Jeff Potrykus

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Madison — Ron Vander Kelen will forever be remembered for guiding the 1962 Wisconsin team to the brink of a national championship, only to see that dream fade with a 42-37 loss to USC in the ’63 Rose Bowl.

Vander Kelen died of natural causes Sunday. He was 76.

“Nobody has really seen him the last couple years,” former UW athletic director Pat Richter, an All-American end on the ’62 team, said by phone Sunday. “He hasn’t come to any of the reunions. … I had heard he wasn’t very healthy.”

Vander Kelen was born in Preble, which was annexed by the City of Green Bay, and graduated from Preble High School in 1958. He was named all-Big Ten quarterback in 1962.

Despite the fact that the second-ranked Badgers lost to USC, Vander Kelen was named the most valuable player of the game.

Vander Kelen set school and Rose Bowl records for passing yards with 401 as he helped UW score 23 points in the final quarter to nearly overcome a 28-point deficit. He was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1991.

Richter caught 11 passes for 163 yards in the loss to the Trojans as UW finished the season 8-2.

Vander Kelen lettered in just one season at UW, the ’62 season.

“He came in and he had to be the guy,” Richter said, “and everybody pretty much rallied around him.”

Richter noted that head coach Milt Bruhn made it a point to push and prod Vander Kelen.

“He was trying to be a little tough on him,” Richter said. “He said: ‘I’m going to push him pretty bad. Let me know if I push him too hard.’

“And there was a point where we said that’s enough.”

Vander Kelen passed for 1,582 yards that season, the No. 21 mark in program history. His 401-yard performance in the ’63 Rose Bowl has been surpassed just once by a UW quarterback. Darrell Bevell passed for 423 yards in a 28-21 loss at Minnesota in 1993.

“He could run, roll out and throw the ball on the run real easy,” Richter said. “He wasn’t the fastest guy in the world but he was able to be accurate when he rolled out.

“He did a terrific job for us. We had a nice team but we needed someone like that to pull it all together. We really needed somebody to step in.”