Top Programs... that are gone

[AgaveMaria]

With many good Schools having quit on their wrestling programs - which are/were the top of the heap?

Looking at BYU - remember when they were the first program other than Oklahoma to beat Oklahoma State AT OSU in their home gym. Generally ranked high - at least under Fred Davis as head coach - and produced some good wrestlers.

What are the others you guys see as top programs we have lost?

[Lunaticfringe]

Oregon was eliminated right after Shane Webster won nationals.

Nebraska Omaha won nationals as a team and at the celebration they found out the team was being cut.

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

Nebraska - Omaha actually got time to celebrate?  I heard they rolled in to Omaha from the NCAA D2 championship tourney (which they'd just won that same weekend) and the sad news was broken to 'em.   UNO also dropped football around that time, despite having received a million dollar jumbotron from an alumnus.   

Meanwhile, S.E.C. conference wrestling teams come to mind.  Some of them had placed in the Top 20 at the NCAAs when there were far more programs:

http://johnnythompsonnum1.blogspot.com/2017/09/solving-mystery-that-was-sec.html

Mizzou, Texas A&M, Arkansas and U. South Carolina weren't part of the SEC when that conference sponsored (and eventually dropped) wrestling but this group of mascots is otherwise rather helpfully illustrative:

Edited August 17, 2023 by TitleIX is ripe for reform

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

U. Cal. Davis had the NCAA outstanding wrestler award winner (who is now the head coach at Cal Baptist) but the school dropped wrestling soon thereafter, close to 2 decades ago:

https://cbulancers.com/sports/wrestling/roster/coaches/derek-moore/462

Encouragingly enough, Coach Moore is now based where wrestling shows & movies have the potential to be made more often, and where the '28 Olympics will be held.   In other words, he is now well positioned to help our sport survive at the college level and hopefully gain a renewed Olympic bid after its current one otherwise expires around 2028 in Los Angeles.  

Edited August 17, 2023 by TitleIX is ripe for reform

[gimpeltf]

Back in the late 70s early 80s, if your team won Unl then your team likely dropped that year (other than Iowa, NC State).

1979 Fred Bohna UCLA

1980 Howard Harris Ore St (They dropped right after the season but were reinstated shortly thereafter)

1981 Lou Banach Iowa

1982 Bruce Baumgartner Ind St

1983 Lou Banach Iowa

1984 Tab Thacker NC State

1985 Bill Hyman Temple

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

9 hours ago, TitleIX is ripe for reform said:

U. Cal. Davis had the NCAA outstanding wrestler award winner (who is now the head coach at Cal Baptist) but the school dropped wrestling soon thereafter, close to 2 decades ago:

https://cbulancers.com/sports/wrestling/roster/coaches/derek-moore/462

Encouragingly enough, Coach Moore is now based where wrestling shows & movies have the potential to be made more often, and where the '28 Olympics will be held.   In other words, he is now well positioned to help our sport survive at the college level and hopefully gain a renewed Olympic bid after its current one otherwise expires around 2028 in Los Angeles.  

California Baptist is nowhere near Switzerland. 

[ThreePointTakedown]

Texas A&M had wrestling? 

[Wrestleknownothing]

11 minutes ago, ThreePointTakedown said:

Texas A&M had wrestling? 

1954 to 1956, I think

[Idaho]

Boise State .... Top 10 team for several years...started the year #2 when Kirk White, Kirk Smith, Hochstrasser, etc. were there. Several national champs - White, Cherrington, etc. AD sent an assistant to the wrestling room while they had recruits on campus in the room to let Mendoza know the program was cut. Admin would not even have a meeting or accept any deal to self fund the program....they wanted baseball.... which folded before even getting started. 

[Jason Bryant]

A number of the Texas schools had some form of wrestling, but old results show very few competed outside of Texas. It was more club competition than anything else. The formation of teams was also loose and fast prior to the determination of divisions in 1974 at the NCAA level. Tennessee entered a guy at the (IIRC) 1964 championships and they didn’t even have a team.

These instances are less of them being dropped and more of the coach who organized the team left and that was it. It’s not like we have a lot of Grand Canyon and Fresno State (second time) situations where admins started a sport then bailed on it shortly thereafter.

[VeryOldFormerGrappler]

It's been nice to watch the number of D2 & D3 programs being brought back (especially with a combo mens-womens program).  

Hoping that some of the big revenue sports TV and internet contracts $ can trickle down to the non-revenue sports and bring some D1 programs back.

[PortaJohn]

Has Syracuse been mentioned yet?  They're always mentioned in this conversation 

[Wrestleknownothing]

This table has a lot of problems.

First, there is the definition challenge.

What is a D1 school prior to the existence of D1? And how do you deal with schools that competed at multiple levels? What is a team in the open era when anyone can show up? I address none of these questions.

Second, all of these start and end years are my best guess.

My best guess as to the 20 longest tenured top level teams that no longer exist:

[flyingcement]

Bring back Temple Owls!!!

[MPhillips]

24 minutes ago, flyingcement said:

Bring back Temple Owls!!!

All I can think of when I read Temple Owls...

[Idaho]

1 hour ago, MPhillips said:

All I can think of when I read Temple Owls...

Let me try some imagery re-scripting of Temple Owls for you... you're welcome. 

[AgaveMaria]

One thing I know about BYU is that Mormon Church founder/Prophet Joseph Smith was a wrestler. Supposedly very good at it. Mark Schultz, last BYU Coach wrote his Masters Thesis about him as a wrestler.

[TexRef]

On 8/17/2023 at 3:27 PM, MPhillips said:

All I can think of when I read Temple Owls...

Or Bill Cosby wearing a Temple sweater

[TexRef]

@MPhillips I thought it was sacrilegious for an Ohio college to drop wrestling. My buddy's dad wrestled for Toledo, when they still had a program.  

[MPhillips]

7 hours ago, TexRef said:

 I thought it was sacrilegious for an Ohio college to drop wrestling.

You're not wrong.  Especially for Toledo. They hosted more World Cup tourneys than anyone.  Close to two decades.

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:01 AM, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

California Baptist is nowhere near Switzerland. 

I am unaware of what you're saying but either way, enjoy what's left of your weekend...

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

On 8/17/2023 at 2:21 PM, Wrestleknownothing said:

This table has a lot of problems.

First, there is the definition challenge.

What is a D1 school prior to the existence of D1? And how do you deal with schools that competed at multiple levels? What is a team in the open era when anyone can show up? I address none of these questions.

Second, all of these start and end years are my best guess.

My best guess as to the 20 longest tenured top level teams that no longer exist:

Miami had wrestling as recently as 1999?   I doubt it but I'd also like to see the Hurricanes add wrestling, at any rate.   

[TitleIX is ripe for reform]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:02 AM, ThreePointTakedown said:

Texas A&M had wrestling? 

For more on the college wrestling teams in Texas of yesteryear:

https://johnnythompsonnum1.blogspot.com/2022/09/gone-lost-forgotten-collegiate-teams-of.html  

Meanwhile, an NCAA D1 program is rumored to be in the works in Texas:

http://www.facebook.com/TexasCollegiateWrestling

 

[Tripnsweep]

6 hours ago, TitleIX is ripe for reform said:

Miami had wrestling as recently as 1999?   I doubt it but I'd also like to see the Hurricanes add wrestling, at any rate.   

Miami of Ohio. 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

On 8/20/2023 at 12:47 AM, TitleIX is ripe for reform said:

I am unaware of what you're saying but either way, enjoy what's left of your weekend...

Switzerland is where the IOC makes it's decisions.  FILA HQ was a relatively quick trip to Switzerland, but FILA leadership didn't even bother showing up to the meeting where IOC dropped wrestling.