Competition still fuels Don Davey

The former standout defensive lineman for the University of Wisconsin football team had retired from the game after eight seasons in the NFL, the first four of which the Manitowoc native spent with the Green Bay Packers. Davey felt like something was missing, and he was trying to find it when a friend challenged him to train for a sprint triathlon.

“A little short one,” Davey said all these years later, casually ignoring the fact that most humans wouldn’t be able to complete an event that includes a half-mile swim, 12.4-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run.

“I thought, ‘What the hell? I’m a professional athlete. I can do this thing.’ So I went and did it, and I literally almost died. I almost drowned in the swim. I was so exhausted on the bike, and I had to crawl across the finish line. And I was embarrassed. I was humiliated.”

Polzin: ‘Big-boy football is coming to town’ Is Wisconsin football ready for it?

He laughs about it now. It’s a little over 20 years later, and Davey is back in Wisconsin for what he says is a week filled with some of his favorite things in life. It will conclude with an epic sports weekend that includes him attending the Badgers’ game against No. 4 Alabama on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium and the Packers’ home opener against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Lambeau Field.

But he has a lot of work to do before the relaxation portion of his trip can begin. Davey participated in a relay event in Madison on Saturday as part of Ironman Wisconsin weekend. That race — Davey handled the cycling portion of the 70.3-mile event that took place a day before the full Ironman — was what he called “a warmup” for long week in which he’ll get plenty of Wisconsin.

Davey will take part in a six-day, 700-mile bike ride across the state with a team of 20 riders that began Monday in the Milwaukee area and will include stops in Prairie du Sac, La Crosse, Eau Claire, Stevens Point and Green Bay.

The ride is coordinated by Team One Mile, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit whose mission is to help children of fallen military members. The group already has raised over $100,000 that will be used to help about 200 children attend Camp Hometown Heroes in Grafton.

“This is a group that I’m really passionate about because they look to merge athletes with military veterans,” said Davey, who played for the Badgers from 1987-90 and was drafted by the Packers in the third round in 1991. “My dad served 13 years in the marine corps, my older brother served 13 years as well as a helicopter pilot. I’ve got a lot of respect for our military veterans.”

Davey’s team includes professional cyclists and Navy Seals. He took part in a similar event last year in Florida — he lives in the Jacksonville area — and participated in a 3,000-mile race in 2021 that began at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California and ended at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

He carried an American flag with him the entire way and presented it to his mother, Gail, at the finish line in honor of his father.

Kenneth Davey had died five months earlier of kidney failure.

“If there’s anything that describes him, it’s hard work and discipline and overcoming obstacles,” Davey said of his father. “He was a Marine, he was a traveling salesman. He had five kids. He worked his (tail) off, and I feel like these endurance events are a fitting tribute to him.”

Davey keeps a photo of his father mounted to his bike.

“Every time I’m riding, I’m talking to him and praying to him,” Davey said. “He’s with me every step of the way. It’s kind of my special time to still stay connected with my dad.”

4 observations after rewatching Wisconsin’s win over South Dakota

Davey, 56, married his high school sweetheart, Kristen, and they have five children. He’s the senior portfolio manager at Disciplined Equity Management, and his clients include some of his former NFL buddies. He owns Firehouse Subs franchises in Orlando and Madison, and during a dinner last Friday night he presented a $530,000 check on behalf of the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation to aid first responders in Wisconsin. He’s competed in 14 Ironman events, including the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.

What’s next for Davey after this week he’s been looking forward to for so long? He’ll keep training, of course, because he found that thing that he was searching for 20 years ago.

It’s competition that drives him.

“It’s funny,” he said. “I tell people that I was kind of made to play football. From the minute I stepped on the football field in kindergarten, I was good. I was big, I was strong, I was fast and I loved to hit people. That’s the mold for a defensive lineman.

“But I was certainly not built to do Ironman races and do endurance races. I’ve had to work harder at this sport than I did at football, and I worked my (tail) off to get good at football. But I think I’ve even had to work harder to get good at this sport, which has made it even more rewarding.”