There is no way to accurately to measure the character and the potential impact of every student-athlete that comes through the University of Wisconsin, but there is one certainty.

The bar sits somewhere in the vicinity of Troy Vincent.

He was a cornerback and kick returner for the Badgers during one of their darkest football periods — just nine wins in four years from 1988 to '91 — but he persevered to be an All-American.

He thought so highly of his experience in Madison that he endowed a football scholarship, valued at $250,000, at UW.

He didn't graduate from UW, but he pursued a diploma down roads that connected him with elite business schools at Stanford and Harvard, insights that helped him get started in construction and financial consulting enterprises.

He played 16 seasons in the NFL with such distinction that he was an All-Pro five times and, more importantly, received the Walter Payton Award in 2002 for excellence on the field as well as volunteer and charity work.

He and his wife, Tommi, founded Love Thy Neighbor Community Development and Opportunity Corp., which focuses on positive social and economic change in his hometown of Trenton, N.J.

A past president of the NFL Players' Association, Vincent is now regarded as a potential replacement for the late Gene Upshaw as executive director of that high-profile union.

That extraordinary resume will be among those celebrated Friday when Vincent and eight others are inducted in the UW Athletics Hall of Fame. The ceremony begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be held in front of the Camp Randall Memorial Sports Center.

When a coach recruits someone to UW, their fundamental wish consists of maturity, good health, a diploma and positive contributions to the team. Anything beyond that is gravy.

Vincent, whose UW career spanned the worst of the Don Morton and Barry Alvarez eras, pushed the envelope of growth and performance in every direction.

Vincent isn't the most unique member of the newest Hall of Fame class, though.

That would be Megan Scott, the only woman in UW history to earn letters in three sports. She didn't just suit up for volleyball, basketball and track, either.

A Platteville product who transferred to Madison after two years at Kansas, Scott was an all-Big Ten Conference first-team selection in volleyball, a second-team all-league choice in basketball and a point-getter in the discus in the Big Ten outdoor meet in 1984.

Multi-sport athletes at the major college level — men and women — are becoming rarer than cassette recorders, film canisters and airline meals.

Amy Vermeulen (women's hockey and soccer) and Gwen Jorgensen (women's swimming and track) head a short list of UW women who have diversified of late.

The rundown of UW men to double is longer and more distinguished, with the likes of Michael Bennett, Paul Hubbard, Tony Simmons and Al Toon all focused on football and track.

Given the demands placed on the modern-day student-athlete, we'll never see another Megan Scott again.

By the same token, we can only hope that another Troy Vincent is somewhere on campus, his wings poised to fly.

UW's class of 2008

The nine-person contingent features the late Otto Breitenbach, who was a standout football player for the Badgers (1942) and served as UW associate athletic director from 1973 to '88.

Inductees are organized in four categories.