Badger State Games to extend opportunities to even more athletes. Otto Breitenbach became the executive director of the Wisconsin Amateur Sports Corporation in 1988, and he was credited with raising the profile and scope of the games during his nine-year tenure. By 1997, when Breitenbach retired, the Badger State Games was "considered by many to be the current standard bearer" among statewide multi-sport events, and the country's largest relative to state population. At the 2006 summer games, Bill Wambach of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, a long-time competitor, broke the national high-jump record for the 80- to 84-year-old division with a jump of 1.26 meters.
Badger Boys State its program now requires a full-time volunteer staff of over one hundred people, plus a part-time special lecture staff of 45. Attendance has grown from 484 in 1939 to an all-time high of 1,066 in 1982. Ripon College was forced to place some restrictions on space in the late 1980s whereby total citizen attendance is restricted to 973 per session. Many Badger Boys State graduates serve public office or work in business, the professions, industry, and the armed forces. First Day - SATURDAY, June 21 - Registration • Election of Ward/City, and County Committeeman • Party Caucuses, city and county.