

In Business magazine thanks the University Of Wisconsin Athletic Department for providing photos of the athletes, and particularly Michelle Ballweg at the National W Club at the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department, for helping us make the connections.

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