Former Wisconsin Badgers basketball player Walt McGrory has died of cancer

MADISON – The Wisconsin men’s basketball program has lost a member of its family.

Walt McGrory, who joined the program as a walk-on in 2017 and was a member of the team for four seasons, died Saturday after a lengthy battle with cancer.

The standout from Edina High School in Minnesota was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, in August 2021.

Doctors amputated part of his left leg in April of this year.

Current UW players Tyler Wahl and Carter Gilmore and former UW players Trevor Anderson and Carter Higginbottom were able to drive to Minnesota before the season started to visit McGrory.

“It was heartwarming to go up there and just see him again,” Wahl said last month. “Kind of like old times, because we would all hang out together.

“We talked a little bit about what was going on with him, but mostly it was just to visit, getting him to laugh and chop it up.”

McGrory started a GoFundMe page in September, and fans and friends helped raise more than $136,000.

Head coach Greg Gard took time after UW’s victory over Robert Morris on Nov. 17 to ask fans to think of McGrory, whose condition was deteriorating.

“I first want to start out with something that’s way bigger than tonight’s game, the game of basketball itself,” Gard said that night. “For Badger Nation, those that are out there tuning in, whatever your philosophical, spiritual mode is that you do, if you could send some good thoughts and prayers to Walt McGrory’s way.…

“And Walt, if you are listening or watching with your family, just to let you know we love you here in Madison and are thinking about you and praying for you.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former Wisconsin Badgers basketball player Walt McGrory dies of cancer