Leaders from Save Oregon Wrestling, the grassroots organization working to help retain the varsity wrestling team at the Univ. of Oregon, are asking members of the wrestling community to send letters to key decision makers at the university. Ron Finley, the retired coach from Oregon who has helped spearhead the effort, is reaching out to everyone who is able to send support letters on behalf of the wrestling team. Now, we need your help with sending a letter," said Finley. "Please write a positive letter. These are decision makers. Highlight the positive reasons for continuing the sport. Keep your message short and sweet. We need you. We need everybody to send an e-mail now. We also need you to forward this e-mail to all your contacts list and encourage them to write as well. That part is extremely important." Finley has identified key individuals who these e-mail letters should be sent to, showing the importance of this program to the state of Oregon and the entire wrestling community. "Pat Kilkenny" kilkenny@uoregon.edu "Renee Mack Baumgartner" rmb@uoregon.edu "Jim Bartko" jbartko@uoregon.edu "Mike Marlow" mmarlow@uoregon.edu "Vin Lananna" oregontf@uoregon.edu "Gary Gray" ggray@uoregon.edu "Rik Stewart" rstewart@uoregon.edu "Ron Finley" rfinley@uoregon.edu "Dr. Dave Frohnmayer" pres@uoregon.edu "George Schroeder" george.schroeder@registerguard.com There have been numerous activities within the Univ. of Oregon community and across the state and region supporting the effort to save this program. One of the key projects has been a fund-raising effort, which has been gaining momentum. "To update you on our petitioner's donation campaign, we've just past the $2.5 million mark. Let's keep this going!! We're almost half way there," said Finley. To make a financial pledge to save the program at the Univ. of Oregon, visit: https://www.SaveOregonWrestling.org Finley has provided two sample letters that have already been sent, that you can read to inspire some positive thoughts. "Please read them first, and then send your letter to the above list as soon as possible," said Finley. Letter [ 1 ] As the parent of an aspiring middle school wrestler and a freshman competing in his first High School State tournament, the decisions being made at the University level will directly impact my family in the coming years. I have never wrestled in my life, so when my 6-year old came home with a flyer and wanted to sign up for wrestling, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. So here I am, 8 years later, after over 500 matches, tens of thousands of miles on our cars, airfares to "big" tournaments, thousands of dollars for camps and equipment, and one 8-week vacation forced by a broken jaw, and he still loves it. He is determined to wrestle at a Division 1 college, and in just a few short years, we'll be looking for the right fit, and hope to stay in-state. My sons have spent many hours with wrestlers from the University of Oregon at clinics both here in central Oregon, as well as in Eugene. When he wasn't a one of the 6 summer camps he did this year, my son spent his time working to earn enough money to buy a new Beijing singlet. He finally made enough money but instead of buying his singlet he put all $70 dollars of it into one of the "Save Oregon Wrestling" collections that he saw at one of the meets. I asked him what made him choose that instead -- he said that he didn't need a new singlet as much as we needed to save the wrestling program. It is very disappointing that the powers-that-be have arbitrarily chosen to drop the wrestling program. I'm sure that if you listen to the reasons given, and truly follow up on them, you will see that they have no merit. All of us "little guys" have banded together and are working diligently to save the wrestling program at the University of Oregon, but it would be great to have the assistance of a "heavy-hitter" such as IMG. Someone who has a little more clout, and someone that Kilkenny will take seriously. Please look into the situation, and if you come to the same conclusion as thousands of others, lend some support to our cause. It would be greatly appreciated by those of us fighting now, as well as those little 6-year-olds that just brought that flyer home this year. Your help would be felt for years... ===================================================== Letter [ 2 ] I would like to thank you for your article about the "wrestlers official call" in the Register Guard last week. After your article, "Save Oregon Wrestling" received yet another flurry of donations, totaling $11,000! I liked your analogy that wrestlers say when they've been taken down. This demonstrates a quality needed to succeed in this world and a good quality to teach our youth. If everyone just shrugged their shoulders and walk away when things got difficult, or were told "no," few things would be accomplished, few dreams would be achieved. Your article missed one "small" point, however... This isn't about a few wrestlers not wanting to give up. It's about an overwhelming number of people who cared enough to make a stand and oppose the decision to drop wrestling. And both you and I know that those who actually take action to protest are just the tip of the iceberg. It's the over 7,000 people who went out of their way to sign a petition opposing Mr. Kilkenny's decision that has motivated the wrestling department to move forward. It's those petitioners' emptying their wallets to the tune of $2.5 million, to date, that has inspired the wrestlers to continue their struggle. It's the 5,500 fans attending the NWCA tournament this year in Mac Court. It's the 33,396 kids in the Northwest who compete in the sport, some of who will need a scholarship in order to get an education. Many also want a chance to compete in their sport at the college level. All of this has happened with little publicity. Oregon Wrestling has never had much publicity. Yet, there's always 300 to 500 fans in attendance at each wrestling match at Mac Court. Just this week, with even a little publicity, over 1,800 fans attended the Civil War match at Oregon State. Why has the UO administration overlooked promoting wrestling, on one hand, and are complaining about attendance on the other? The decision to drop wrestling can be reversed as easily as it was decided by those three "current" administrators, last July. It was, in my opinion, an uneducated, fact-less decision based on "gut" perceptions". Let me explain... For some reason, wrestling is not popular with the "current" administration and none of their reasons for dropping the program makes any sense to me, or thousands of others. While the University of Oregon enjoys it's newly found national celebrity, one sport is being passed up, which happens to be the oldest sport known... Wrestling. I know a lot of people could care less for wrestling as a preferred sport to watch. That's okay, but with wrestling being the fastest growing sport for kids age 5 and up, and with the 33,396 kids who are active in wrestling in the Northwest alone, it's strange to hear and see our administrators dropping it. Why? Not popular? Recently, Memorial Coliseum in Portland sold more than 60,000 tickets to wrestling fans attending the State High School Wrestling Tournament. The OSAA reported that of all the athletic apparel sold in Oregon, wrestling was number one. From my perspective, wrestling is worth saving, just from the above information I've provided. The University's Mission Statement states "...to provide educational opportunities for student athletes..." Need I say more? Gender equality is not an issue because wrestling has been an existing sport prior to Title IX. Just mentioning gender equality in association with dropping wrestling is a direct violation of Title IX law. Prior to Mr. Kilkenny's last statement regarding dropping wrestling, he received a letter from a U.S. Senator which told Mr. Kilkenny the UO was in full compliance with Title IX, and that adding baseball did not require the UO to add another girls sport right away... But I didn't read anything about that in the newspaper. Maybe you should get a copy of that letter. Attendance at the wrestling matches? This isn't an issue. Who attends golf? Golf's isn't being dropped. What about Lacrosse? Cross Country? I don't see any crowds at those meets. I could continue. But the wrestling matches do draw 300 to 500 fans at each event, and that's without any promoting of the matches. With just a little promotion, over 1,800 fans showed up to watch the Civil War match at Oregon State this week. So we can't use attendance as an excuse, especially when the UO administrators intentionally do not promote the sport. So it's about the Mission Statement... to provide educational opportunities for our student athletes. It's individuals and corporate sponsors who donate that keep sports alive at the Universities, not attendance at the events. In that spirit, wrestling should stay at the University. Especially if there's already a plan to make the sport self-sufficient -- so it's never endangered again by administrators "thinking" they're doing good. Former UO and Olympic Wrestling Coach, Ron Finley, is doing a great job of raising capital to make this 55 year-old sport at the University self-sufficient. He's only been working since last July and he's almost half way to his goal. Maybe your newspaper can help him out a little? His phone number is 541.346.5597, email rfinley@uoregon.edu. He'd appreciate it. You can also visit www.SaveOregonWrestling.com to get the latest information on his efforts. Can your newspaper lend us some support? Isn't there an investigative reporter on your staff? When the UO shuts down its program, other wrestling programs in the Northwest will follow its lead. The lives and dreams of the 33,000 kids in the Northwest involved in wrestling as a sport will change with this decision. And it's not just the 33,396 kids, it's also the families of those 33,396 kids that will be affected. Think about it. Help us "Save Oregon Wrestling," the greatest and oldest of all sports. For a complete update on the effort to save wrestling at Oregon, visit http://saveoregonwrestling.com