UW-Platteville Standouts Chris Charnish and Mike Hintz Named to the WIAC Football All-Time Team

Former University of Wisconsin-Platteville fotoball standouts Chris Charnish and Mike Hintz were recently named to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Football All-Time Team that will be recognized in conjunction with the conference's upcoming Centennial Celebration.

Charnish, who played for the Pioneers from 1967 to 1970, was a three-time first team All-WIAC selection at UW-Platteville. In 1969 and in 1970, he was selected as the team MVP and second team NAIA All-American.

Hintz, who played for the Pioneers from 1984 to 1986, also earned numerous honors both on and off the field at UW-Platteville. He earned first team all-conference recognition from the WIAC in 1985 and 1986. Hintz was also named the conference's scholar athlete in 1986. Also, in 1986, he was named as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel conference MVP and the team MVP. He was selected first team NAIA All-American. In 1985, he was named NAIA All-American and in 1986 by the American Football Coaches Association American. Hintz was also selected to the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team in 1985 and 1986.

All-Time Teams are being selected in those men's and women's sports that have been classified as "championship" sports at some point during the conference's 100-year history. Additional teams will be released on a weekly basis throughout much of the 2011-12 academic year.

WIAC Commissioner Gary Karner remarked that this has been an extremely difficult process given the 100-year span and incomparable success the conference has experienced in most of its sports. Karner noted that in some sports, even achieving All-American status didn't necessarily guarantee an athlete a spot on the team. He also acknowledged that while disagreement is inherent and expected whenever there is a selection of an all-time anything (be it a team, restaurant or movie), the conference nonetheless felt it important to recognize student-athletes and coaches who have contributed to the success of the most accomplished Division III conference in NCAA history.

The student-athlete representation on each team has relied heavily on input provided by the sports information director from each of the nine WIAC campuses, while the process for selecting the head coach(es) for each team also includes input from a panel of media representatives. The number of individuals selected per team varies depending upon the nature of the sport itself as well as the number of years the sport has/had been sponsored within the conference.

The conference has also elected to establish a special "legacy" category to recognize those student-athletes and coaches who had extremely accomplished careers but competed during an era(s) when the compilation of statistical data was spotty at best and/or the style of play at that time does not translate for comparative purposes to the stats prevalent in the modern era. The WIAC "Legacy Team" will also be named at a later date.

All-Time Team members will receive certificates from the conference and it is hoped that most, if not all, of the recipients will be in attendance or represented at the WIAC Centennial Banquet to be held at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison on August 4, 2012.

More information on the activities and events associated with the WIAC Centennial can be accessed via the WIAC website at www.wiacsports.com.