In today's climate of Title IX cuts and the college sports financial crunch, it is with great joy that I post good news from college wrestling programs. The most positive announcement that can be made is that a college wrestling team has developed an endowment.    An endowment, no matter how large, makes wrestling a more attractive choice within a college sports program. When alumni and wrestling supporters place endowed money behind a college program, it makes it much more secure in an insecure world.    The most recent announcement came from a college that does not win NCAA team or individual titles, but has a long and rich wrestling tradition. Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania will celebrate a $1 million endowment for the program later this winter. Alumni and wrestling supporters came together and raised money to honor a former coaching legend, W. Roy Phillips. Those involved felt that nothing would better honor Phillips than making the F&M program financially secure in the future.    I remember a conversation I had at last year's NCAA Div. I National Championships with Bill Lam, the longtime coach at the Univ. of North Carolina. Lam was explaining how the proudest achievement of his long career was the development of an endowment for the Tar Heel program. He said that he could now retire from coaching knowing that UNC would always keep wrestling on its athletic program. Lam is hanging it up this year and passing the baton to one of his great champions, C.D. Mock. Mock will be able to continue to create UNC wrestling stars, the future T.J Jaworskis and Rob Kolls.    I have also heard from coach Greg Strobel about the amazing support for Lehigh wrestling by its alumni. A few years ago, Lehigh supporters created an endowment to pay the salaries of the head coach and the assistant coach at Lehigh into the future. This program is so secure, that even the paycheck for the coaches is now guaranteed.     It would be nice to know just how many of today's 300 college programs have been endowed, and how many have reached the status of "fully endowed." It sounds like a great project for the National Wrestling Coaches Association sometime in the future (after they win their Title IX lawsuit). Knowledge is power, and it would be nice to know how much of college wrestling is currently backed by financial support.    It seems to me that endowment must be done before a program is in danger. Those that understand Title IX must believe that every current program is in danger under the current rules. It would make sense that every college team, regardless of division, should immediately undertake a campaign for endowment.    We have gone from over 750 college wrestling teams to just over 300 squads, a 60% loss of opportunity for our current wrestlers. Considering how few programs are now available for the 1/4 million American high school wrestlers, we need to realize how precious each of our existing programs are. Every single barrier we can place in the way of colleges cutting wrestling should be erected, as soon as possible.    Just because you can raise money doesn't mean a university will take it. Remember how Bucknell University turned down a $1/2 million gift from a wrestling alumnus to save its wrestling team? The university had gone through the process of cutting the program for Title IX purposes, and decided to turn down the money rather than face the numbers problem caused by keeping the team. For those attempting to defend the Title IX quota, this is an example that finances are not the only problem in college athletics.    A great example of how to save a wrestling program comes from Princeton, where alumni leaders stepped up and raised millions of dollars to keep the program after it was announced to be dropped. Leaders such as Clay McEldowney reached out to former Princeton wrestlers and they came up with the funds to save wrestling. This past year, a Princeton wrestler made the finals of the NCAA Championships, something unthinkable during the years of battle for the team's survival. One of the interesting aspects of this success story was how much work had to be done to get Princeton to agree to accept the alumni money and keep the team.     Now, what if Bucknell had already established the endowment for wrestling, rather than trying to rally for support once the program was placed on the chopping block? Perhaps we would still have varsity wrestling on that campus. Maybe not. But is there any reason we should wait as a wrestling community for the axe to come for our college programs?    Some people get very upset that wrestlers are forced to fundraise, while other programs (including women's sports) can exist without supporting itself. Morally, this certainly is not right, but the reality of life says that we can't get too hung up on this truth. If we are willing to do the work, and a university is willing to let us, perhaps we should "do whatever it takes" to maintain our college wrestling tradition. This would be something that we leave as a legacy for the future, a gift for the next generation of young wrestlers.    Some college programs help secure their future using the "brick and mortar" method. Cornell University wrestling has a tremendous wrestling facility on campus supported by alumni leadership. Down at Lehigh, wrestling people were involved in the renovation of famous Grace Hall, the site of so much college wrestling history.    Buildings alone don't always do the trick. At American University, a major alumni leader donated the construction of an impressive wrestling room on campus. This generous gift did not stop the school last year from deciding to evaluate the wrestling program, with a possibility of dropping the team. Credit goes to that same leader, as well as an active team of alumni and supporters, who stepped up to save the team. Now American has made a stronger commitment to wrestling, with a talented coach and an ambitious plan for building a winning team.    Another lesson from the Princeton program is that this must be done by alumni leaders, not coaches. Certainly coaches can work hard to motivate the alumni to build a bond with the current team. However, when the endowment leadership comes from alumni, it carries more weight with the administration. It is especially helpful when prominent alumni threaten to pull future support in other areas of the college if their favorite sports team is not supported.    This will be more difficult at smaller colleges and state colleges, which may not have as many financially successful alumni. In addition, some schools do not have many decades of alumni to pull from. However, even at these places, an endowment program makes sense and sends a strong message to campus athletic directors and presidents.    Later this year, Columbia University will hold a celebration of its 100 years of college wrestling. Columbia has survived and thrived with the support of generous alumni, who have provided support to wrestling. While not the most successful of the Ivy League wrestling programs, Columbia has provided a rich tradition for wrestling and has impacted the lives of thousands of young men. Building on that strong base, Columbia is now showing great improvement on the mat, as well.    If we are going to celebrate more 100-year birthday parties for college wrestling teams during the new century, the creation of an endowment program will certainly play an important role. The first step to saving college wrestling for the future comes from the "entrenchment" of those valuable programs we still have.       TheMatside View is published on Tuesdays.