Title IX

            
             In May of 2001, Tim Wittman, the head wrestling coach at Bucknell University, gathered together the members of his wrestling team to break the news to them that the university was eliminating their sport from the athletic program. These young men had worked so hard to achieve what they wanted to do, when it suddenly slipped out form underneath them, wrestling was really over for them! One of these Bucknell wrestlers, Ben Chunko, whishes he would have known that the school had been considering cutting the program for five years. If he would have known, it would have saved him money, disappointment, and the panic of not knowing what to do.
             Also, at Marquette University, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the wrestling program was cut this past year. This program has gone through much obstacles to stay alive for almost ten years. Back in 1992, the college was going to drop the program, because they didn't have enough money to back the wrestling team along with adding another women's program. All the funds for the team came from within the team. Every year they had to raise the money themselves; they raised between $60,000 and $100,000 every year and they never ran into a deficit. This burden of raising money was very hard on the wrestlers because it is hard enough without that burden to be a student-athlete. Finally in June of 2001 the news came that the wrestling program was done. This cut was due to the college failing to increase the number of female athletes.
             Bucknell and Marquette are just two of the many examples of male athletes having their athletic opportunities ripped away from them, forcing them to either transfer to another school or abandon the sport that they love. Some of these athletes are on scholarship, some are not. Since 1972, 170 men's wrestling programs, 80 men's tennis programs, 70 men's gymnastics programs, and 45 men's track and field programs have been cut, as indicated by the General According Office.