9781422284308

CHAPTER WRESTLING’S GREATEST MOMENTS Wrestling has been a part of the sports culture in America dating back to Colonial times. Its history in the old world dates back for thousands of years to ancient Greece and beyond. For a sport that has endured so long, the 21st century has been a challenging one, especially in the United States.

At the high school level, wrestling is still reasonably popular as a competitive sport. While not at a level with the top sports of football, basketball, or track and field in terms of number of kids who play, according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations, wrestling still managed to grow by 5 percent in terms of total number of participants from 2006 to 2013. Football, basketball, and baseball all declined in growth in this period. However modest, growth of any kind is a good sign for the sport. That is why there is concern at the college level. In 1981, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) had 146 Division I wrestling programs. By 2014, only 77 remained. Many people blame this on Title IX, which is the original name for a law enacted in 1972 that requires federally funded schools to offer an equal number of sports programs for men and women. The theory is that because schools have to add women’s programs, they can no longer afford to fund men’s programs at the same level. The numbers, however, do not support this theory. In 2011, the NCAA reported adding more than 38,000 male student athletes over the previous 10 years. In that same span, it added just over 32,000 female student athletes. So there are not fewer male athletes, just fewer male sports. A better explanation for the Title IX theory can be found by looking at revenue in comparison to non-revenue sports. The two biggest revenue sports, football and basketball, take up 78 percent of Division I athletic budgets. When non-revenue sports like wrestling get cut, the money is more often funneled into football or basketball than into women’s sports. Colleges are choosing to cut wrestling more often than they are forced to. Outside the United States, however, the sport is celebrated in countries from Russia to Turkey and from Iran to Japan. It is the ultimate one-on-one competition of strength and agility and has produced some truly great moments on the mat. 7