UK should add wrestling to list of varsity sports

Quick question to all of you sports fanatics: What is the oldest sport known to mankind?

If you guessed baseball, basketball or American football, sorry to break it to you but you aren’t even in the ballpark (no pun intended).

If you guessed running, swimming or throwing large objects, close but no cigar.

The oldest sport know to humans is the rugged, grinding sport of wrestling.  This sport is full of history and culture. Countries all over the world practice different forms of wrestling.

Some of history’s most important people were champions at the sport, including the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great, Muhammad the founder of Islam, and our very own legendary U.S president Theodore Roosevelt.

It is a sport that breaks down cultural barriers, with competitors from all corners of the globe being able to square off against one another — a claim that not all sports can make.  With all this in mind, it is crazy to think that the University of Kentucky does not have a wrestling program. After all, who could be more of a scrappy wrestler than a wildcat?

UK is a D-1 school with 19 varsity teams.  Adding wrestling as a varsity program would bring new opportunities for many young students, as more scholarships could be given out,  and more students would have a better chance at receiving an above adequate education.

Most college wrestling teams have between 10 to 20 athletes, so there is 10 to 20 lives that could be positively affected every year by instating a wrestling program.

As always, the students aren’t the only ones who can benefit. There are coaching and staff opportunities, potential for extra revenue if the wrestling matches can draw a significant fan base and of course the chance for the gold.

If there is one thing UK is known for it’s loving winning. UK has eight national basketball titles to back up that claim.

I hope I am appealing to the competitive nature of the Big Blue Nation, as many of you loyal fans are probably saying in your head, “if UK had a wrestling team, we could win four, five or six in a row!”

That competitive spirit, the scholarship and job opportunities and the potential for the university are all reasons that UK should add wrestling to it’s list of varsity athletic teams.