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<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=184319" target="_blank">
Ted Kennedy, Title IX, and wrestlers in MMA
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<a href="/go=news.detail&gid=184319" ><img class="photo" src="http://img.mixedmartialarts.com/method=get&rs=120&q=75&x=-5&y=83&w=310&h=165&ro=0&s=5D14DF40-1D09-6BFC-E5810163CB999EF1.jpg" /></a>
<strong class="ArticleSource">[usatoday.com]</strong>
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Did Senate lion's roar reach MMA?
It doesn't take much of a leap to find a link between the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's legacy and mixed martial arts.
END OF AN ERA: Sen. Kennedy dies of cancer
Kennedy, the so-called "Lion of the Senate," indirectly shaped a UFC Hall of Famer's career by shepherding the Title IX law that was used in 1981 to end the wrestling program at Washington State, where a young Randy Couture was competing on the mats.
Title IX was created in 1972 to foster gender equality in college sports. Its passage and continued existence owes a lot to Kennedy, ESPN columnist Mike Fish notes in a column posted Wednesday.
"Over the course of time, he played the leading role in keeping Title IX strong through the Senate," Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, told ESPN.com's Fish. "He certainly was a supporter when it was passed in 1972. And he was also a reliable supporter when attacks on Title IX began shortly after its passage and through to the present day."
The law gives schools more than one way to demonstrate their dedication to equal sports opportunities for women, but a 2007 article from Sherdog.com notes that many institutions have chosen the same path: matching the proportion of sports programs' openings to gender ratios in the overall student population. Thus, a school whose student body consists of 35% women would reserve 35% of its sports slots for women.
Rather than raise money to pay for more women's sports openings or shifting money from football, many schools have eliminated less popular men's athletic programs to bring sports ratios in line with Title IX criteria. One notable target has been Division I wrestling, Sherdog found:
"Since 1972, 448 colleges and universities have excised wrestling from their curriculum. Of the 146 Division I wrestling teams in 1981, only 87 remained in 2001."
Among those casualties was Couture's Washington State program in 1981, though he points to the coach -- "a knucklehead" -- as the first reason for the wrestling team's demise. Title IX merely provided the legal cover, Couture believes.