Taped to the wall in BYU wrestling coach Mark Schultz's office is a notorious piece of paper. It lists the 254 collegiate athletic departments across the nation that have dropped wrestling as a sport since 1972, including 11 WAC schools. In fact, BYU is the only in-state school that has a wrestling team.
Schultz knows how close BYU's program has been to being added to The List. "I was like a nurse watching over a patient who was dying," Schultz remembered.In 1994, then-athletic director Clayne Jensen handed the reins of Cougar wrestling to Schultz, but there were a couple of stipulations. "He told me wrestling was on the bubble, on the verge of being eliminated," he said. Jensen also told him the head coaching position would be cut from full-time to part-time salary - first in BYU wrestling history. Then Jensen offered Schultz this bit of encouragement: "Let's see what you can do with the program."
Schultz, a former All-America wrestler at Oklahoma who won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics, likes a challenge. But with no assistant coaches, his burden was heavy. Recruiting was nearly impossible. "How could I look those kids in the eye and offer them a scholarship when I didn't know if we were even going to have a program anymore?" Schultz wondered. He did everything, from washing the team's water bottles to coaching, and after one year he had had about enough. "I was ready to quit," he says. "It was bad."
How bad? At one point, his wrestlers came down with skin infections. Attendance at home matches was sparse. He learned his wife needed an operation, but because he was just part-time, insurance wouldn't cover it. Schultz began examining other options. He considered getting out of wrestling altogether to pursue a career in construction.
"It was a nightmare," he said. "I want to forget that year. I thought they were going to cut the program. I almost told them to do it. If you're not going to make a commitment to it and make it something we can be proud of, then you might as well eliminate it. Nobody cared."
But in the spring of 1995, something happened which changed everything. "By an act of God," Schultz says, "Rondo Fehlberg was named athletic director." That would be the same Rondo Fehlberg who was an All-America wrestler at BYU when the Cougars were dominating the sport in the intermountain west in the early 1970s. Schultz's next battle was to prove himself to Fehlberg. "He wanted to see if I was his guy before he made commitments to me and the program," said Schultz. "He knew I had a lot of credentials, but he wanted to be sure I was the guy he could work with. He slowly accepted me. It took a while.
Eventually, Fehlberg allowed Schultz to hire an assistant, Larry Nugent, which was a step in the right direction. Yet amid triumph came tragedy. In January 1996, Schultz's brother, Dave, who was preparing to compete in the 1996 Olympics, was shot to death by John du Pont. Schultz took a leave of absence from the team to be with his family, which made for another long, difficult season.
Since that time, as Schultz tries to put the grief of losing his brother behind him, there have been many bright moments. Last fall, Fehlberg instated Schultz as a full-time coach, with full-time salary and benefits. Then Schultz, Nugent and Fehlberg signed the No. 4 recruiting class in the nation. This season, the crowds have returned to watch the Cougars. BYU finished third last weekend in the WAC championships as John Kelly at 126 pounds, Rangi Smart at 158 and Jared Coleman at 167 each won individual titles.
While BYU wrestling is beginning to thrive again, Fehlberg knows that the sport remains in a precarious position. Title IX, which has been the grim reaper of college wrestling, could force BYU to cut the sport as well.
"My openly stated preference is to add sports rather than drop them," said Fehlberg. "I understand it's still a possibility. If it became necessary from a gender-equity standpoint to drop wrestling, I would drop wrestling. I have to look at what's best for BYU. It has nothing to do with me being a wrestler. (President Merrill Bateman) is committed to the athletic department.
But some things are out of our control."
Still, Fehlberg knows wrestling, and his involvement with the team is literally hands-on. He's been known to show up at practice to teach the Cougars moves that enabled him to become a three-time WAC wrestling champ.
Like with other sports at BYU, Fehlberg takes an active role in recruiting and lending support. "Rondo is lighting a fire under everybody," said Nugent. "It makes a difference to have an athletic director who cares.
Fehlberg has a simple philosophy about the sports in his department: "If you're not good, you're just background noise." And he believes BYU wrestling can return to its days of glory. "A cloud that was hanging over our program has been lifted," he said. "We're one or two classes away from consistently being one of the top 20 teams in the country.
The Cougars have signed another impressive class for next fall and Fehlberg has confidence in Schultz. "He's doing a good job," said Fehlberg.
Schultz dreams of the day when wrestling will become a revenue sport at BYU, but that is hopefulness is tempered by realism. After all, he knows where this program has been. What's the prognosis of the program now? "The patient in off the table and walking the halls of the hospital with an IV," he says." Sometimes we let it walk around the park, and then it's back to the hospital."
As long as Schultz keeps his patient far away from The List.