The 2020 class of the UW Athletic Hall of Fame has been selected and new members will be announced from June 15 - 26. Visit UWBadgers.com each day to celebrate each new member of this distinguished and historic class of Badgers!
BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Carla MacLeod's fingerprints are all over the Wisconsin women's hockey program, but you have to look closely to find them all.
The Badgers have won five national championships and played in 12 NCAA Frozen Fours since 2006. MacLeod experienced none of those achievements.
UW has won 22 of the 29 NCAA tournament games it has played in since the program debuted in 1999. MacLeod skated in only one of those outings, a loss in her final college game.
Wisconsin has won a combined 16 Western Collegiate Hockey Association championships — eight regular-season and eight in the postseason — in the last 14 years. MacLeod never hoisted either trophy.
But MacLeod's impact on the program at her alma mater is not only profound, it's enduring and ongoing. Here we are, 15 years removed from her skating her last shift for the Badgers and her energy is still being felt in tangible ways.
MacLeod's body of work has earned her induction into the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. She's part of an 11-person class that will be acknowledged in September.
The fact MacLeod owns two Olympic gold medals from playing for Team Canada in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Games only enhances her resume. But for all the acclaim that comes from being a two-time world champion in a hockey-mad country, she will tell you that playing for the Badgers "were the best years of my career."
"If I could relive four years of my life," she said, "it would be the four I lived in Madison."
MacLeod was an award-winning defenseman for UW from 2001 to '05. She was a second-team All-American in 2004 and '05. She was the U.S. College Hockey Online Defensive Player of the Year and Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor recipient as a senior. She finished her college career with 15 goals, 66 assists and 81 points in 113 games.
But as good as MacLeod was on the ice, her best work likely came in her role as captain in 2004 and '05. She's one of only two players in program history to have worn the "C" for more than one season, joining defenseman Sis Paulsen (2001, '02, '03).
If there's a singular flashpoint for how Wisconsin became a national powerhouse, you could argue that it came during a two-year span from 2001 to '02 when MacLeod and Mark Johnson arrived in succession. MacLeod, from Calgary, Alberta, was one of the first elite Canadian talents to come to Madison. Johnson, of course, took over as coach after an iconic career as a UW standout, Olympic hero, NHL all-star and an assistant coach for the men's team at Wisconsin.
MacLeod, who was recruited during the short-lived Trina Bourget coaching era, and Johnson hit it off immediately.
"Obviously their respect was mutual," said Jackie (Friesen) Crum, who played alongside MacLeod, became best friends with her and now serves as an assistant to Johnson. "Carla is mature beyond her years and Mark saw that in her."
Of course, Johnson is well-versed in the X's and O's and the dynamics of team building. MacLeod helped him navigate the initial gender challenges.
"I would use her as a resource just because of her hockey IQ and knowledge of the game," Johnson said. "She just understands the game and how to relate to people and treats people well. Just a really good person. She does things the right way."
MacLeod said she and Johnson are both hockey nerds and speak "the same language of hockey." They would skate around side-by-side during warmups before practice and rehash the NHL games they'd watched on TV the night before. They would think nothing of leaving the rink after a Badgers game and stop in to catch the men's team in action or head home — Johnson to his house in Verona; MacLeod to her campus apartment — to tune into the NHL Network. To this day, MacLeod has been known to join Johnson's scouting video sessions with his players whenever she's in town.
No surprise then that MacLeod is making a name for herself in international coaching circles. She's spent the last six years working as a youth coach at the Edge School, a university prep school in Calgary, Alberta, where she's assisted by another former Badgers captain and Canadian Olympian, Blayre Turnbull. MacLeod is also heavily involved with Hockey Canada in its national developmental program and served as an assistant coach for Team Japan in the 2014 Winter Olympics.
"It's been fun watching her growth as a player and now as a coach and teacher of the game," Johnson said.
In every role, MacLeod says she's tried to apply the lessons she learned from Johnson.
"I gravitated toward him early on because he's just so authentic and genuine," MacLeod said. "I've always been drawn to people like that and tried to emulate people like that. It's an important piece to being a good human.
"His demeanor to me was just on point. You knew really early on that he was there to do more than just coach you in hockey. He was there to ensure that you're having a positive experience, that you're growing as a human and you're getting everything out of the opportunity that was available to you.
"To this day I just owe Mark so much. I try to emulate him. When I coach I try to cultivate a culture like he does. I try to build a championship team in the same way I think he does."
Gallery: (6-16-2020) 2020 Hall of Fame: Carla MacLeod
MacLeod helped indoctrinate a remarkable surge of talent into the program. Center Sara Bauer was the first Patty Kazmaier Award winner, in 2006, and led the Badgers in scoring all four years. Meaghan Mikkelson and Bobbi-Jo Slusar were first-team All-American defensemen. Goaltender Jessie Vetter, the Patty Kazmaier winner in 2009, was a two-time first-team All-American.
"You talk about Mark coming in and the culture he started to build and I think that's one of the things they had in common," Bauer, a UW Hall of Fame selection in 2017, said of Johnson and MacLeod. "Just their love and passion and excitement for the game, bringing a positive attitude to the rink all the time. When you've got a coach and a captain carrying that same demeanor, I think that was very impactful for the rest of the team."
During Johnson's first three seasons, the Badgers won 22, 25 and 28 games overall, but that progress didn't get rewarded until 2005 when they earned their first berth in the NCAA tournament.
"She's the one who got people to understand what commitment we had to put out there to get over that next hurdle," Johnson said of MacLeod. "That senior group really planted the seeds for the younger players."
The 3-2 overtime loss to Dartmouth in the NCAA regional stung mightily, but first it gave way to a bold statement from MacLeod.
"She looked around the room and she literally said to everyone, 'Don't worry. You'll be back and you guys are going to win it next year.'" Crum said. "And they did."
Wisconsin swept the WCHA regular-season and playoff titles in 2006, then knocked off two-time defending champion Minnesota in the NCAA championship game.
"You could feel the energy," MacLeod said of that tearful dressing room following the loss to Dartmouth. "You could just feel it."
MacLeod, fresh off winning her first Olympic gold medal in Turin, Italy, was on hand in Minneapolis to see her declaration come to life.
"All of us were just as proud as the group that won," MacLeod said of her senior class that included Crum and All-America defenseman and future U.S. Olympian Molly Engstrom. "It was such a special moment and I'm grateful I could be there and watch."
Bauer, the first of five Patty Kazmaier winners in UW history, was one of eight freshmen who came of age thanks in part to MacLeod's guidance.
"When we won our first national championship, there were three classes that played under her leadership," Bauer said. "We were all given a chance to flourish.
"I always get asked if I think our class was really instrumental in the momentum the program has now. I think there's something to be said about that. But what came before us was so important in where we got to."
MacLeod continued to give after her UW playing career was done. She served as a graduate assistant in 2006-07 while finishing her degree requirements in legal studies. One of the freshmen caught her eye, so MacLeod began working with her after practice and eventually sent her an encouraging email.
"I have no doubt in my mind that you're going to be captain of this program," she said of the note to Meghan Duggan. "Knowing someone like you is leading the charge, I know the Badgers are in good hands."
Duggan wound up playing on three NCAA championship teams — 2007, '09 and '11 — winning the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2011 and serving as captain of the squad that won it all in '11. She also was a two-time captain of the U.S. Olympic Team, winning a silver medal in 2014 and a gold medal in 2018.
Duggan still has the note.
"I'll never forget the email because it was one of the first times in my life where I felt like the Olympic dream was real and within reach," Duggan wrote in a text. "I had admired and looked up to her so much that season after getting to know her.
"She was an outstanding player and an even better mentor. She worked tirelessly with me after practices that season and checked in on and encouraged me off the ice as well.
"Looking back now, what's so impressive to me is that she took such a keen interest in helping me improve while she was training, working and juggling school herself, not to mention she was helping to fine-tune someone, day in and day out, who would eventually be an opponent of hers.
"Her email meant so much to me. Words of encouragement and praise, but also a challenge to me to keep working, to be better and to never stop being who I was and going after what I wanted. I think about it often to this day."
MacLeod also mentored forward Emily Clark, a Canadian Olympian in 2018 who was an alternate captain when the Badgers won the NCAA crown in 2019. Two current UW players, sisters Sophie and Grace Shirley, also worked closely with MacLeod.
"Her fingerprints are definitely all over the success of the program," Bauer said of MacLeod. "I always felt she was such a foundational part of that."
It's an experience that MacLeod cherishes.
"Wouldn't trade it for anything," she said.
2020 UW Athletic Hall of Fame
- Aaron Gibson, Football
- Carla MacLeod, Women's Hockey
- Ted Kellner, Special Service
- Jackie Zoch, Women's Rowing
- Mike Wilkinson, Men's Basketball
- John Byce, Men's Hockey and Baseball
- Tom Burke, Football
- Jessie Stomski, Women's Basketball
- Dick Bartman, Boxing
- Jeff Braun, Men's Track and Field
- Bo Ryan, Men's Basketball
