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rom the time he was a toddler, Rob Andringa has been pushing roots deep into the fertile soil of the Wisconsin men’s hockey program. The youngest of four kids growing up in Madison, Andringa resided at 5109 Flad Ave. Five doors down was the epicenter of the Badgers. That’s where legendary UW coach Bob Johnson, his wife Martha and their five children lived. The families became close. The Andringas, Conrad and Phyllis, had season tickets for games at the old Dane County Coliseum. Rob would regularly visit the home dressing room, program in hand, seeking autographs from 1970s greats like Steve Alley, Lloyd Bentley, Tim Dool and Wayne Thomas. Sometimes the players, local legends after the Badgers won the first of six NCAA titles in 1973, would show up at the Johnson house while the Andringas were there. A youngster walked around amid future national champions, Olympians, NHL standouts and Hall of Famers in boyish awe. Decades have passed and Andringa, 49, has become distinctively intertwined with all those roots. He went from being a stick boy to being a cerebral front-line defenseman for UW, playing a program-record 179 career games from 1987 to ’91. He won an NCAA championship in 1990 and served as co-captain the following year. Andringa went on to serve as a color analyst for UW and Big Ten Conference games on radio and TV, lending his voice to the most recent national title run in 2006. To review, the only roles Andringa hasn’t played for the Badgers are as a coach and Zamboni driver, though he gave the latter a shot “and almost ran it into the boards.” Now the boy is a man — a husband, father and friend — drawing much-needed inspiration and strength from those roots.
Andringa learned on Dec. 15 that he has colon cancer. Since then he’s been inundated with gestures of support from all corners of his life, many going back to those formative years on Flad Avenue. An email from Alley, the Olympian and UW Hall of Famer. A text message from Mike Eaves, the all-time leading scorer in program history who won an NCAA title as a player in 1977 and head coach in 2006. Calls from the likes of Bentley and Dool. Andringa gets texts almost daily from current Wisconsin coach Tony Granato, who provides encouragement and updates. Of course, Andringa is in constant contact with the 24 teammates who also own NCAA championship rings from 1990.
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