Gonyo v. Drake University

837 F. Supp. 989, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16537, 1993 WL 477935
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Iowa
DecidedOctober 7, 1993
DocketCiv. 4-93-70470
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 837 F. Supp. 989 (Gonyo v. Drake University) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gonyo v. Drake University, 837 F. Supp. 989, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16537, 1993 WL 477935 (S.D. Iowa 1993).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION RULING DENYING MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

VIETOR, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, who were full time students and collegiate wrestlers at defendant Drake University from 1989 or 1990 through the 1992-93 academic year, bring this action against Drake University, its President and Athletic Director. The suit arises out of Drake University’s decision last March to discontinue its intercollegiate men’s wrestling program. Plaintiffs assert that the decision to discontinue wrestling constitutes gender discrimination in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq., that Title IX is unconstitutional as applied to plaintiffs, that Drake’s decision violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and that Drake’s decision constitutes a breach of a contract between plaintiffs and Drake. Plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction ordering defendants to reinstate the intercollegiate men’s wrestling program at Drake University. Hearing on the motion was held September 27, 1993. 1

*991 FACTS

Most of the following facts are stipulated by the parties. Other facts are based on the evidence presented at the hearing. A few of the “background” facts mentioned in the next paragraph are judicially noticed.

I think it is appropriate to provide some background. Wrestling is a one-on-one combative sport that has several variations. In one form or another, it is engaged in throughout the world, and it is no doubt the most ancient of all sports. The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians wrestled thousands of years ago and so did the ancient Greeks and Romans. Indeed, wrestling was a major contest in the Olympian games in ancient Greece. Henry VIII, King of England, challenged Francis I, King of France, to a wrestling match. (The French king won.) The early colonists in America found that wrestling was popular among the Native Americans. Wrestling has long been popular in the United States. The special values of wrestling are that it demands of the participant a high level of self-discipline, dedication and conditioning, and that it is open to all sizes and shapes of people — many of whom, because of their small stature, would be unable to compete safely and effectively in most other sports. In the past decade or so participation in pre-junior high school wrestling programs has increased and so has participation in post-collegiate amateur wrestling programs. The level of wrestling participation at the junior high school and high school levels has remained stable, but since 1980 the number of intercollegiate men’s wrestling programs in the United States has steadily declined from 374 to 265. If that rate of decline continues there will be only 181 collegiate wrestling programs left ten years from now. Colleges and universities are dropping wrestling programs for budgetary reasons. Supporters of college wrestling view this trend as disheartening and they predict that the trend will adversely impact on pre-eollegiate wrestling programs and post-collegiate wrestling programs. Elimination of the wrestling program at Drake University is particularly painful to them because Iowa has a long and impressive tradition as the premier wrestling state in the nation. In the earlier part of this century, when professional wrestling was still legitimate, two world champions were Iowans— “Farmer” Burns and Frank Gotch. In modern times, universities in Iowa have consis■tently fielded excellent wrestling teams, and the winning of national championships by the University of Iowa has recently become almost routine.

Now on to the more specific facts of this case. Drake University is a private educational institution in Des Moines, Iowa, organized and existing as a nonprofit corporation under the Iowa Nonprofit Corporation Act (codified at Iowa Code Chapter 504A). Defendant Michael Ferrari is Drake’s President. Defendant Lynn King is Director of Athletics for Drake. He is primarily responsible for the day-to-day operations of intercollegiate athletic programs. Plaintiffs attended Drake paying their own way, either completely or partially, until some were able to obtain full or partial scholarships. Plaintiff Blauvelt is still attending Drake.

Drake is governed by a Board of Governors which is self-perpetuating. The Board elects the University’s President, who acts as the executive agent for the Board, as well as the Board of Trustees (which provides advice to the Board of Governors). No member of Drake’s governing boards is elected or appointed by any state or federal governmental body. No Drake officer or governing official is a state employee, or is elected or appointed to his or her office by any local, state or federal governmental body. Drake does receive federal financial assistance for some of its programs, and therefore must comply with the provisions of Title IX.

Drake is a member of, and subject to the rules and regulations of, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA has established three “divisions” for sports — Divisions I, II and III. A team in Division I is authorized a substantial number of scholarships, a team in Division II is authorized a limited number of scholarships and Division III teams are not authorized any scholarships.

*992 Drake has had NCAA Division I intercollegiate men’s wrestling since 1965. In 1986, Drake’s Strategic Planning Commission made recommendations regarding the future of the Intercollegiate Athletics Division, including a recommendation that the Division terminate the wrestling program. This recommendation was made known to defendant King three years ago when he was recruited as Athletic Director, but the wrestling coach, Lon Timmerman, was never told of it. Tim-merman and his assistant wrestling coaches recruited plaintiffs and other wrestlers. In doing so, they spoke of Drake’s “total commitment” to the wrestling program. They never suggested that Drake might drop its wrestling program before the recruits had graduated, although they did not specifically tell the recruits that Drake would not drop its wrestling program. Plaintiffs responded to the recruitment efforts of Timmerman and his staff and enrolled in Drake to get their college education and wrestle in intercollegiate competition.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Drake’s Board of Governors made a conscious decision to reallocate a greater share of the resources available to Drake to academic priorities and away from other areas such as athletics, and consequently the Board regularly approved budgets which reduced the athletic budget as a percent of the overall university’s budget. At present, Drake’s athletic budget is about five percent of its total budget, and in the 1992-93 year about five percent of its athletic budget went to its wrestling program. Cutting athletic budgets because of total school budget constraints has been common throughout the United States in recent years.

By January of 1993, defendant King knew that wrestling would have to be eliminated. On March 10, 1993, King told Timmerman that the following day a public announcement would be made that the wrestling program would be terminated at the end of the 1992-93 season. Up until then, Timmerman had no inkling of such developments.

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Bluebook (online)
837 F. Supp. 989, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16537, 1993 WL 477935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gonyo-v-drake-university-iasd-1993.