Kids getting introduced to wrestling, one ticket at a time
By Jessica Cullen USA Wrestling 02/16/2011
Starting in 2009, the Tickets for Kids program was created by Jim Brown, a wrestling fan that had an idea. His goal was to expose kids to college wrestling free of charge. The first big event Brown sent kids to were the 2010 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
“Three years ago, I started anonymously buying tickets to send to clubs for Iowa dual meets. For last year’s Division III Championships in Cedar Rapids, I was wondering if I could help promote Division III Championships, wrestling and Cedar Rapids. I couldn’t buy enough tickets on my own,” said Brown.
His original goal was to send 1,000 kids but he didn’t quite reach it. From the donations sent in by businesses in eastern Iowa and from fans across the country, Brown sent over 600 kids to the tournament.
Brown was exposed to wrestling when he was a junior high student in gym class. There was a wrestling course that lasted about six weeks ending with an intramural tournament. It wasn’t until he went with a friend to watch Dan Gable wrestle at Iowa State, that his interest in the sport grew.
“In the 1990 season, my wife, who I was dating, bought season tickets to University of Iowa wrestling duals. We’ve had those seats ever since,” Brown said.
The more he watched, the more he liked wrestling. Eventually, it got to the point where he started to wonder what he could do to help the sport.
After trying to buy tickets himself, he reached out to area businesses and fans across the country to help support the initiative. He started to work with the Open Mat website and started the Tickets for Kids Fan Challenge. This would allow fans to donate money in the name of their favorite school to send kids to matches. Oklahoma State won the first challenge.
Soon, Tickets for Kids grew to having a program specific to the National Duals, and has plans to send kids to the Olympic Trials next year.
“We’re going to do something [for the Olympic Trials]. It appears that one of the major wrestling entities is discussing a program. I want kids to go to the Trials and have a wrestling experience of a lifetime. W’er currently in the beginning stages of discussions,” Brown said. “If we can get 2,500 kids in to the Olympic Trials […] for me, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to do as much for wrestling as I possibly can.”
As far as what the future hold for the program, an organization approached him with the interest of taking of Tickets for Kids program. Surprisingly, the program was harder to run then he anticipated.
“What surprised me was how hard it can be to give tickets away. We even had a hard time getting people to go to the Oklahoma State and Iowa dual,” he said.
Despite the challenges of distributing tickets, Brown has other goals for kids to get involved in wrestling.
“Organizations working with kids aren’t thinking of kids getting involved with wrestling. If we can get wrestling to be first on the list of things to get kids involved, we’ve done our job,” he said.
