Foundation to save Oregon wrestling speaks out.

With the lawsuit scheduled to be heard by Oregon judges in Salem during the second week in July, the question of the trial emerges why? Why is wrestling suing the University of Oregon? Why was the Program cut? What is the long-term effect of the removal or reinstatement of the program going to be?

Ron Finley from Save Oregon Wrestling Foundation was able to answer a few questions on the topic. When asked why wrestling ended up having to sue the UO he said, “It’s the only choice we’ve been given”.

“We are taking the UO to court using a law suit because of the wrongful processing of termination” explained Jeremy McLaughlin a current wrestler at UO.

Athletic Director Pat Killkenny has been getting most of the blame for the cutting of the wrestling program and rightly so to some fans and people close to the program.

If you look at it the first real influence he had as athletic director you would find it being on July 13, 2007 with the cutting of wrestling and the addition of baseball and completive cheer.

“It’s pure and simple… it’s the Athletic Director fault,” said Finley.

Now the reasoning that Pat Killkenny used for dropping wrestling is the Title IX which states that there needs to be a even balance of men’s and woman’s sports within each college’s athletic department.

However, after angry booster argued that title IX does not require Oregon to drop wrestling the UO came out in response saying that their title IX belief was flawed.

According to the press release from the Save Oregon Wrestling Foundation these are the four reasons Oregon’s athletic department is cutting the program:
“(1) UO lacks a wrestling facility;
(2) The Eugene area lacks a dedicated fan base;
(3) The opportunity to capitalize on an investment; and
(4) The lack of support in the Pac-10 and NCAA Division I.”

This information was released only after Pat Killkenny’s special assistant Neal Zoumboukos acknowledged that Title IX did not require UO to drop wrestling according to an article inside the latest issue of Ducks Illustrated magazine.

Finley said “Donors have offered to pay for a new facility instead of the UO having to pay for it.”

A student poll conducted by the foundation shows that the overwhelming majority of students at the university wanted wrestling to stay a at the UO.

So how can it be said that the area lacks a fan base if the numbers clearly state that they want wrestling back?

McLaughlin stated that “They(UO) keep switching reasons why we(Wrestling) were terminated. First with Title IX and then with funding.”

When asked if Phil Knight who is one of Oregon’s largest donors Finley stated Mr. Knight was no where to be seen.

“Phil Knight has been completely out of the picture when it comes to giving money to the program,” said Finley.

So he will pay for how many football jerseys? Pay for a new law building on campus, but not put anything down for wrestling? Not to take away from anything that Phil Knight has done but it just seems weird.

Now we can’t forget the same thing that happened at Arizona State where the wrestling program was cut but then reinstated after ASU wrestling fans and boosters pledged $8 million to save the program. But the situation in Eugene is that the athletic department is not behind the effort to raise money to reinstate Oregon wrestling.

In fact, according to Finley, they (UO) have told people to not waste their money on this and going so far as to not allow fundraising for the Save Oregon Wrestling Foundation at the state high school wrestling tournament.

McLaughlin said, “It is two different situations with us and ASU because they (ASU) gave the wrestling program a goal to reach but no such thing has happened at the UO.”
“If Killkenny set a money goal that had to be reached for the reinstatement of wrestling it would be reached very fast,” stated Finley.

Now only if the UO and Killkenny could have the same view on this that ASU did maybe things would have gone down a different path. Killkenny has been very reluctant to answer questions on the subject of wrestling to all the media as of now while Finley has been open to discuss this situation with anyone who will listen.

With the hearing approaching the wrestling program won’t settle for anything less than the reinstatement of the program at the UO.

“Money doesn’t help us, a program does. We just want to wrestle here at the UO because we love this place. Why transfer somewhere if we can have a great program here, all we need is a little help from the school,” said McLaughlin.

-AJ Untermeyer
Auntermeyer@gmail.com