Blue Devil Alumni Spotlight: Randy Pickering

Name – Randall (Randy) Pickering
UW-Stout graduation year – 1979
Major – Industrial Education - Electronics
Sport supported – All 17 intercollegiate and recreational sports
Years worked – 1973-78
Hometown (High School) – Janesville, Wis. (J.A. Craig)
Currently Reside – Edgerton, Wis.
 
Give us a brief synopsis of your life since graduating from UW-Stout?  Include job and family?  Even though my degree was in industrial education, given my concentration was electronics I was interviewed by employers in both education and industry.  In the end I accepted an offer from then Wisconsin Telephone, a division of AT&T.  40-years later, on June 30, 2020 I retired from AT&T.  Through the years Wisconsin Telephone became Wisconsin Bell, became Ameritech, became SBC, and eventually became AT&T again.  Over the 40 years I held numerous management positions within the various "Bell System" companies, retiring as the Regional VP – Emerging Technologies.  Outside of AT&T, I stayed involved in the emergency services world.  I became an emergency medical technician while still at Stout.  When I graduated I stared volunteering for my local volunteer fire department.  Through the years I have progressed from an EMT, firefighter, apparatus operator, lieutenant, captain, deputy chief and chief for departments in the Madison and Milwaukee area.  When my wife and I built a new house on the Rock River between Janesville and Madison in 2014 I again joined my local volunteer fire department, the Edgerton Fire Protection District.  Not planned, but in 2016 I became the interim fire chief, and today the "interim" is gone and I am the fire chief of a district providing fire and paramedic-level EMS service to five municipalities covering 100 sq. miles.  In 2019 I was named the Wisconsin Volunteer Fire Chief of the Year by the Wisconsin State Fire Chiefs Association.
 
In April, 1980 I proposed to the love-of-my-life who I met at UW-Stout, Ruth Kremer …. and proposed to one night on the bleachers at Nelson Field.  Ruth played both volleyball and basketball for Stout and we met when she sprained her ankle playing volleyball in her freshman year.  We married in November, 1980; and through the years have brought three children into this world.  The oldest, Richard, is married with one son, Carson; and he and Samantha (Sam) live in Verona.  Our daughter, Rachel, is a veteran of the US Navy, is married with one son, Weston, and she and her husband Nolan live in Janesville.  Our youngest, Ryan, currently lives in Chicago.  Another thing I got involved in while in High School was announcing sporting events, and then Sports Information Director Chuck Buelow kept that going getting me involved in announcing Stout basketball and track.  I have continued, and through the years have announced football, cross country, basketball, hockey, and track for schools across southern Wisconsin.  To this day I still announce all Janesville Craig football, basketball and track Meets; and for the last 20-plus years have announced the WIAA State High School Track & Field Championships held annually in LaCrosse.
 
How are you using your Stout education in your occupation? In your daily life?  The practical and life lessons I learned at Stout, both in the classroom, through athletics, and through the relationships we built on campus and in the community embodied the "hands-on / minds-on" mantra; and have been the foundation for the success I have had in business, in the emergency services, and in life.  What I realized, much later in life, is that those that mentored and helped shape our experiences while at Stout knew exactly what they were doing.  Chancellor (Robert) Swanson was both a mentor, and a friend.  The guidance and experience he provided while I was at Stout was in the spirit of a true educator.  He supportively enabled me to learn more life lessons than I can quantify.  Some were painful at the time, and some were very challenging; but all meant something.  As I have progressed through my years professionally and avocationally, that is a lesson I have tried to pass on and repay.

Why did you choose to attend UW-Stout?  I was interested in becoming a teacher, and had been an student athletic trainer in high school.  Our faculty athletic trainer at Janesville Craig reached out to (Stout) football coach Sten Pierce who said yes, UW-Stout definitely could use a student athletic trainer.  Little did I know the key word was "a" student athletic trainer.  UW-Stout in 1973 did not have an organized athletic training program.  Up to that point in history each sport would recruit their own trainers.  Only a couple sports actually had a student trainer, but most did not and those that did only had one.  Sten felt lucky in 1973 because there were two potential students that were looking at Stout, myself and Scott Cabot.  My parents and I did a campus visit that summer and Sten was welcoming, and in the end both Scott and I choose to come to Stout.  We actually met our first day on campus in August, 1973, and have remained the closest of friends to this day.
 
What did you like most about supporting collegiate athletics?  The fact that we were there to help the athletes reach their goals as athletes, and to do everything we could to keep them in the game.
 
What is the greatest lesson you learned from being a collegiate student-athlete Athletic Trainer?  Do not let fear stop you from accomplishing what needs to be done.  You need to plan, you need to assess risks and potential roadblocks, and regardless of how impossible the task/challenge appears, do not be afraid to take it on and figure it out.  I developed quite a reputation over my 40-year career with AT&T.  When it had never been done, or when it was something that was really messed up, I would find myself in charge of it.  I can say with a great deal of pride, and a lot of thanks to my high school and UW-Stout mentors, I have been part of some pretty amazing "impossible" accomplishments in my career.
 
Who are the most influential persons in your athletic career?  It starts with my parents.  I was the first person in our family/extended family to ever graduate from college.  They were modest and quiet, but selflessly worked harder than I ever realized to make sure I was able to attend college.  I had several high school mentors who helped me develop and build my confidence.  They were true coaches, in that they would take the talent and skills presented to them, and figure out, student-by-student, how to help that student use those talents and skills to accomplish more than what anyone would have thought possible.  In many ways that is why I still volunteer for the Janesville School System.  They invested so much in my development when I was young, I have tried for 48 years to repay that debt of gratitude.  And then there was Dr. Robert Swanson.  He saw something in me and gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to learn, grow, make mistakes, learn, develop and understand how to succeed.
 
Which former Blue Devil student-athletes and trainers are you still in contact with?  One of my closest friends throughout my time at Stout was Scott Cabot.  Scott was the first fellow student I met when I arrived on campus early for pre-season football.  We grew and developed, and worked very close together during our years at Stout, and have stayed close to this day.  When Scott and his wife Janet retired after long careers in Chicago they moved up to southern Wisconsin.  In addition to a "Supper Club of the Month Club", we have season UW Badger football and hockey tickets next to each other at Camp Randall and the Kohl Center.  While Facebook has helped reestablish some "training team" contacts, the other person Scott and I stayed really close to was Paul Robinson, "Puck".  Puck passed away way too early in life, but in the years he was on this earth we grew and always enjoyed congratulating each other on our successes.  Beyond Scott and Paul, Dave and Kathy Brusky (Dave actually helped me build our new house a few years ago), Mike and Nancy (Mueller) Pietrowiak, Kevin Peters, Dave Natter, Jeff Bachinski, Dieter Antoni, Burt and Barb Fisher, Mike Amundson, Pete Hein, and Coach Tom Slupe. 
 
How would your teammates describe you as a person and as a student-athlete trainer?  An eternal optimist. Persistent.  Always pushing the envelope.  Never afraid to take on a challenge.  High expectations.  And never afraid to have some fun along the way …. after all, it was our college years.

What are some of your career highlights, both athletically and academically?  Most notably, starting, building and growing the co-ed athletic training program from almost nothing to a program that was recognized and respected by our peers across the UW System; and expanding the program to supporting recreational athletics at UW-Stout and helping start the athletic training program at Menomonie High School.  We also expanded the program to provide emergency first response across the campus in close cooperation with Menomonie Ambulance Service and UW-Security.  While most "incidents" were humorous, four of our proudest moments were when we successfully revived a drowning victim in the Fieldhouse pool area; when we were on duty at Menomonie High School's graduation ceremony in the main gym on a very hot June afternoon and an elderly attendee suffered a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest. We were able to resuscitate him when two of our student athletic trainers assisted in life-saving efforts for a UW-Stout student who collapsed and went into cardiac arrest while walking near the Fieldhouse; and when one of our student athletic trainers was part of a team of four students who saved the life of a one-year-old girl who was in a car that had rolled into a river.  In 1978 I was awarded Stout's "Medallion Award", the highest non-academic award presented by the University for service to the Stout community.  Our athletic training program was featured in multiple Stoutonia articles through the years, and covered by newspapers like the St Paul Pioneer Press, the Janesville Gazette, and in national athletic training trade publications.  And in a quiet sense of accomplishment, well after I had graduated, when UW-Stout did the Fieldhouse expansion, it was our design for a greatly expanded Athletic Training Center that was incorporated in the design of the expansion.
 
What are some other activities you were involved in on campus (or off campus) while in Menomonie?  I learned to be a basketball official, with close mentoring from one of my professors, Dr. Bob Melrose.  Dr. Melrose and I officiated high school basketball games across west central Wisconsin.  That lead to the athletic department asking me to teach a basketball officiating class one semester.
 
Anything else we should know about your time at UW-Stout?  I always enjoy exploring the unknown, so without meaning to get anyone in trouble (they have all retired by now), our friendship with UW-Security actually offered me an opportunity to get all the way to the top of the Stout clock tower.  One of my favorite pictures, even to this day, is a picture of my girlfriend (thank heavens the same girlfriend I married) and I on the stairs leading up to the bell tower.

What we accomplished over the five years is probably nothing short of amazing.  We went from next to nothing, to a co-ed athletic training program covering all men's and women's sports throughout the school year that was well ahead of its time …. all while we were students.  We built deep working relationships on campus, in the community, and across the state; which helped us accomplish some things that most people thought would be impossible.  It is a long story, but I became good friends with the UW-System Vice President of Administration; so when Coach (Bill) Burns told us there was no way we would ever get UW-Stout, UW-System, and the State Building Commission approval to make the changes we were proposing to make modifications to the Fieldhouse to create a fully co-ed Athletic Training Facility accessible from both men's and women's locker rooms, no one could believe we got approval and had the project complete in under a year.  We were young and had no fear.  If it took getting in a car, driving down to Madison and meeting with the UW-System VP of Administration, we just did it.  That is a lesson I have carried with me all my life, do not let fear stop you from accomplishing what needs to be done.  The other lesson, which did not strike me until years later as I looked back at what we did during that time was, Dr. Swanson knew full well what was going on; and in the spirit of a true educator, he quietly enabled our growth and experiences.  As I have progressed through my years professionally and avocationally, those are two lessons I have tried to pass on and repay.