Wrestling Talk Forums supported
USA Wrestling Kansas KWCA
Wrestling Talk Forums supported & maintained by USA Wrestling-Kansas
USAW USA Wrestling Kansas
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Kansas University officially announced its $26.67 million deal for 8 years with adidas yesterday according to the Kansas City Star. With the new $40.2 million deal with ESPN that means about $67 million in revenue over the next eight years for its athletic department. I figured that it is going to mean about an extra $7 million a year over what their old contracts were. I was told by a Big 12 AD in an e-mail yesterday that a Big 12 wrestling program runs about $600,000 a year in expenses so this would be under 10% of its NEW MONEY coming in!!

We need to petition the KU AD and Chancellor ASAP or today if possible to add men AND women wrestling NCAA programs at KU. After them you might also consider contacting your state representatives in Topeka, maybe even the governor and Phil Kline our ex-wrestler attorney general. The thing is do something today or ASAP. The forces to stop this will be great, but we are wrestlers and wrestling families and they don't know how tough we can be. Contact others to do the same. Congratulate them on their new contracts but let them know you expect them to use a portion of it to add College Wrestling.

PLEASE do not drop this from this forum just because this topic is on other forums. We need to reach everyone NOW!


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,934
Member
Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,934
Hey Vince, since you have done some of the work on this there are some things that could help if you have them.

Contact information of all parties we need to get in touch with as well as addresses, emails, and phone numbers. I would include here, the AD, Assistant AD, President of the University, Booster Clubs of the University, etc… It would also be good if we knew of a legislative committee who oversees KU and contact them. (Political Pressure on a Politician carries more weight than one may realize.) It certainly gets the discussion going from an academic head or coach to a, "well some people are making noise about this" mode. People need to contact their own legislatures as well. I would even recommend a group of us, in large numbers going to the legislature in Topeka to advocate for this. This will show personal interest and will carry more weight than one may realize. I would be glad to take a group from Wichita in my mini van on the day we would decide to do this if we decide to.

There is already a number of hits and looks on this topic on the national threads and it is really time for the supporters of wrestling to come out of the woodwork. A real problem we have right now is that the majority of our wrestlers and their families are through with the season. It is critical that our Freestyle/Greco programs get on the ball and contact others. Otherwise, without huge numbers making the contacts, being the squeaky wheel, we are only making noise and those in power of making this decision may not feel the need to apply the oil that we so desperately need.

One other thing, if you want to draft a letter that is brief, and to the point it would be good to use that same letter to email all of the clubs in the state, (Not the legislators or KU people, while there may be some good letters, personal letters with ones own passion carries more weight.). I will make sure that all of those listed in District 2 get the email and letter of petition, will be glad to send that out to others. It might be good to even go to people like Juby who has an email database of all of the posters and people on the forums.

I can get that letter also on the mat and contact Gary Abbot and others to get on their email lists. Possibly even Ken Chertow and others like Rueben Leon or even RPW who we all know has a massive list that can email the requests for International Help. Thanks and let me know if you or someone else can draft that letter.

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 471
B
Member
Member
B Offline
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 471
I have read the topic and understand what you are saying. I think everyone out there would like to see one of our D1 schools pick up wrestling again. I would like to bring up some items that we should all think about. I am guilty of this more than anyone. How many people help support the college programs in the state that we now have? I know District donates money to the colleges and so does USA Kansas wrestling. But that amount of money isn’t enough. Not to many years ago our Kansas colleges could not compete with other states in the amount of scholarship money that it gave out. So our good wrestlers were going elsewhere to wrestle.
How many people from across the state go to matches at Labette, Neosho, Colby, Newman, and FHSU, to show support. When my son was at Labette they would have maybe 200 fans, but most of the time less. I now go to the matches at FHSU and they have about 300 or so fan at most of the duals sometimes more. How do you think our college wrestlers would react if every home match was a sellout and standing room only. Wouldn’t it be great if each school could give every wrestler the max amount of dollars allowed by NCAA rules. I am not against KU or KSU having wrestling. I think it would be great. But how many people are going to make a commitment with money and attendance. These are some of the questions I have. I personally think we need to take care of what we have right now in the state. Because I think what we have in the state right now is pretty darn good. They just need some help.

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,934
Member
Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,934
Bob I agree whole heartedly with your post but think one has to be careful here. Let's not base the programs that get started on the attendance at a particular event. For example, I really believe that more people, even with the smaller numbers given will attend the event, at a higher profit margin, than other sports on campus. I could give numerous examples of this but my daughter played another sport I love through college, soccer. It was not unusual to go to matches where they had less than 50 people. I would imagine that even at FHSU and other much larger schools this would be the case for some sports.

Coach Stovall presented a good product to Kansas Newman for example, we attended as many matches as we could, but this year the school was limited and had to do more duals and open tournaments away from Newman than they did in town. The numbers there were actually good although they can always be better. To me it is more about building a program and then providing more opportunities for our wrestlers who go out of state to other D-1 schools that are more high profile programs. I don't see the development of D-1 wrestling as hurting the smaller programs, I actually see it helping it. Then there is the other question. Do we allow state owned schools, which all of us pay for, do what they want with the additional millions they have obtained through contracts for the Athletic Department, or do we encourage the development of additional wrestling opportunities. There is new money, it seems to me as if those of us in the wrestling community have to ask ourselves if we would rather swimming or something else get those dollars as opposed to wrestling.

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Mike:

I am at work now and I really can't take the time right now to get all the contact numbers on here.
It really is not to difficult to find the KU people though. You just need to go on to a search engine and get on their website. I don't think they have a email address listed for Lew Perkins but they do for Larry Keating the Associate AD and on the general KU website there is one for the Chancellor.

Bob:

I don't think we should get into the non support of the other smaller school programs right now. NCAA Division I is what gets the most publicity from the media and has the most potential to over the long run to attract young participants and their families from other sport backgrounds. We Really Need An NCAA Divison I Team NOW! I agree with Mike that if we get one it only has the potential to increase overall interest in wrestling and make it better for all levels kids, middle school, high school and smaller college programs included.

LET US ALL GET ON THIS NOW!!! CARPE DIEM (SEIZE THE DAY OR OPPORTUNITY)!!!


Mike Furches, I am so glad you have jumped on this bandwagon. I told my wife that we really needed you on it. But we also need everyone else on it too. EVERYONE NEEDS TO DO THINGS TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. DON'T LET THIS OPPORTUNITY PASS.


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Chancellor's Office
230 Strong Hall
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas 66045
t: (785) 864-3131
f: (785) 864-4120
chancellor@ku.edu

Mike, that is Chancellor Robert Hemenway's contact information.


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 987
Member
Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 987
The following link has email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses to contact anyone associated with KU athletics, including booster clubs and corporate sponsors!!!


http://kuathletics.collegesports.com/staffdir/kan-staffdir.html


"Stats are for losers. Final scores are for winners." Bill Belicheck
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Good job, BigPin22! Folks lets keep those cards and letters coming.

Smokeycabin, can you contact wrestlingmom to send out an appeal for individual petition letters from all our STA wrestlers and their parents to the KU AD and Chancellor?


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 987
Member
Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 987
Bob,

I understand your position on supporting what we already have, however, adding a DI program to Kansas would boost participation in all levels of Kansas wrestling. I would also bet the house that KU would have no problem selling out when teams like OU, OSU, Iowa, Iowa State, etc. came to town.

Let's face it, as much as I respect the JUCO and DII programs in Kansas, DI is where all the attention is. Most kids don't grow up dreaming of wreslting for Colby College!! Lets give them a chance to wrestle for a school that is well known and respected from the rest of the nation!!


"Stats are for losers. Final scores are for winners." Bill Belicheck
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
We will eventually work on the others too (KSU, Wichita, smaller college, women teams in high school). We just have to focus on KU right now. We need to treat this like we are in double overtime.


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Besides the letters that you may be sending to the KU Chancellor, Athletic Director, legislators, Attorney General Kline, Other wrestling athletic directors, coaches, and former college or Olympic wrestlers for assistance in petitioning KU, we also need to mobilize somehow our other Kansas wrestling family members. I believe that Mike Furches was the one who pointed out that the overwhelming majority of them are probably off the forum and not paying attention. I am sure that is correct. We need to reach them as quickly as possible and tell them that they too need to send petition letters for the addition of men and women's wrestling at KU.

I think maybe what we should do is first contact the high school wrestling coaches to do that. They still have their wrestlers in school so they can get to them easier during the school day. Again I would suggest a petition letter to both the Chancellor and the KU Athletic Director from the team. In addition I also think the coach should suggest to the kids to write their own individual letters of petition to both the Chancellor and the KU Athletic Director. The high school wrestlers could ask their parents to do the same. The team and individual letters should be personalized so we will be giving them a variety of thoughts and personal appeals.

After that then I would concentrate on contacting Kids Clubs Directors and suggest to them to either get their kids to together to sign team petition letters (I think this will be difficult to do since the Kids are no longer in wrestling season) or to contact the wrestling families of their team and suggest for them to write individual letters.

So rally up into action first the high schools and then the Kids clubs. I think this is important to do because a few weeks ago when I wrote Larry Keating the Senior Associate KU Athletic Director about adding wrestling at KU, one of the things he mentioned in his reply was that there was just not enough interest. If they do not receive many petition letters or e-mails from us then that will confirm to them that there is not enough interest.


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 6,248
S
Member
Member
S Offline
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 6,248
A Letter from the Govenor wouldn't hurt. She or he shows up every year to the kids state tournament. Who contacts those politicians to come to the opening parade at kids state?

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Here is a copy of a letter that I am going to start sending to our high school coaches in the Kansas City area. Feel free to use it for other schools if you want to help in contacting them.

Coach


I don't know if you have been following the Kansas Wrestling Forum topics about “KU It Is Time To Add Wrestling”? I encourage you to look into the topic if you have not already. Basically over the last week Kansas University has announced that they have signed a 7 year deal with ESPN for about $40.2 Million and a $26.67 million deal with adidas for eight years. They already had contracts but these were a lot higher. I calculated that it would mean about $7 million extra a year for KU athletics. A good Big 12 wrestling program should be less than 10% of that increased revenue about $600,000 annually.

As you know Kansas does not have a NCAA Division I wrestling team at any of our institutions. The reason for this is often lack of money. KU cannot possibly use that as a reason right now. They also will use Title IX as a reason. We are suggesting for them to add a women's wrestling team too. We need some action from you now if you believe in this cause as we do. Here is what I am asking you to consider doing as soon as possible.

1. Please draft a team letter to send to Lew Perkins the KU Athletic Director and one to Chancellor Robert Hemenway that petitions them to add both NCAA Men and Women Wrestling Programs to Kansas University. Assemble all of your wrestlers from freshmen to seniors and have them and your assistant coaches sign the letter. Mail the signed letter.
2. Encourage your wrestlers and coaches to write individual letters too. Ask them to also encourage their family members to also write individual letters.
3. Finally consider starting a Girls Wrestling team or club at your high school next year. Get on the Women's Forum and contact Coach Ed or his wife Jenni to see how they are starting a high school girls JV league.

Lew Perkins
Allen Fieldhouse
1651 Naismith Drive
Lawrence, KS 66045

Chancellor's Office
230 Strong Hall
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas 66045
t: (785) 864-3131
f: (785) 864-4120
chancellor@ku.edu

Thank you for your help,

Vince Nowak
Kansas Wrestling Parent


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1
N
Member
Member
N Offline
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1
Hey,
I am the current president of the KU wrestling club. I just got an email about all this that's been going on. I would definitely like KU to start a real varsity program, but it would help if we could even get the club team active. I have the email adresses of over 100 KU wrestlers, but we're happy to get 10 to practice. I have been responsible for everything about the club this year (including coaching, paperwork, traveling, etc). Our club has gotten stronger since the past two years, but it's still incredibly difficult to motivate any wrestlers to come. Next fall I want to host a KU tournament (for the NCWA go to http://www.ncwa.net), but still have not heard back from the administrators about the times and facilities I have requested. Anyways, I am always looking for help in figuring out how to increase interest and turnout. I also think that having a successful tournament (and success from our team) would certainly be something for Lou Perkins to look at. Anyways, I just wanted to say that I'm always looking for ideas and help. Coaches should certainly encourage their wrestlers to join the KU and KState wrestling clubs.
-Nathan Hartshorne

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 5,262
A
Member
Member
A Offline
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 5,262
I don't think it's just a small school problem when it comes to attendace...I went to a dual between two DI schools a few months ago and there might have been 400 if they were lucky...I think it was more like 300.


Yours in wrestling,

The Swayz
swayz.wrestling@gmail.com recruiting help, promoting the sport& more!
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 6,248
S
Member
Member
S Offline
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 6,248
Attendance at these events depends on the committment of the university to provide an advertisng budget for all sports. Metro Sports in Kansas City would be a huge benefit and/or tool to help promote wrestling and attendance to these events. I coached at Southwest Missouri (before they dropped it). They womens basketball program hardly drew any fans. They were given a large infusion of advertising dollars to keep up with the mens basketball team. Now they draw crowds as large as the mens and sometimes more fans than the mens program. It can be done. The wrestlers also need to be active in the community.

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Once we get an NCAA team, you are correct that the wrestling community will have to be very active in promoting it and supporting it. I have a feeling though that it will get great support. We have been deprived of a team for a very very long time.


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 168
C
Member
Member
C Offline
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 168
Quit talking and get to emailing KU. I've already sent an email to the KU AD, and I plan on continuing to email whether I get positive response or not.

I hope I didn't step on any toes, but I offered the help of the High School coaches in getting the program off the ground. What ever we need to do to get the ball rolling we need to do it.

Remember the sqeaky wheel gets the oil.

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Coach Neil,

I am very glad that you sent that e-mail to the AD. I started sending Lew Perkins petitions on it when he first started the job a couple of years ago. I always thought since he played his college basketball at Iowa that he would have some college wrestling background. He sent me an initial response back too a couple of years ago. It was the usual no reasons but he did not close the door on the possibility.

Did you send one to the Chancellor too? You might also consider sending one to the Governor like Sean did. I have not sent her one yet but I will.

Consider drafting team letters that all your wrestlers would sign and your assistant coaches too. Encourage all of them to also do individual petition letters and to suggest the same to their parents.

That was a great addition in your letter about offering the help of the high school coaches to get the program off the ground. It would be needed along with people with college program experience like Eric Akin and Sean McCarthy. I doubt that there is currently anyone in the KU athletic department that has any wrestling management experience.

I know what you are saying that we should be doing more letters and action things than posting on forums. I agree but we do still need to post too. Posting keeps the issue alive and gets more people involved. I also feel it encourages us to keep going and do more. I know it does me. I think it gives us other ideas too. Like your mention of the offer of help from the high school coaches. It is a great idea to have included that in your petition letter to the AD. Maybe now some of the other high school coaches will offer to do the same in their letters to the AD.

I sent out about 50 e-mails yesterday to high schools encouraging the coaches to write the team letters to the AD and Chancellor, have the the wrestlers and coaches sign the letters and also have all of them write and send their own individual letters. I know I did not hit all the high schools. I concentrated more on local ones and ones that had links listed on this site. Some of the e-mails I sent did not go thru. Maybe you and others could also recruit some other high schools to do the same. It would not hurt if you asked some of the same ones I did yesterday.

So yes let's spend most of our efforts devoted to action but still let's keep the issue alive and post as to what we are doing periodically.


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 168
C
Member
Member
C Offline
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 168
Hey guys this is the response that I was sent by email today.

Coach Neil,

Thank you†very much for your interest in Kansas Athletics.† Obviously, our recent announcements concerning ESPN and adidas have all of us excited about the future of our program.


While we†appreciate your desire for†us to add additional sports to the 18 already represented by the outstanding student-athletes at the University of Kansas, at this time we are in no position to implement new programs.† It is imperative that we get our current programs on solid ground prior to even contemplating adding new sports.†

We never want to be in the situation of a few years ago when programs had to be dropped due to lack of financial support.† Ultimately, we look forward to the day when we will be able to implement new programs.

< P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">If you have additional questions or comments, please don‚Äôt hesitate to contact me.† Thank you again for your support of Kansas Athletics.


Sincerely,

Brandon Macneill


*******************************
Brandon Macneill
Associate Director of Athletics
University of Kansas
1651 Naismith Drive
Allen Fieldhouse
Lawrence, KS 66049
785.864.3310

Keep in mind that we will continue to get responses like this, but eventually we will get them to seriously consider our proposal. Everyone keep after them! Sooner or later they will have to listen.

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Moderated by  Nate Naasz, RedStorm 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 9 guests, and 0 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
Super Admin, bvswwrestling, CoachFitzOS, Dluce, Shawn Russell
12,303 Registered Users
Forum Statistics
Forums11
Topics36,091
Posts250,722
Members12,303
Most Online1,305
Mar 13th, 2025
Top Posters
usawks1 8,595
smokeycabin 6,248
Aaron Sweazy 5,262
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 8.0.0
(Release build 20240826)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 8.3.23 Page Time: 0.040s Queries: 54 (0.029s) Memory: 3.1385 MB (Peak: 3.5912 MB) Data Comp: Off Server Time: 2025-08-01 22:42:44 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS