Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Would you support a National Wrestling Endowment?

There has been a discussion going on the national form www.themat.com about a potential National College Wrestling Endowment to help preserve current college wrestling programs and starting new college wrestling programs.

One poster who originated the idea has asked others to seek out in their state wrestling forums the level of support. Here is what he is asking for and I will follow that up with another post on the level of support that you would be willing to give:

Dear Wrestling Community,


As many of you already know, Arizona State University recently dropped their men’s college wrestling program. Arizona State has a rich wrestling tradition, being one of only 10 teams to win NCAAs. Unfortunately, Arizona State is not an isolated incident. Due to Title IX and other financial considerations, men’s college wrestling programs are being dropped at an alarming rate. The opportunities for high school athletes to wrestle in college are rapidly diminishing, making it not too difficult to envision a time when college wrestling no longer exists.


So far, the efforts of the wrestling community have largely been reactionary, starting only after the decision has already been made to drop a program, when the probability of reinstatement is at its lowest. In the battle to save college wrestling and insure that opportunities exist for high school wrestlers to compete at the college level, the wrestling community has brought forth the idea for the establishment of a National College Wrestling Endowment to preserve and reinstate college wrestling programs.


The Endowment would be a tax-exempt entity administered by the NWCA or some other officially sanctioned wrestling governing body. The goal would be to raise $100 million over 5 years. The resulting endowment would then throw off approximately $5-6 million annually, which could be used to preserve and/or reinstate 3-4 programs per year. A National College Wrestling Endowment would allow us to get ahead of the curve, raising the necessary funds BEFORE programs are cut. It is much easier to save a program that a University is planning to cut than one that has already been cut.


In envisioning a National College Wrestling Endowment, the thought was that the Endowment would not be a vehicle to "buy" back wrestling programs. It would exist to provide financial support and liquidity to those programs where the alumni are making a dedicated effort to either start or reinstate a wrestling program. A perfect example is University of Oregon. They have raised $3-4 million and they believe they need $6 million to fully fund a program. If a National Endowment existed, it could, depending on resources, either contribute the remaining capital or provide loans to help the alumni efforts. This would get more programs up and running faster. Again, the National Endowment would serve to complement alumni efforts, only helping those programs whose alumni are willing to help themselves.


While local fundraising efforts focus solely on alumni with significant financial capabilities and on the localized wrestling community, I think a national effort would provide a perfect complement, as it would attract donors whose programs are not currently in trouble, but may be down the road. In addition, many of those in the wrestling community wrestled for schools whose programs no longer exist. They may be willing to contribute, but to which school's efforts? By having a National Endowment, they can effectively contribute to all of the efforts to save college wrestling.


The local high school wrestling communities, which stand to benefit the most through increased collegiate wrestling opportunities, can be a powerful force toward change. With 250,000+ participants across the nation, small contributions can add up to a large endowment. If each high school wrestler were to fund-raise a contribution of $100/year, the endowment would reach its goal of $100,000,000 in 4 years. Add to that all of the college wrestler and alumni donations, and the National College Wrestling Endowment would become an even more powerful force for preserving college wrestling.


At this point, we’re trying to get a sense of the support level in the wrestling community for such a National College Wrestling Endowment. I would appreciate any feedback, but I am particularly interested in learning whether or not you would be willing to contribute to such an Endowment. Again, no such Endowment exists at this time. At this point, we are only trying to gauge interest from the larger wrestling community. Thanks for your feedback.

I know a lot of people on our forum use their real names, so if you would like to say you would support it at some level but not put the specific amount that is fine. The poster on the national forum is trying to get a sense of how many people would actually contribute to such a fund. If he knew the level it would be helpful to him but it is understandable why someone would not want to put down a specific amount.

I will thank you in advance if you decide to participate on this topic.

http://www.thematforums.com/myforum/?show_topic=54059&forum_id=3&pagenum=1

This is one of the topics that has taken place on the national forum on the proposed National College Wrestling Endowment Fund.

Here is another article that was posted on the national forum that is about the endowment concept with individual teams:

Endowment is an answer for college wrestling woes
Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
12/17/2002

In today’s climate of Title IX cuts and the college sports financial crunch, it is with great joy that I post good news from college wrestling programs. The most positive announcement that can be made is that a college wrestling team has developed an endowment. An endowment, no matter how large, makes wrestling a more attractive choice within a college sports program. When alumni and wrestling supporters place endowed money behind a college program, it makes it much more secure in an insecure world. The most recent announcement came from a college that does not win NCAA team or individual titles, but has a long and rich wrestling tradition. Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania will celebrate a $1 million endowment for the program later this winter. Alumni and wrestling supporters came together and raised money to honor a former coaching legend, W. Roy Phillips. Those involved felt that nothing would better honor Phillips than making the F&M program financially secure in the future. I remember a conversation I had at last year’s NCAA Div. I National Championships with Bill Lam, the longtime coach at the Univ. of North Carolina. Lam was explaining how the proudest achievement of his long career was the development of an endowment for the Tar Heel program. He said that he could now retire from coaching knowing that UNC would always keep wrestling on its athletic program. Lam is hanging it up this year and passing the baton to one of his great champions, C.D. Mock. Mock will be able to continue to create UNC wrestling stars, the future T.J Jaworskis and Rob Kolls. I have also heard from coach Greg Strobel about the amazing support for Lehigh wrestling by its alumni. A few years ago, Lehigh supporters created an endowment to pay the salaries of the head coach and the assistant coach at Lehigh into the future. This program is so secure, that even the paycheck for the coaches is now guaranteed. It would be nice to know just how many of today’s 300 college programs have been endowed, and how many have reached the status of “fully endowed.” It sounds like a great project for the National Wrestling Coaches Association sometime in the future (after they win their Title IX lawsuit). Knowledge is power, and it would be nice to know how much of college wrestling is currently backed by financial support. It seems to me that endowment must be done before a program is in danger. Those that understand Title IX must believe that every current program is in danger under the current rules. It would make sense that every college team, regardless of division, should immediately undertake a campaign for endowment. We have gone from over 750 college wrestling teams to just over 300 squads, a 60% loss of opportunity for our current wrestlers. Considering how few programs are now available for the 1/4 million American high school wrestlers, we need to realize how precious each of our existing programs are. Every single barrier we can place in the way of colleges cutting wrestling should be erected, as soon as possible. Just because you can raise money doesn’t mean a university will take it. Remember how Bucknell University turned down a $1/2 million gift from a wrestling alumnus to save its wrestling team? The university had gone through the process of cutting the program for Title IX purposes, and decided to turn down the money rather than face the numbers problem caused by keeping the team. For those attempting to defend the Title IX quota, this is an example that finances are not the only problem in college athletics. A great example of how to save a wrestling program comes from Princeton, where alumni leaders stepped up and raised millions of dollars to keep the program after it was announced to be dropped. Leaders such as Clay McEldowney reached out to former Princeton wrestlers and they came up with the funds to save wrestling. This past year, a Princeton wrestler made the finals of the NCAA Championships, something unthinkable during the years of battle for the team’s survival. One of the interesting aspects of this success story was how much work had to be done to get Princeton to agree to accept the alumni money and keep the team. Now, what if Bucknell had already established the endowment for wrestling, rather than trying to rally for support once the program was placed on the chopping block? Perhaps we would still have varsity wrestling on that campus. Maybe not. But is there any reason we should wait as a wrestling community for the axe to come for our college programs? Some people get very upset that wrestlers are forced to fundraise, while other programs (including women’s sports) can exist without supporting itself. Morally, this certainly is not right, but the reality of life says that we can’t get too hung up on this truth. If we are willing to do the work, and a university is willing to let us, perhaps we should “do whatever it takes” to maintain our college wrestling tradition. This would be something that we leave as a legacy for the future, a gift for the next generation of young wrestlers. Some college programs help secure their future using the “brick and mortar” method. Cornell University wrestling has a tremendous wrestling facility on campus supported by alumni leadership. Down at Lehigh, wrestling people were involved in the renovation of famous Grace Hall, the site of so much college wrestling history. Buildings alone don’t always do the trick. At American University, a major alumni leader donated the construction of an impressive wrestling room on campus. This generous gift did not stop the school last year from deciding to evaluate the wrestling program, with a possibility of dropping the team. Credit goes to that same leader, as well as an active team of alumni and supporters, who stepped up to save the team. Now American has made a stronger commitment to wrestling, with a talented coach and an ambitious plan for building a winning team. Another lesson from the Princeton program is that this must be done by alumni leaders, not coaches. Certainly coaches can work hard to motivate the alumni to build a bond with the current team. However, when the endowment leadership comes from alumni, it carries more weight with the administration. It is especially helpful when prominent alumni threaten to pull future support in other areas of the college if their favorite sports team is not supported. This will be more difficult at smaller colleges and state colleges, which may not have as many financially successful alumni. In addition, some schools do not have many decades of alumni to pull from. However, even at these places, an endowment program makes sense and sends a strong message to campus athletic directors and presidents. Later this year, Columbia University will hold a celebration of its 100 years of college wrestling. Columbia has survived and thrived with the support of generous alumni, who have provided support to wrestling. While not the most successful of the Ivy League wrestling programs, Columbia has provided a rich tradition for wrestling and has impacted the lives of thousands of young men. Building on that strong base, Columbia is now showing great improvement on the mat, as well. If we are going to celebrate more 100-year birthday parties for college wrestling teams during the new century, the creation of an endowment program will certainly play an important role. The first step to saving college wrestling for the future comes from the “entrenchment” of those valuable programs we still have.

I believe that if we could get a combination of a National College Wrestling Endowment fund and individual school alumni funds working together thru matching contributions or loans from a National Endowment Fund that wrestling could start reversing this trend of colleges cutting wrestling programs and instead we would be gradually building our numbers again. We would be taking matters into our own hands and not waiting for legislators or the NCAA to solve it for us. We would start developing some financial clout for college wrestling that would enpower our sport with universities. It might not ever get to the level that football and basketball are at not but I know it would be a lot better than it is now.

I do understand that it would be very difficult to say how much you were willing to give on a forum if you have your real name on a post. If you would like to post that with an anonymous post you could do that on the national forum once you are logged in on the topic:

http://www.thematforums.com/myforum/?show_topic=54170&forum_id=3

Any level of committment on an annual basis would be important and signficant. Like I said if you don't want to say how much specifically. Just to say that you would contribute would be enough. If you think this is a terrible idea that is fine too and please feel free to say why.

I know this is a one person topic so far, but I see people are viewing it.

I have some what I think is very good news.

I have heard back from the NWCA that they are interested in spearheading the effort. They are talking about it with other wrestling leadership. They will get communicate their plan with the wrestling community once they have a solid game plan. They are going to discuss it during their upcoming June board meeting.

I thought I would bump this topic that I started back in May 2008 so those who are participating in the current topic on the college forum about the "Kansas hero transfers to OU!" could see what I was referring to in the discussion that has evolved as to possibly creating a Kansas College Wrestling Endowment Fund for the purpose of promoting College Wrestling in Kansas (with the initial primary focus to be establishing a D-1 wrestling program in Kansas).

As you can see I did not get any participation in this topic back in May 2008 but it was in the wrestling off season. Perhaps we could make a successful effort in Kansas. I would be willing to join others in trying to make it work in Kansas. Personally I feel I owe it to the future generations of Kansas wrestlers to help in this effort both financially and with my time. It would take a lot of dedicated and committed people in the Kansas wrestling community to make it successful. I hope there are a lot of serious individuals in the Kansas wrestling community willing to join the effort.

Yes - I have not read the entire thread yet.

I'm not sure I fully understand. Do we believe that if we collect $1 million, that one of the D1 schools will use that money to initiate a program? Has anyone at any of the schools indicated any enthusiasm for this effort?

Cleve, those are good questions. I really do not know if one of the D1 schools would say yes to starting a D-1 wrestling program if we came to them with a million dollars or more. I do know there would be a better chance of it happening if we actually had a million dollars than just the promise of it. Also if none of the D-1 schools were interested than you still can greatly benefit the current non D-1 schools that currently have programs in Kansas. My suggestion would be to finance these current schools as the fund develops over the years. I think you could give each of our current schools 1% a year in donations of the fund balance. For example at the end of the fund fiscal first year if you had $100,000 in your accounts, you would give $1,000 each to Fort Hays State, Labette, Neosho, Pratt, Newman, Colby and Baker universities for their wrestling programs. I would suggest doing that every year. If the fund grew to $500,000 in five years each school would get $5,000 a year at that time. If a D-1 Kansas school is ultimately not interested we can still do a lot of good for Kansas college wrestling by funding these current Kansas college universities with wrestling programs. Maybe at some point the fund would grow big enough that we would finally get a D-1 school on board. What would a fund like this amount to today if it had started say thirty or forty years ago?