Laughter leaves us with passing of former AD Steve Terry

Steve Terry Obituary

MENOMONIE (June 8, 2020) - When Steve Terry was in the room, you knew it. His infectious laughter would resonate throughout the room...and down the hall and into the next several rooms.

Terry, the UW-Stout athletic director from 1994-2007, passed away Tuesday, June 2. He was 63.

A UW-La Crosse graduate who proudly hailed from the small town of Westby near La Crosse, Terry came to Stout in 1980 as the head track and field coach, but also served as an assistant football coach, the head cross country coach and as an assistant athletic director.

During Terry's tenure as athletic director from 1994-2007, UW-Stout teams received more national tournament bids than during any other time in Stout athletic history.  The Blue Devils advanced in the NCAA tournament in women's basketball, men's basketball, football, volleyball, track and field, gymnastics, ice hockey, and softball. As the UW-Stout athletic director and director of physical education, Terry led the way for the return of men's ice hockey and men's golf to varsity status and added women's soccer and women's golf. Terry played a role in establishing the university's Golf Enterprise Management major.

Don and Nona Williams Stadium was completed in 2001 as only the second artificial surface field in the state of Wisconsin. The Sports and Fitness Center added a 10,000 square foot addition and Nelson Field, the former football field, was converted to a soccer field. 

Under Terry's tutelage, members of the Stout track and field teams earned 31 individual All America awards, including national champion Jeff Wachter. Terry's recruiting set the stage for some of Stout's greatest track achievements in the mid-1990s, including Terry Anders, who would go on to win six individual sprint national titles.

After leaving the athletic director post, Terry served as the director if physical education, helping to establish the Health, Wellness and Fitness major. He retired from the university in 2015. Terry was inducted into the UW-Stout Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.

He is survived by his wife, Peggy, and daughters Lauren (Terry) Howard, Mikaela (Terry) Reid and Ciara Terry.