The NWCA All-Star Classic is traditionally one of the highlights of the wrestling season, where top college wrestlers battle for pride and recognition. This year's event has special meaning. It will be held at Cal-State Fullerton this Sunday, and is being used to help raise funds for the host school's effort to save its wrestling program.

The title sponsor for the All-Star Classic this year is a determined group of alumni from the College of William & Mary, who have decided to help draw the line in protecting college wrestling.

Why would a group of former wrestlers from an East Coast college which dropped wrestling in the mid 90's step up to help a Western school in trouble? It's all about helping brothers in need.

Wrestling alumni from William & Mary have been attending the NCAA Div. I Championships for many years, enjoying the social occasion and continuing a fight to bring back the sport at their alma mater. It is from this group of about 20 hard-core wrestling supporters that a brand new initiative to help endangered Olympic sports has been born.

"I got a call from NWCA Executive Director Mike Moyer," said Kirk Hankla, one of the ringleaders of the William & Mary group. "He knows that I am part of the group that is upset about the dropping of the program at our college. They decided to move the All-Star Classic to California to help Fullerton's program. He asked me if I knew a corporation which might sponsor the event."

Hankla, who is a successful businessman living on the West Coast, thought about it for a few days. Rather than point Moyer towards a company, however, Hankla decided that his wrestling brethren at William & Mary might do the trick.

"I put out a call to arms," said Hankla. "Within 48 hours, we had raised the amount of money needed to be a title sponsor."

As a group of wrestlers who have suffered through the anger and pain of seeing their wrestling program discontinued, they could not sit quietly on the sidelines.

"We decided to help draw the line at Cal-State Fullerton," said Hankla. "Wrestling is mostly out of the South, and is missing in many states. If Cal-State Fullerton goes away, there are a lot of people who have fewer places to wrestle. There aren't that many colleges here in the West with Div. I wrestling. If it goes away at Fullerton, the other teams that are close by are at risk."

Hankla, who owns a mortgage bank and has successful overseas businesses, is similar to many of his William & Mary wrestling alumni who also have gone on to personal success. The group includes doctors, surgeons, lawyers and a NASA scientist. They have the means and the motivation to stand up for wrestling.

"We know that through wrestling there are a lot of lessons that people learn about life," said Hankla.

Sponsoring the All-Star Classic made sense to this group of wrestlers for many reasons.

"When people see a bunch of guys from the other side of the country, from a school that no longer sponsors wrestling, do something like this, we are sending a message," said Hankla. "This is something worthy to be saved. This is something we are passionate about. We also expect the administration at William & Mary to notice this. We want wrestling back at William & Mary and we won't turn our back to anybody else who needs help."

Helping Cal-State Fullerton felt good, but Hankla and his friends know that assisting one program does not solve the problem with endangered sports programs on the college level.

"We decided to take it a step further," said Hankla. "We started a 501 c3 non-profit organization. We played around with names. We finally came up with The Spots (The Society for the Preservation of Traditional Sports)."

The organization is in its infancy, but Hankla believes it will only reach its mission if the battlefield extends beyond the wrestling community.

"We recognize that we can't just make this about wrestling," said Hankla. "For too long, it has just been about wrestling. We decided to open it up to other sports. Look what has happened to men's gymnastics. It has to be bigger than wrestling. No amount of screaming and drum banging will matter at William & Mary. We have to make it bigger than that for William & Mary or any other school to listen."

All of this activity has happened in just one month.

"The whole thing has happened quickly. The support that has poured in is encouraging and humbling. I can't believe how much people are stepping up," said Hankla. "We are going to do our best to hold the line."