Career
Sauer was the head coach at the University of Wisconsin from 1982 to 2002 and Colorado College from 1971 to 1982. While at Wisconsin, he led the Badgers to two National Collegiate Athletic Association men"s ice hockey championships. He is currently the special assistant to the commissioner of the WCHA. Playing
Jeff Sauer accepted an athletic scholarship from Colorado College and began attending the school in 1961.
After sitting out the Tigers" disastrous 0-23 season in 1961-1962 Sauer became part of the rebuild under first Tony Frasca and then Bob Johnson.
Despite his efforts, Sauer couldn"t help Colorado College reach the WCHA playoffs in any of his three seasons before graduating in 1965. Coaching
After graduating Sauer signed on as an assistant under Johnson at Central Committee and then followed his former coach to Wisconsin, staying with the program until just after the Badgers joined the WCHA before he received his shot behind the bench at his alma mater.
Sauer took over for a rather moribund program that had seen only two winning seasons in their past 13 campaigns and slowly brought the team back to respectability. (as of 2014) All told, however, Sauer didn"t have much more success than his predecessors as he could only provide Colorado College with 2 winning seasons in 11 years as head coach.
He retired as head coach after the 2001-2002 season, turning the program over to Badger alumnus Mike Eaves.
Administration
After stepping down Sauer agreed to serve as the assistant commissioner for the WCHA for several years and in 2010 he returned as head coach for the United States sled hockey team at the 2010 Winter Paralympics. He helped the Americans to their second gold medal in the event and four years later returned for a repeat performance in Sochi. † Wisconsin"s participation in the 1992 Tournament was later vacated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association Committee on Infractions.
