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Tom Oates: Gary Karner Leaves WIAC Well-Positioned For Continued Success

**Article courtesy of Tom Oates, Wisconsin State Journal

MADISON, Wis.--Gary Karner informed the chancellors three years ago that he would be retiring as commissioner of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference on Aug. 14, 2020.
 
Now he’s having second thoughts.
 
“I think I retired a year too late,” Karner said last week.
 
He was joking, of course. No one is better-equipped to lead the WIAC through the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic than Karner, who is completing his 24th year as commissioner of the best NCAA Division III conference in the nation.
 
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Karner’s tenure wasn’t always smooth sailing, especially early on when he butted heads with some of the WIAC’s ultra-successful coaches in high-profile sports. But the prevailing opinion around the conference is that he is a hard-working, fair, well-connected leader who has promoted the league with passion and pride since he took over in 1996.
 
“He’s underappreciated for what he has done,” former UW-Whitewater football coach Bob Berezowitz said. “After you’re out of it and you sit back, you really appreciate the job he’s done.”
 
Karner, 66, appreciates the confidence and support he has received from his bosses, the chancellors of the eight WIAC schools (UW-Superior dropped out in 2015). A Wisconsin native who came home after eight years in the NCAA’s national office, Karner’s first job was to merge the separate men’s and women’s conferences into the WIAC, which happened in 1997.
 
He then dove into his agenda, bringing many new ideas to the conference, some of which were successful, a few of which fell short of his goals. What he’s most proud of, though, are the 76 national championships won by WIAC teams during his tenure, a number that surpasses the total number of titles won by all but one of the 43 other D3 conferences in their histories. An additional 501 WIAC athletes have captured NCAA individual titles during that time.
 
“It’s been an incredible run,” Karner said last week. “I’ve been so fortunate to be a part of the most accomplished Division III conference in NCAA history. To see the success of our student-athletes, our teams, our coaches on the field and off the field, I can’t express enough how fortunate I’ve been. It’s certainly time for some new leadership, some new ideas. I have no regrets whatsoever about stepping away at this time. I still have the passion for our conference, as I think everybody in our conference would probably painfully tell you, but I don’t always have the energy I had 24 years ago. I always told myself that when I no longer had the energy to match my passion I would step away.”
 
Karner’s overriding principle was to always do what was in the best interests of the conference as a whole. He never saw himself as the commissioner for one school or one sport or one gender. He tried to strike a balance between schools and programs with different levels of resources, between high-profile sports and Olympic sports, between male programs and female programs.
 
Often, that made it difficult to keep everyone happy. People around the conference still joke about what it was like for Karner early on when he was sitting in a men’s basketball meeting with UW-Platteville’s Bo Ryan, Whitewater’s Dave Vander Meulen, UW-Stevens Point’s Jack Bennett and UW-Oshkosh’s Ted Van Dellen, all hugely successful coaches with strong personalities and opinions. Karner survived by being resolute in his beliefs.
 
“The success we have in our conference is off the charts, which is a great thing, but success also empowers people,” Karner said. “You have to be able to look them in the eye and say, ‘We’re going to do what’s in the best interests of the conference, not what’s in the best interests of Platteville or Whitewater or Stevens Point or whatever. That’s not always an easy place to get to. But you have to be willing to take a stand and to establish a position. Hopefully, you’re right more often than you’re wrong, but you have to stand by your convictions. I respect all those coaches and their success — not only respect, but I am extremely appreciative — but at the same time you can’t acquiesce to their particular wants and desires because that’s not always going to be in the best interests of the conference.”
 
Karner’s initial goals were to attract sponsorship dollars, get the WIAC on television and start conference tournaments in basketball, perhaps at one site. He succeeded in all three, though due largely to the economic realities of D3 athletics, he wasn’t able to sustain those initiatives at the level he hoped for.

But the list of things Karner accomplished is impressive. Highlights include the annual basketball exhibition game by a WIAC team against the University of Wisconsin, creating a conference centennial celebration and Hall of Fame, and getting football and men’s basketball involved in the officiating consortium run by the Big Ten Conference. And then there’s those 76 national championships.
 
“I’m extremely proud of that,” Karner said. “Now, in saying that, I’ve never scored a touchdown, I’ve never made a free throw, I’m not diagramming plays. My contribution to that is insignificant compared to the student-athletes and the coaches and others that have made that possible. But I do take some real satisfaction in knowing that I helped put our people in position to be successful.”
 
In his final four months on the job, Karner will help his successor, Danielle Harris, transition into the role. Then he’ll head to the Colorado mountains, secure in the belief that the WIAC is well-positioned for continued success.
 
Contact Tom Oates at toates@madison.com.
 
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