When Clay McEldowney saw the Princeton University wrestling program get pinned to the mat in 1993, he wanted to do something about it.

Eventually, the Pittstown resident and former Princeton grappler spearheaded a movement that enabled the sport to remain on the campus at Old Nassau, although struggling mightily at times. And along the way, McEldowney learned plenty about sometimes messy athletic politics and, more specifically, Title IX, a law Congress implemented in June 1972 as a means to prohibit sex discrimination against students and employees of educational programs and activities at both public and private institutions that receive federal funds.

“It affected my program at Princeton,” he said, “and that’s how I got involved.”

Involved indeed. McEldowney discovered a bevy of unintended consequences resulting from enforcement policies for Title IX, including the dissolution of many men’s athletic programs at colleges and universities across the nation.

His efforts on behalf of wrestling this year earned him the Impact Award from Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine (WIN), a leading publication covering high school, collegiate and international wrestling.

The award McEldowney received, as did actor Billy Baldwin, was in recognition of his involvement with working to prevent the discontinuation of wrestling and other “lesser priority” sports at many colleges. Baldwin helped revive the wrestling program at the State University of New York-Binghamton.

“It’s an honor given to those who have contributed to the sport in some way,” said McEldowney, who grew up in Clinton and attended North Hunterdon High before transferring to the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa. following his freshman year.

McEldowney is secretary and co-founder of the American Sports Council (formerly the College Sports Council), a Washington-based coalition of coaches, athletes, parents and fans that seeks to reform Title IX.

“The ASC is presently focusing on countering efforts being made to apply Title’s compliance rules to high schools,” he said, “which if successful would have a devastating impact of boys’ participation in high school sports.

“I’ve been working on the national level but my mission is to alert people to the very high likelihood [Title IX] could impact scholastic activities as it relates to boys who participate in high school sports.

“That’s really my purpose. It’s kind of a wake-up call to what is a huge issue nationally and could affect us locally if we don’t watch out. The guys are getting hurt. It will come to New Jersey and Hunterdon County and there will be a lot of boys who can’t go out for sports.”

McEldowney authored a 2009 editorial in The Washington Post regarding the actual negative consequences Title IX, which marks its 40th birthday this month, has had on some collegiate men’s athletic programs. Many factors are involved, including the economy, proportionality in measuring women’s opportunities against men’s and interpretation of the correct application of the law especially concerning the 1979 policy amendment which introduced a “quota system” into the mix.

Thousands of male athletes have since been prohibited from competing in collegiate sports and many men’s athletic scholarships and coaching positions have been eliminated. Originally designed to halt discrimination against women, Title IX is now discriminating against men, according to McEldowney.

“The law was meant to ensure fairness for both sexes,” he said, “and that’s not what is happening.”

A former head of the Clinton engineering firm Studer & McEldowney for 24 years, McEldowney wrestled for Harold Vandermark’s North Hunterdon squad as a freshman before moving on to the Hill School, where he was a national prep champion and team co-captain in 1965.

At Princeton he majored in civil engineering and wrestled four years, serving as captain during his senior campaign. When Princeton wrestling was discontinued in ’93, he organized the “Friends of Princeton Wrestling” movement and eventually the sport was gradually reinstated.