Barry Lee Alvarez (born December 30, 1946) is an American former college football coach and athletic director at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

[1] Alvarez was born and raised in Langeloth, Pennsylvania, where his family settled after his grandparents immigrated to the United States from Spain.

Alvarez was an assistant coach in charge of the defense at Lincoln Northeast High School football team in Lincoln, Nebraska where his undefeated team won the City Championship, Trans-Nebraska Championship and were Co-Champions for the State of Nebraska, Class 'A' in 1972.

Alvarez later became a head coach at Lexington High School in Lexington, Nebraska and then Mason City High School in Mason City, Iowa[3] where the Mohawks won the 1978 class 4A state title, 15–13, over Dubuque Hempstead before becoming an assistant coach at University of Iowa and then at the University of Notre Dame.

From 1979 to 1986[4] at Iowa, Alvarez would coach linebackers such as Leven Weiss, Todd Simonsen, Mel Cole, James Erb, Jonathan Hayes, and Larry Station.

The players he coached that year included DL Jeff Alm, LB Frank Stams, and DB Todd Lyght.

He inherited a program that had not had a winning season since 1984, and had only won seven games in Big Ten Conference play in that time.

During his tenure, the Badgers won or shared three Big Ten titles and played in three Rose Bowls (1994, 1999 and 2000), winning all three of them.

Alvarez replaced Pat Richter as athletic director in 2004 while retaining the head coaching position.

Due to his continuing role as athletic director, Alvarez had the rare opportunity to choose his successor.

[10] Starting with the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season, the Bowl Championship Series was abandoned in favor of a four-team playoff to determine a national champion.

[11] Prior to his arrival at Wisconsin, Alvarez was part of Lou Holtz's staff at Notre Dame from 1987 to 1989.

[13] On October 13, 2006, a bronze statue of Alvarez was unveiled in the Kellner Plaza of Camp Randall Stadium.

The statue honoring Alvarez had been announced the previous year, at his last home game as head coach.