(Written: June 2012)
Tom Butler joined the Wisconsin State University Conference staff in 1967 to assist the commissioner with the dissemination of sports information and served the conference faithfully as the sports information director for 30 years until 1996.
After working as sports editor of the Stevens Point Daily Journal and the Daily Jefferson County Union (Fort Atkinson), Butler joined the Wisconsin State Journal as a sports writer in 1953 and retired in 1987. He was voted Wisconsin Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association in 1964 and 1965.
Butler covered Badger football as his principal “beat” at the State Journal for 25 years and Badger men’s basketball for 20 years. He also covered 34 WIAA state basketball tournaments and was inducted into the Madison Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
The WIAC Tom Butler Award, which is presented annually to a member of the media who is considered to have provided outstanding coverage to WIAC athletics, is named in his honor.
Butler served for three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from UW-Madison.
He passed away in June 2008.