Former U of R Cougar wrestlers insulted after awards found in dumpster
Awards earned by former University of Regina wrestlers were found in a dumpster outside the school Friday.
Trophies, medals and plaques won over decades were all discovered by a student and recovered.
Inga Hammer, who wrestled at the University for many years, including the last year of the program in 2018, said it was disappointing to hear what had been done.
"At the same time, I wasn't that surprised just given the pattern of disrespect and neglect that the University has shown to the sport of wrestling over the years," said Hammer. "It was very disheartening, and unfortunately because of that pattern of neglect, it wasn't that surprising."
The university's wrestling teams were cut after a report came out saying they were not sustainable
Hammer said the program was never properly recognized, despite its success, but that she never thought awards would be discarded.
"You're putting in countless hours of effort and you have such a high degree of pride in representing the University and in being a part of this team," said Hammer. "You assume that an award is going to be something that is longstanding and that will last beyond your athletic career."
She said Regina's wrestling community is tight-knit. After their awards were found discarded, they found a home for them with SaskSport, which will display them at the Regina Hall of Fame.
The University said the awards came from the office of a former wrestling coach.
Harold Riemer, dean of Kinesiology and Health Studies, said the faculty moved from an MVP trophy system to a plaque system in 2008 and at that time, the old awards were handed over to the individual coaches. Plaques with the same information hang on the faculty walls, he said.
Riemer said one coach never came to clean out his office after the program was cut.
"We had asked on a number of occasions, come, please, grab the things that are yours, the things that you want, and we had received no response," Riemer said. "And we need that space. And so my call is, we need to clear that space out. We asked some of our staff to do that and it was done."
He admits it was his call to get rid of the trophies and said he didn't think of turning them over to SaskSport.
The faculty is now undergoing renovations upstairs and Riemer said there is very little storage space
"Whatever storage space we have is effectively full right now and 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 here," Riemer said.
