U of R explains why wrestling trophies were thrown away

The University of Regina is explaining why old wrestling awards were thrown in the trash.

They included two MVP trophies, multiple plaques from the Cougar Invitational wrestling tournament and several Saskatchewan Amateur Wrestling Association (SAWA) medals. According to the university, the Cougar Invitational plaques and SAWA medals were generic with no team or wrestler’s name identified.

Harold Riemer, the U of R’s dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, said those medals, plaques and MVP trophies had been sitting in the office of former assistant coach Dan McGee for a full year after the wrestling program was cut.

Despite multiple requests to McGee to pick them up and do what he wished with them, that never happened. The university needed to clear the space for construction work and a decision was made to throw out the awards.

“If you’ve been on this campus, space is extremely tight. We have, in this building, very, very little storage space and any storage space we have is effectively full right now,” said Riemer. “To keep personal belongings on the hope that someone, someday is going to come and grab those personal belongings I don’t think is being a good steward of this space.”

Riemer explained there was never any intent to be disrespectful to the students involved in the awards. By throwing them out, he said, nothing has gone missing or unrecognized because all the information from the old MVP trophies, including the names of the wrestlers, was transferred to newer plaques in 2008.

“None of those (old) trophies have been kept here for any of the teams, so we’re not treating wrestling any different than we did any other program here when we moved from the old MVP trophies to (the new plaques),” said Riemer.

When asked if the university considered donating the older trophies to the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame or having them reused in some way, Riemer admitted the university did not. He added that decision was made in 2008 to give the old trophies to the coaches to decide what to do with them.

“If they want to give it to their athletes, they’re more than welcome to … They had 11 years to give it to somebody,” Riemer said.

“To be clear, the award hasn’t disappeared. The emblem of that award has changed,” he added.

However, students walking the halls won’t be able to view the newer wrestling plaques on display in the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport. Since the men’s and women’s wrestling teams and men’s volleyball squad were cut in 2018, those plaques are in the process of being sent to the university’s archives.

Students feel lack of respect

Wrestler Jordan Tholl called the move to throw the trophies in the trash “brutal” and calls it another insult to the sport, one year after the team was cut by the university.

“I think it’s just more insult to injury. Throughout the whole process, none of the athletes really felt like they were respected,” said Tholl.

He said actions like this make him start to doubt that it was a financial decision to cut the teams and said the university’s actions show it doesn’t care about the sport in the community.

“The wrestler who found (the trophies) actually contacted the Sask. Sports Hall of Fame, had about a five-minute conversation on the phone with them and they’re happy to take them in. So that’s how easy that would have been rather than throwing them in the trash and being disrespectful,” said Tholl.