Spend some time in Cobb and it becomes clear that the Gard family is tightly woven into the fabric of the place it has long called home. For Greg Gard, the influence of his small-town upbringing is a source of pride, but what impact has this village's most famous son made on his hometown? We went there to find out.  |  From Varsity Magazine

ANDY BAGGOT Insider Related Content Varsity Magazine

BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider

COBB, Wis. — To feel the love, pride and affection that flows through this place you must first leave it.

You must spend 47 seconds navigating the entire length of Main Street that runs west through this village of 458.

You must ease past prominent local landmarks like R Place, a popular bar, Fingerson's Service Station, Royal Bank and Ritchie Implement.

You must pass Scheper Park and accelerate westward down U.S. Highway 18 toward a thicket of wind turbines.

In short order you see it on your left. Wedged amid a cluster of old storage buildings and aged farm machinery, under a stand of towering pines in the Town of Eden, is a hand-painted sign.

The Best to Greg Gard and UW BB, it reads.

The message on the other side of the plywood sign — reddish background with white lettering — is more personal.

Greg Gard Says Focus On Each Day.

It's the endearing handiwork of 77-year-old Nancy Thomas, whose family owns the plot of land as well as a farm across the road where beef cattle roam. Her 84-year-old husband, Dean, said she's been painting various personal slogans and messages on that homemade billboard for 40-some years. The latest one comes from the heart.

Gard, the newly-installed Wisconsin men's basketball coach, grew up in Cobb, attended nearby Iowa-Grant High School and graduated from UW-Platteville, just 24 miles away, in 1995. His widowed mother, Connie, still lives in Cobb. So does his uncle, Rodney, and his aunt, Linda.

"We've known Greg all his life and he's just a fine gentleman," Nancy Thomas said. "All of Cobb is very proud of Greg and the family."

Before Greg Gard became the most famous product of this modest outpost, located 56 miles west of Madison, he and his two younger brothers, Garry and Jeff, were known for winning 4-H awards for showing swine at the Iowa County Fair. Greg also qualified for the state high school forensics meet and once carried a gun and badge as an aspiring member of the Iowa County Sheriff's Department.

After serving as a top assistant to Bo Ryan at UW-Platteville, UW-Milwaukee and Wisconsin since 1993, Gard is now at the wheel. Ryan resigned Dec. 15 and Gard served as the interim coach of the Badgers until UW Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez gave him the job full-time on March 8.

"It seemed very appropriate that we put something up there to recognize Greg and just wish him well," Nancy Thomas said of her sign. "The qualities that he has and everything are just going to be a great asset to the whole university."

Gard didn't just earn the appointment. He seized it by orchestrating an inspired turnabout.

A year after reaching the NCAA Final Four for the second-consecutive spring under Ryan, UW was 9-9 overall, 1-4 in the Big Ten on Jan. 12. Fans had all but bagged the season and tossed it in the dumpster.

But Gard changed the offense, expanded the player rotation and created a more unified culture in the locker room. The Badgers finished 12-6 in the Big Ten — their 15th-straight season in the top four of the final league standings — and received their 18th-consecutive berth in the NCAA tournament as a seventh seed in the East Region.

When Gard was formally introduced as the head coach, he joked that all of Cobb was on hand. In a way, that was true. Residents stressed through the audition process and were overjoyed when Gard got the job.

"It was hard watching those games when everything was in the balance for him as well as the team," said Lois Peart, who taught health and physical education to all three Gard boys at Iowa-Grant.

"I'm so glad he has that position now," Nancy Thomas said of the eldest Gard. "Those of us that have known the family all this time, we feel really, very close."

Down at the village hall, clerk and treasurer Lori Breiwa and director of public works Mark Flanagan put the sentiment in perspective.

"It's cool to say I'm from Cobb," Breiwa said.

"Everyone is so happy for him doing so well," Flanagan said.

"We've known Greg all his life and he's just a fine gentleman," Nancy Thomas said. "All of Cobb is very proud of Greg and the family."

Flanagan said his wife, Karla, didn't have much interest in UW men's basketball until Gard took over. Now she DVRs the games and is fully engaged.

"She's sat down for every one he has coached," her husband said.

Breiwa smiled as she recounted how her grade-school-age son came home one day with a question about the UW men's basketball coach.

"Did you know he's from Cobb?" he said.

Nancy Thomas said she has a room in their farm house dedicated to the Badgers and the recent rise of Cobb's favorite son.

"I have newspaper clippings and headlines Scotch-taped to walls and door," she said proudly.

Thomas had just returned from church services in nearby Fennimore and recounted how the pastor's sermon focused on role models. She immediately thought of Gard.

"He's going to be a fine role model for so many people — so many young people," she said. "We're just very proud of him."

On the two-lane highway from Dodgeville to Cobb is the first hint of the Gard family legacy. About two miles outside of the village is Gard Road.

Signs welcoming visitors to village limits promote the annual Cobb Corn Roast, which began in the early 1960s, and a request to slow down because "we love our children."

At the intersection of Main, Mifflin and Division streets you have options.

You can pull into R Place, where casual, friendly card games — Euchre or Dirty Clubs — are typically staged six mornings a week. Male dominated, 10 to 12 participants ages 40 to 90 share coffee and talk about a wide variety of topics. A favorite recently is how the Wisconsin men's basketball team is performing.

"It comes up in most conversations," said Flanagan, who's sat in on the card-playing fun for more than two decades.

If you take a right on Division Street and proceed up the nearby hill, you'll see a farm on the right with a round barn. That's where Gard's maternal grandparents, Ernest and Lauretta, raised livestock and worked the land.

If you take a left on Mifflin Street, you'll drive past the library where Gard's aunt, Linda, is the librarian. You then take the next right and make your way to 402 Elm Street. The smallish tan home with white trim is where Glen and Connie Gard raised their three boys. Right across the street is where the boys went to grade school.

You can almost picture the Gard boys riding their bikes from their home to their grandparent's farm to help, which is what they did as part of their daily chores.

There's a convenience store on Main Street that sells locally-produced jams and pickles.

There's a volunteer fire department in Cobb, but no police station.

"It's quiet in a good way," Breiwa said.

There was a time in the early 1990s when Greg Gard, then a student at UW-Platteville, had his eye on a career in area law enforcement.

"He participated in the sheriff's office in what we referred to as our law enforcement association," said Steve Michek, the Iowa County Sheriff for the last 13 years.

Gard went to Southwest Tech in Fennimore to get his license to carry a gun. He worked nights and weekends monitoring local dances, weddings and other civic events. He also served as a park ranger at Blackhawk Lake Recreation Area, which has a beach and 100-plus camp sites.

"Most people scoff, 'Oh, he was just a park ranger,'" Michek said. "But really, the fact is you're out there on your own making decisions."

Campers, Michek said, "could be high, they could be drunk, they could be having a domestic related incident. He would have had to deal with things like that at different times."

It's not a job for everyone, but it seemed ideal for Gard.

"It takes a lot of tact and patience," Michek said. "He definitely had those qualities."

Eric Miller worked with Gard before becoming a sergeant with the Sauk County Sheriff's Department. Miller remembers Gard as an "excellent guy" who never generated a citizen complaint, which is rare.

Miller said the job was sometimes hard for Gard because it meant writing citations for kids he knew, be it underage drinking or what-not.

"I never knew him to lose his temper and he always did his job," Miller said.

"He was one of those young men that had the character and integrity to be a good police officer or law enforcement officer," Michek said of Gard. "He would have been a good fit in any number of agencies."

Gard had other career plans, though.

"He made the right choice," Miller said with a laugh.

"I remember thinking that was too bad because he'd been a really good person to stay with (police work) for his career," Michek said. "But, wow. Look how things have turned out for him."

Less than a block from Gard's boyhood home is Ritchie Implement, where Greg once had a job washing tractors.

Head west on Highway 18 toward Montfort and you'll pass the Tower Junction Bowling Alley on the right. That's where Gard, who played basketball and baseball at Iowa-Grant, ate the same pregame meal: cheeseburger, cheese curds and a Pepsi.

Turn left on County Road XX and eventually you'll come across Iowa-Grant High School. That's where Connie Gard worked as a receptionist/secretary for 44 years.

"She ran the school," said Peart, who once served as athletic director and still teaches at the school.

Peart said Gard was a loyal team player who wouldn't be outworked.

"He was a decent athlete, but wasn't a superstar," she said. "He didn't get a lot of playing time. He was probably a better baseball player than anything.

"I look at him in high school and he was a team player. Loyal. Nobody would outwork him."

As for Gard the scholar?

"He didn't stand out," Peart said. "He was a good student, but he was just an everyday kid in the hallway."

Peart said Gard is "a better speaker than I remember him." For that, Nancy Thomas takes credit. She said she told him to take up forensics in high school. Gard balked initially, but wound up following her advice.

"I told him to take something you really like to do and demonstrate it," she said. "Just be passionate about it."

Gard, who loved hunting with his late father, chose turkey calling and was so convincing that he qualified for the state meet.

That's why, Thomas said, "every time he's talking to the media he has a great command of the English language."

To live in Cobb means taking pride in Gard and his rise to prominence.

"We claim ownership of Greg," Nancy Thomas said.

"Maybe for the first time in Greg's life this is his moment to shine as the complete standout," Peart said.

"He hasn't changed at all over the years. I see him now and just smile and think, 'Wow, that's really neat.'"

Michek lives in Edmund, which is four miles from Cobb as the crow flies, but he has a personal stake in Gard as well.

"It was pretty darn neat to see him progress," Michek said.

"I just think he's a great person. He hasn't changed at all over the years. I see him now and just smile and think, 'Wow, that's really neat.'"

When Gard's father, Glen, passed away in October following a six-month battle with brain cancer, Cobb mourned. The initial visitation at SS. Anthony & Phillip Catholic Church in Highland lasted three hours longer than scheduled because so many came to pay their respects to Gard, a 72-year-old retired agricultural loan officer who coached youth baseball, was a volunteer fireman and served as president of the Iowa-Grant Athletics Booster Club.

"The whole family is very likeable," Flanagan said, noting how a newly-renovated swine pavilion at the Iowa County Fairgrounds is now dedicated to Glen Gard. "They helped out with everything."

Flanagan recalled that Greg Gard once made it possible for a local boy with disabilities to attend a UW game. In addition to game tickets, Gard provided a tour of the Kohl Center locker room and introduced the party to Matt Lepay, the radio voice of the Badgers, and Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne.

Flanagan said gestures like that probably won't change now that Gard runs the show.

"I just hope people don't bother him for tickets all the time," Flanagan said.

Peart mentioned a time when Gard was coaching at Southwestern and Platteville high schools, making scant wages, and she had a conversation with his worried mother.

"She said, 'He has just got to get this basketball coaching out of his head and find a real job,'" Peart said.

Funny how things work out.

"As much as anything," Peart said, "everyone's happy for Greg because he put in all this time."