Bulldogs bloodied, not beaten, in fight for life
By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor
Dennis DeLiddo has spent nearly half his life with the Fresno State wrestling program; first as a Bulldog wrestler in 1967 and 1968 and later for 24 years as the FSU head coach between 1982 and 2005.
During that time, he had seen the highs of the sport, including the Bulldog’s move from Div. II to Div. I in 1969 and former Fresno State alum Stephen Abas winning three straight NCAA championships before capturing a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
DeLiddo also was aware of the sport’s lows, especially the historical interpretation of Title IX, which killed over 400 college programs since the law’s inception in 1972.
But he never figured Fresno State would join that notorious list of programs that were sidelined by college administrators trying to balance the proportionality of men and women athletes brought on by Title IX.
“I always thought it could happen, but I never thought it would happen. When I retired, it looked like everything was fine,” said DeLiddo.
But it wasn’t.
On June 15, 2006, DeLiddo was as surprised as anyone in the country when FSU athletic director Thomas Boeh announced that wrestling would be cut and and cross country would be brought back to this California State University located in a part of the state which takes wrestling very serious.
“It hit us absolutely blindside,” said DeLiddo, who had a different opinion of Boeh when he was on the hiring committee of the athletic director in July 2005, when Boeh came to FSU from Ohio University.
“He talked about the NCAAs, which had one of his kids (Jake Percival) in the semifinals,” DeLiddo recalled. “He said his forte was never to cut sports. He said he might water them down by taking a scholarship here or there, but never dropping a sport.”
That all changed when Boeh announced he was eliminating wrestling by claiming the various reasons:
• a savings of nearly $400,000;
• wrestling is not a broad-based sport and is not sponsored by the Western Athletic Conference (of which Fresno State belongs);
• a lack of a dedicated wrestling practice facility, locker room and cost-efficient and reasonable competitive venue;
• a roster of 34 athletes and a sport that does not have a comparable women’s program;
• low academic standing by the wrestling program.
Boeh did not use the Title IX phrase in his announcement but everyone associated with the Fresno State wrestling program knew the reason for its destruction. By eliminating the 34 members of the wrestling program, Fresno State would better balance its gender athletic participation ratio (a 50.4/49.6 women advantage) with the school’s enrollment ratio (59.1-40.9 women) according to the school’s Equity in Athletics Disclosure. (See chart on page 10.) Cross country, meanwhile, would need just 12 athletes to field a team.
Also, FSU president John Welty told the Fresno Bee newspaper that the wrestling boosters would need to raise nearly $2 million to bring back wrestling and start two new women’s programs at Fresno State.
No state has lost more college wrestling programs (27) than California, which in contrast features the most high school programs (728) in the country. One of those programs is Clovis High School, a perennial national power. So the wrestling fans in the Central Valley were not about to lose another college opportunity for their sons. Within a week of the announcement, over 500 people adorned in their red “Save Fresno Wrestling” T-shirts showed up at the home of Fresno State president John Welty to protest the decision.
The Central Valley Wrestling Community, a booster club, also created a professional website (www.savefresnowrestling.com) to inform fans and generate support for the Fresno State program and also sent a point-by-point rebuttal letter to the FSU administration and chancellors against reasons for the program’s elimination.
Among the rebuttals:
• the budget for wrestling was only $291,270 in 2005-06 and less than 1.4 percent of FSU’s $22 million overall budget;
• regarding sponsorship, Fresno State is a founding member of the new Western Wrestling Conference that includes Air Force, Northern Iowa, Northern Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota State, North Dakota State and Utah Valley State;
• the FSU wrestling practice room received a $50,000 renovation that was funded by a large contingent of wrestling supporters;
• Fresno State brought in over $43,000 in revenue in home matches in 2004-05, compared to $17,961 in expenses.
“I give credit to the California wrestling community,” said Mike Moyer, the executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. “They are as organized as any group that I’ve seen. They have been fabulous and deserve a lot of credit.”
Moyer, who sent a formal letter of support for the wrestling program from the NWCA to Boeh and Welty, said he believes the Fresno State program can be saved but only with a sustained effort.
“The message that the wrestling community has to send is that this is going to get more intensified,” said Moyer, who is also trying to help save the program at Slippery Rock, which also was cut this past spring. “Sometimes the administration thinks if they sit tight for 6-8 weeks, they can weather the storm, which will go away. We want to keep steady pressure and make sure it continues to escalate.”
Some of the rhetoric has become nasty between the wrestling supporters and Boeh, who many supporters believe has a personal bias toward wrestling.
“The athletic director’s response has been to downgrade wrestlers in general, the culture and the people,” said booster president Tim Cornish. “That’s what he does every time that he speaks. There is no one in the valley who thinks this is a good idea.”
Cornish said supporters are willing to do what it takes to bring wrestling back at Fresno State.
“I feel like we are never going to give up,” said Cornish, who was among 20 notable supporters and wrestlers who appeared before the California State University Trustees in Long Beach, July 19. “We are going to keep on treking, even if it takes one week, one year, five years. I don’t think it’s going to die”
DeLiddo said a lawsuit against the university was also possible on the grounds of minority discrimination. Nearly 40 percent of Fresno, Calif., is hispanic and nearly 50 percent of the Fresno State wrestling roster is non-caucasian.
“The fact that it is a minority sport,” said DeLiddo, who was replaced by Shawn Charles, an African-American coach, a year ago. “The majority of the wrestlers are minority and we have a minority coach.”
DeLiddo added that the Office of Civil Rights has looked into the situation.
“I know they have some concerns about the way this was done,” DeLiddo said. “It would be huge if they were on our side.”
“If the goal of a university is to increase the number of teachers in the region out there who are minorities, it seems that one of their core curriculums is education,” Moyer said. “One of the themes that the wrestling community needs to trumpet is these intercollegiate programs have historically developed the next generation of elementary, middle school and high school teachers and coaches.
“In their absence, who is going to mentor the next generation of young kids. State-supported schools should have some obligation to provide activities that are indigenous to the region. It’s that simple. Wrestling out there is as popular as anywhere in the United States so there needs to be wrestling programs.”
DeLiddo has taken on this challenge as he would competitors on the mat.
“I told our boosters that this is a tough match,” DeLiddo said. “We’re on our backs bridging. We are going to get off our backs and keep going.”
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