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    Mark Palmer •

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    GoFundMe established in memory of Keith Cupp, first national champ for Cumberland U.

    A GoFundMe page has been established in the memory of Keith Cupp, first national champ in any sport for Tennessee's Cumberland University, who passed away Sunday. He was 35.

    The online fundraising page, set up this week, has this simple message: "Help is needed for funeral expenses to honor Keith Madison Cupp. Any help is greatly appreciated."

    Keith Cupp
    Cupp won the 174-pound title at the 2005 NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) National Wrestling Championships. As Jarad Swint, head wrestling coach of the Cumberland Phoenix mat program at that time, pointed out on his Facebook page, "He was not only Cumberland University Tennessee's first national wrestling champion, he was the first individual national champion at the school in any sport, and my first as head coach."

    "Keith was the catalyst for the Cumberland University wrestling program getting on the wrestling map," Swint told InterMat Tuesday. "The year before I started as coach, Cumberland finished last in the NAIA tournament, so we started a 'worst to first' campaign. The second year of that campaign Keith brought the program its first first."

    "When I was coach at Cumberland when Keith won his national championship, we had no wrestling room. We had to wait for other programs to finish practice before we could practice. After his championship, we acquired a donor that enabled us to build a wrestling room."

    In April 2007 -- just two years after Cupp's history-making NAIA individual championship -- Cumberland University completed a $154,000, 4,800-square foot wrestling building.

    "When Keith won his NAIA national title, he gave me a lot of credit for getting him on track mentally. Credit I did not deserve," Swint told InterMat. "It was all him. That was the kind of teammate he was to guys -- he was loyal and gave credit back."

    "I was blessed to have him on our team."

    Fred Feeney, long-time wrestling official based in Columbus, Ohio, shared his memories of Keith Cupp.

    "First time I met him was when he was in middle school," Feeney told InterMat. "I thought he was a great kid from the start, with a ready smile."

    "He wrestled at three schools in four years while in high school," Feeney continued. "He ended up at Columbus Hamilton Township High."

    Keith Cupp won back-to-back 152-pound Division II titles for Hamilton Township at the 2000 and 2001 Ohio High School State Wrestling Championships.

    His wrestling coach at Hamilton Township, Scott Williams, posted this message on Facebook: "I am thankful I could be a part of his life and he part of mine. Thank you, Keith Cupp, for the opportunity of a lifetime to wrestle and coach a state champion on a daily basis and coach in your corner as you became Hamilton Township's first-ever state champion..."
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