Sharing Wisdom Allan “Bud” Selig ’56, commissioner emeritus of Major League Baseball, plays two important roles in his popular UW history course: instructor and storyteller of some of his sport’s landmark moments. INTERVIEW BY JENNY PRICE ’96
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LETTERS & SCIENCE FALL 2021
P H OTO : J E F F M I L L E R
Give&Transform
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t’s a weekday afternoon during the 2021 baseball season and Allan “Bud” Selig (BS, History/ Political Science, ’56) is over the moon. The Milwaukee Brewers have just stormed back from a 7–0 deficit against the Chicago Cubs, thanks in part to a grand slam from shortstop Willie Adames. But Selig expresses just as much joy when the conversation turns to the UW–Madison students enrolled in the history course he has been teaching with Professor David McDonald since 2015. “I’m lucky,” he says during a phone conversation from his office in Milwaukee during the fourth inning. “Because once I retired, I didn’t know what my life would be, and this has been remarkable.” The 600-level seminar, Major League Baseball and Society Since World War II, focuses on how sports interact with social change, exemplified by Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball. But with Selig as their instructor, students get a firsthand account of every aspect of modern baseball, from the scouting of talent to labor–management relations to the financing of stadium construction. Selig shared his experiences in the classroom in this interview, edited and condensed for length.
