Post by crossface on Mar 4, 2007 14:19:02 GMT -5
By Frank Fitzpatrick
Inquirer Staff Writer
LEWISBURG, Pa. - If you wanted to gauge the health of collegiate wrestling in 2007, the dual meet here between Bucknell and James Madison on a frigid February night would have been an excellent place to start.
The home team's 42-0 demolition of JMU provided the 220 fans at Davis Gym with more than thrills. It allowed them to glimpse both the ailing sport's worrisome present and what supporters hope will be its rosier future.
The dazed James Madison team, doomed like so many other wrestling squads by the Title IX concerns of a lawsuit-wary administration, was a month away from oblivion. Meanwhile, all-freshman Bucknell, a team that itself had been a Title IX casualty six years earlier, had been born again, setting a school record for victories in the regular season after finishing with a 12-9-1 record. The team is participating in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships this weekend at East Stroudsburg University.
Bucknell wrestling was able to pick itself up off the mat because of a multimillion-dollar contribution from Philadelphia businessman Bill Graham.
The $7.6 million gift from the onetime Bison wrestler solved the school's Title IX conundrum. Not only did it restore varsity wrestling and fund it for the foreseeable future, but it also permitted the Patriot League school to enhance its women's programs, preserving the delicate gender balance federal law demands.
Since 1999, nine other schools have, like Bucknell, resuscitated dead programs. A few - Princeton, American and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville among them - also did so with private donations. Now, many other schools where the sport either has been axed or threatened are considering similar action.
"I really think we've turned the corner," said Mike Moyer, executive director of the Lancaster County-based National Wrestling Coaches Association.
Since 1972, when Title IX was enacted to lift women's sports onto a more equal footing with the men, 447 colleges and junior colleges - including Bucknell, Temple, Villanova, La Salle, and 20 other Pennsylvania schools - have eliminated varsity wrestling.
One of the tests for proving compliance has been proportionality, which means that the total of female athletes must approximate the percentage of females in the student body.
With female enrollment exploding - one study predicts that within a decade, 65 percent of all college students will be female - most schools see eliminating non-revenue-producing men's teams such as wrestling, gymnastics and cross-country as their only alternative.
Wrestling's supporters have fought back, often futilely, with lawsuits, organized protests and considerable outrage. And while the trend has hardly reversed itself, 47 institutions, most of them at the Division II and III levels, either have added wrestling or reinstated it in the last eight years.
"Title IX is a great law that has had terrible consequences," said Chris Ayers, the coach at Princeton, which was without varsity wrestling for four years in the 1990s. "But we're back, and we're probably in a better position than we've ever been in."
It's philanthropy, not boycotts or bake sales, that many now see as the most effective wrestling restorative.
Sometimes, as with Bucknell, the contribution to support wrestling also funds new sports, scholarships or facilities for women.
At Princeton, a newly raised endowment is used to supplement university backing of the revived team, allowing more institutional money to go to other endangered sports.
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville lost its wrestling team in 2002. But before the next season began, boosters there had committed to raise enough money to support the sport. The program, using nothing but external funds, has not only survived, but also soon plans to jump from Division II to Division I.
At American University, where plans were on the table to kill the sport in 2001 until wrestling backers intervened, supporters raise "several hundred thousand dollars a year," former coach Bob Karch said.
Other colleges have brought back wrestling with state aid. New York and New Mexico, after considerable political pressure from the coaches' association and others, recently agreed to fund programs at Binghamton University and New Mexico Highlands University, respectively.
"When we lobby schools to reinstate intercollegiate teams," Moyer said, "we always position wrestling to be an educational program. The best models are where a partnership exists between the school, alumni and community."
According to Susan Crawford, chairwoman of Bucknell's board of trustees, "Philanthropy is a great way to help prevent particular sports programs from losing varsity status."
So successful was that tactic at Bucknell that Crawford even developed a list of recommendations for similarly impacted schools.
They included educating potential donors about a program's needs, strictly following Title IX's mandates, and maintaining strong academic standards within the program, since no donor wants his or her name associated with cheaters or bad students.
Yet as simple as it might seem, the formula that saved Bucknell doesn't work everywhere.
Many state schools and smaller institutions tend not to have either deep-pocketed supporters like Graham or a history of sports-directed giving.
"I'm a graduate of West Chester, which dropped it after having had a long tradition of developing wrestlers and wrestling coaches," Moyer said. "But let's face it, when it comes to raising millions for athletics, a state school like that is not in as strong a position as a Princeton."
In raising a $3 million endowment, the Friends of Princeton Wrestling could call upon former Tigers wrestlers who now were surgeons, professors, chief executive officers, astronauts and renowned artists.
Proceeds from the group's sale of silk scarves, designed by artist Frank Stella, a 1959 graduate, helped raised the endowment.
"Many Division I schools aren't that fortunate," said Moyer, whose organization spends considerable time and money advocating restoration of wrestling programs. "They simply don't have an alumni base that can completely support an intercollegiate program with scholarships."
Unlike Bucknell's single-donor approach, Princeton's fund-raising efforts, which began almost as soon as the sport was eliminated in 1993 as a result of Title IX-related worries, touched many different supporters.
"Had a single donor given the entire sum, we would have saved much time and energy, but the result would not have been as satisfying," said Bill Fortenbaugh, a Princeton wrestler in the 1950s and chairman of the school's wrestling Friends.
But it's more complicated than simply coming up with the money. The Friends offered to endow Princeton's team as soon as it was eliminated. The university, knowing that alone wouldn't solve its Title IX problems, declined.
It wasn't until 1995, when new athletic director Gary Walters created a women's lightweight crew and upgraded a women's water polo club to varsity status, that the restoration of Princeton wrestling became possible.
The Friends provided all the money for the sport between its return in 1997 and 2004. Its endowment goal was achieved in 2005, at which time the school agreed to provide some funding.
While Princeton offers no athletic scholarships, those Division I programs that do can, according to NCAA guidelines, provide up to 9.9 scholarships a year. At $20,000 annually - a low estimate - that would add $200,000 to each year's wrestling budget. A program would need an endowment of roughly $4 million - assuming a 5 percent interest rate - to fund that amount.
And that's just for scholarships. Money for coaches' salaries, travel, recruiting and equipment - though paltry in comparison with a sport like football - also has to be found.
Meanwhile, schools like Bucknell, Princeton and the Division II and III institutions, where there are no athletic scholarships, are able to run programs more cheaply, though they still must adhere to Title IX's requirements.
"You could do it for maybe $50,000, $60,000," said Princeton's Ayers. "That's bare bones. We spend a lot more than that, but it could be done, especially here on the East Coast, where there are so many wrestling schools so close together. I could put together a schedule where we'd never have to stay in a hotel."
Still, while the trend has slowed in recent years, it sometimes seems colleges are cutting programs as fast, or even faster, than others can restore them. James Madison and Fresno State, two schools with rich wrestling traditions, killed their Division I programs in 2006.
In October, the administration at James Madison, where the student body is already 61 percent female, did away with not only wrestling but six other men's teams and three women's programs as well. According to a representative of the university, in Harrisonburg, Va., it has no plans to try to raise money to bring back any of the sports.
Schools that have resurrected programs often find that it's more difficult to restore their reputations among recruits.
"It's a question that comes up a lot," Ayers said. " 'Will wrestling be there?' They say, 'What if I go there and it goes away again? Then what do I do?'
"Once you say you're not committed to something, it's hard to rebuild that confidence. It was more than 10 years ago here, and I think we're just getting to the point where people can feel safe. The program's not going anywhere."
Inquirer Staff Writer
LEWISBURG, Pa. - If you wanted to gauge the health of collegiate wrestling in 2007, the dual meet here between Bucknell and James Madison on a frigid February night would have been an excellent place to start.
The home team's 42-0 demolition of JMU provided the 220 fans at Davis Gym with more than thrills. It allowed them to glimpse both the ailing sport's worrisome present and what supporters hope will be its rosier future.
The dazed James Madison team, doomed like so many other wrestling squads by the Title IX concerns of a lawsuit-wary administration, was a month away from oblivion. Meanwhile, all-freshman Bucknell, a team that itself had been a Title IX casualty six years earlier, had been born again, setting a school record for victories in the regular season after finishing with a 12-9-1 record. The team is participating in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships this weekend at East Stroudsburg University.
Bucknell wrestling was able to pick itself up off the mat because of a multimillion-dollar contribution from Philadelphia businessman Bill Graham.
The $7.6 million gift from the onetime Bison wrestler solved the school's Title IX conundrum. Not only did it restore varsity wrestling and fund it for the foreseeable future, but it also permitted the Patriot League school to enhance its women's programs, preserving the delicate gender balance federal law demands.
Since 1999, nine other schools have, like Bucknell, resuscitated dead programs. A few - Princeton, American and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville among them - also did so with private donations. Now, many other schools where the sport either has been axed or threatened are considering similar action.
"I really think we've turned the corner," said Mike Moyer, executive director of the Lancaster County-based National Wrestling Coaches Association.
Since 1972, when Title IX was enacted to lift women's sports onto a more equal footing with the men, 447 colleges and junior colleges - including Bucknell, Temple, Villanova, La Salle, and 20 other Pennsylvania schools - have eliminated varsity wrestling.
One of the tests for proving compliance has been proportionality, which means that the total of female athletes must approximate the percentage of females in the student body.
With female enrollment exploding - one study predicts that within a decade, 65 percent of all college students will be female - most schools see eliminating non-revenue-producing men's teams such as wrestling, gymnastics and cross-country as their only alternative.
Wrestling's supporters have fought back, often futilely, with lawsuits, organized protests and considerable outrage. And while the trend has hardly reversed itself, 47 institutions, most of them at the Division II and III levels, either have added wrestling or reinstated it in the last eight years.
"Title IX is a great law that has had terrible consequences," said Chris Ayers, the coach at Princeton, which was without varsity wrestling for four years in the 1990s. "But we're back, and we're probably in a better position than we've ever been in."
It's philanthropy, not boycotts or bake sales, that many now see as the most effective wrestling restorative.
Sometimes, as with Bucknell, the contribution to support wrestling also funds new sports, scholarships or facilities for women.
At Princeton, a newly raised endowment is used to supplement university backing of the revived team, allowing more institutional money to go to other endangered sports.
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville lost its wrestling team in 2002. But before the next season began, boosters there had committed to raise enough money to support the sport. The program, using nothing but external funds, has not only survived, but also soon plans to jump from Division II to Division I.
At American University, where plans were on the table to kill the sport in 2001 until wrestling backers intervened, supporters raise "several hundred thousand dollars a year," former coach Bob Karch said.
Other colleges have brought back wrestling with state aid. New York and New Mexico, after considerable political pressure from the coaches' association and others, recently agreed to fund programs at Binghamton University and New Mexico Highlands University, respectively.
"When we lobby schools to reinstate intercollegiate teams," Moyer said, "we always position wrestling to be an educational program. The best models are where a partnership exists between the school, alumni and community."
According to Susan Crawford, chairwoman of Bucknell's board of trustees, "Philanthropy is a great way to help prevent particular sports programs from losing varsity status."
So successful was that tactic at Bucknell that Crawford even developed a list of recommendations for similarly impacted schools.
They included educating potential donors about a program's needs, strictly following Title IX's mandates, and maintaining strong academic standards within the program, since no donor wants his or her name associated with cheaters or bad students.
Yet as simple as it might seem, the formula that saved Bucknell doesn't work everywhere.
Many state schools and smaller institutions tend not to have either deep-pocketed supporters like Graham or a history of sports-directed giving.
"I'm a graduate of West Chester, which dropped it after having had a long tradition of developing wrestlers and wrestling coaches," Moyer said. "But let's face it, when it comes to raising millions for athletics, a state school like that is not in as strong a position as a Princeton."
In raising a $3 million endowment, the Friends of Princeton Wrestling could call upon former Tigers wrestlers who now were surgeons, professors, chief executive officers, astronauts and renowned artists.
Proceeds from the group's sale of silk scarves, designed by artist Frank Stella, a 1959 graduate, helped raised the endowment.
"Many Division I schools aren't that fortunate," said Moyer, whose organization spends considerable time and money advocating restoration of wrestling programs. "They simply don't have an alumni base that can completely support an intercollegiate program with scholarships."
Unlike Bucknell's single-donor approach, Princeton's fund-raising efforts, which began almost as soon as the sport was eliminated in 1993 as a result of Title IX-related worries, touched many different supporters.
"Had a single donor given the entire sum, we would have saved much time and energy, but the result would not have been as satisfying," said Bill Fortenbaugh, a Princeton wrestler in the 1950s and chairman of the school's wrestling Friends.
But it's more complicated than simply coming up with the money. The Friends offered to endow Princeton's team as soon as it was eliminated. The university, knowing that alone wouldn't solve its Title IX problems, declined.
It wasn't until 1995, when new athletic director Gary Walters created a women's lightweight crew and upgraded a women's water polo club to varsity status, that the restoration of Princeton wrestling became possible.
The Friends provided all the money for the sport between its return in 1997 and 2004. Its endowment goal was achieved in 2005, at which time the school agreed to provide some funding.
While Princeton offers no athletic scholarships, those Division I programs that do can, according to NCAA guidelines, provide up to 9.9 scholarships a year. At $20,000 annually - a low estimate - that would add $200,000 to each year's wrestling budget. A program would need an endowment of roughly $4 million - assuming a 5 percent interest rate - to fund that amount.
And that's just for scholarships. Money for coaches' salaries, travel, recruiting and equipment - though paltry in comparison with a sport like football - also has to be found.
Meanwhile, schools like Bucknell, Princeton and the Division II and III institutions, where there are no athletic scholarships, are able to run programs more cheaply, though they still must adhere to Title IX's requirements.
"You could do it for maybe $50,000, $60,000," said Princeton's Ayers. "That's bare bones. We spend a lot more than that, but it could be done, especially here on the East Coast, where there are so many wrestling schools so close together. I could put together a schedule where we'd never have to stay in a hotel."
Still, while the trend has slowed in recent years, it sometimes seems colleges are cutting programs as fast, or even faster, than others can restore them. James Madison and Fresno State, two schools with rich wrestling traditions, killed their Division I programs in 2006.
In October, the administration at James Madison, where the student body is already 61 percent female, did away with not only wrestling but six other men's teams and three women's programs as well. According to a representative of the university, in Harrisonburg, Va., it has no plans to try to raise money to bring back any of the sports.
Schools that have resurrected programs often find that it's more difficult to restore their reputations among recruits.
"It's a question that comes up a lot," Ayers said. " 'Will wrestling be there?' They say, 'What if I go there and it goes away again? Then what do I do?'
"Once you say you're not committed to something, it's hard to rebuild that confidence. It was more than 10 years ago here, and I think we're just getting to the point where people can feel safe. The program's not going anywhere."