SPORTS AND MAINSTREAM PRODUCTS have long teamed up for huge profits. Basketball has lunch boxes, school binders, fake tattoos, and a thousand other items. Football jerseys and backpacks are everywhere. And is there anyone in America who doesn't own a couple of baseball caps?

But what about wrestling? Sure, headgear, wrestling boots and singlets sell well to mat folks, but wrestling people want more. They're starved for mainstream stuff, and the potential in this powerful niche is just begging to be tapped.

Several factors make the wrestling niche so promising. In nearly thirty years on the mat, I've learned that:

· wrestling people are fiercely passionate about wrestling

· wrestling boasts huge nationwide participation

· wrestling people are remarkably loyal to our sport

· the wrestling community will buy quality wrestling products, if available

If we can agree that wrestling offers a large, passionate, and willing niche market, and that market is underserved in terms of mainstream items, which product might best fill the gap?

I've thought about this question often. My light bulb clicked on at the 1998 state tournament after one of my seniors suffered a dream-shattering overtime loss. His parents were distraught. Our entire team was shocked. No one knew what to say or do. Still shaken myself, I remember thinking: if only there was a greeting card to address this situation. I mentioned this to one of my wrestling parents, who quickly added, "yes, I bet ten people would have bought one for him."

Greeting cards are a classic mainstream product. They've already proven their worth a billion times over­­in sales­­with over 7 billion sold in the United States in 1997. The average buyer buys 3 cards at a time, and the average person receives 30 greeting cards a year! My wife Jeri, a postal carrier, recently shared another compelling statistic with me: 50% of all mail consists of greeting cards.

So, with my light bulb flickering feverishly, I set out to combine a well-proven mainstream product with an underserved, powerful niche market.

Greeting cards and wrestling. Of course.