Courtesy of University of Wisconsin Athletics
Note: Tamara (Tam) Flarup, the longtime UW Athletics communications director announced her retirement today, May 4, effective August 31, 2016. Most recently serving as the director of website services, Flarup has been in various roles in communications with the Department of Athletics since July of 1977.
The following retirement feature was written for CoSIDA.com and the 2016 convention Special Awards program as Flarup will now receive a Lifetime Achievement Award during the Hall of Fame luncheon on June 13th at the Hilton Anatole, site of the 2016 CoSIDA Convention.
Flarup was one of the founding members of FAME (Female Athletic Media Relations Executive), a subgroup of CoSIDA, and has served admirably as the long-time chair of the Special Awards Committee.
She was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2007, the seventh woman in CoSIDA history to join the Hall.
by Andy Baggott, UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Tam Flarup was on the cutting edge of two revolutionary moments in college sports history.
She was there when Title IX was kicking into gear, forever changing the way colleges viewed, funded and developed women's athletics.
She was there when Internet websites began springing to life, forever altering the landscape of communication, promotion and culture.
Flarup had a hands-on role with both movements during her 39 years with the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department, a pioneering career that will end when she retires Aug. 31.
Title IX, the landmark federal legislation that barred sexual discrimination in education, was passed in 1972.
Two years later, 12 women's sports began practicing and competing at UW — badminton, basketball,
Flarup through the years (clockwise, top left): On Wisconsin press row with colleague and
former CoSIDA president Justin Doherty; with UConn head coach at the 2009 NCAA
Women's FInal Four in St. Louis; Flarup and Doherty with Steve Malchow (now at Iowa
State) and Jim mott, long-time Wisconsin men’s SID; in Sydney, Australia.
cross country, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, rowing, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field and volleyball — utilizing a budget of $118,000.
Flarup arrived on the scene in 1977 to serve as the school's first full-time women's sports information director. She was a one-person committee that provided communications for all the women's sports while assisting in promotion, marketing and event management for the UW Athletic Department.
"Those early years prepared me to accept new challenges and stay flexible," Flarup recounted. "Everything in women's sports was evolving so rapidly as Title IX kicked into high gear. I was able to take advantage of those opportunities both as a student-athlete in college, and later at the University of Wisconsin. It has been terrific fun to build my communications career here, and to watch the department grow and blossom with success."
When UW merged its men's and women's sports information offices in 2001, Flarup became the school's first director of website services. In that role she helped develop the award-winning UWBadgers.com website, ushered it through seven redesigns, oversaw the creation of the Badger Game Day mobile app and facilitated the birth of dozens of internal websites for UW Athletics.
"I am often amused that a person who grew up in the non-computer age now has charge of the world wide website presence for the Department of Athletics," Flarup said smiling. "The technological changes in our industry have been remarkable and I just tried to stay in front of the trends."
Flarup grew up in Eagle Grove, Iowa, played varsity golf at Iowa State and graduated from there with degrees in journalism and physical education in 1975.
In addition to her directorial duties with the website, she also serves as the main communications contact for the men's and women's golf teams.
Flarup left her fingerprints at a variety of important locations across the country.
She is a longtime member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), serving on the board and multiple committees for the governing body of her profession. That earned Flarup the distinction of becoming the seventh woman to be inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2007.
She spent 16 years as a volunteer on the NCAA communications committee, which administers the Division I women's basketball championship. That work earned Flarup the 2004 Mel Greenberg Award for contributions to women's intercollegiate basketball.
Closer to home, Flarup was an early member of the campus social media club, served on several UW 
search committees and participated in the university's oral history project recalling the early days of women's athletics on campus.
Flarup has lived in the same Van Hise Avenue neighborhood on Madison's near west side for decades. There she's known for organizing all types of seasonal and holiday get-togethers. She's known for sharing tickets and parking passes to Badgers games. She's known for her love of musicals and singing.
Flarup has experienced dramatic changes in attitudes and equipment during her time at UW.
At the outset of Title IX she remembers that "everything was a battle" when it came to getting attention for women's sports. She recalled a local sports editor telling her that women's sports "will never appear in his newspaper."
She persevered.
UW still has 12 women's sports, but their profiles routinely show up on the front page of the sports section and their quality — multiple national championships have been won in cross country, ice hockey and lightweight rowing — is often celebrated.
Flarup was at the forefront of the transition from typewriters to computers to the Internet. She was the first in the UW Athletic Department to use a computer to transmit words and statistics to newspapers. In 1988, she oversaw organizing the first computerized stats program for men's and women's basketball.
Flarup's admirable legacy: pioneer, revolutionary, hall of famer.
Those traits will be honored when Flarup receives a Lifetime Achievement award June 13 at the CoSIDA convention in Dallas, Texas.