 A native of Wisconsin, Briskey earned his BS degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1952 in meat and animal science, then earned his MS in animal science from the Ohio State University in 1955.Briskey finally earned his Ph.D. from Wisconsin in biochemistry and meat and animal science in 1958.After earning his Ph.D, Briskey then joined the faculty of meat and animal science department at Wisconsin where he would work his way up to professor rank and became director of the Institute of Muscle Biology.