When Marc Behrend was “on the nozzle” with the lead hose at a fire during his 28-year career with the Madison Fire Department, his fellow crew members marveled at his calm, confident demeanor and lightning-quick reactions as he worked his way through a burning building.
Behrend, who will retire Friday just one day shy of his 56th birthday, earned the most coveted job among firefighters because he snuffed out fires like he stopped hockey pucks as a goalie for the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team, leading the Badgers to two NCAA titles in the 1980s. He went on to play on the 1984 U.S. Olympic hockey team and spent four years in the National Hockey League. But as important as Behrend’s athletic and hockey training may have been to his development as a firefighter, he also has rich firefighter-red blood running through him.