Sunday, November 17, 196$
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Nine
Sunday, November 17, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Nina
Johnson
rewrites
Michigan
record
book
+
+
+
If you waited for the second
team you have pneumonia
By FRED LaBOUR
There were six guys holding
$6.00 tickets to yesterday's Wis-
consin game sitting in the bar at
Inn:America and watching the
game on television.
There were thousands of stud-
* ents sprawled out in apartment
living rooms across the length and
breadth of picturesque Ann Arbor
watching the game on television.
There were alumni all over
southeastern Michigan sitting
home watching the game on tele-
vision.
But it wasn't their afternoon at
all, the chickens.
It was an afternoon for the
crazy bunch of 6,000 people who
stuck it out until the raw, bitter
end.
It's true, these clammy, w e t,
shivering, enthusiastic partisians
had some company for the first
quarter or so, but at halftime the
superflous shouters boiled away
and only the true-blue crazies
were left.
That's the kind of crowd that
would probably have swum the
Rubicon in Januafy to get ahead
Df Caesar so they could cheer for
him when he landed. Real die-
hards, those crazies.
The pathos and irony of the
whole thing was, almost over-
whelming if you're susceptible to
that type of thing. There was
captain Ron Johnson, breaking
every record in sight except the
sports-
SPORTS NIGHT EDITORS:
ANDY BARBAS,
JIM FORRESTER
Discount Record, playing his final
game in Michigan Stadium, scam-
pering up and down the field like
a maniac leading his team to
the Rose Bowl, and only 6,000
idiots there to watch him.
The first half of the game was
the most interesting from a psy-
chological point of view because
the entire Michigan team seem-
ed to go through an identity crisis.
They thought they were Wiscon-
sin.
All of the game films and strat-
egy talks must have gone in back-
wards and they thought they were
the worst team in the nation in-
stead of the fourth best. They
slipped and slid, dropped and drip-
ped, and stumbled and flipped up
and down the field in the neo-
classic Badger tradition.
Paul Staroba, for instance, spent
a good deal of the first half slid-
ing six yards at a crack on his
back after leaping for overthrown
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Dennis Brown passes.
Brown fumbled away the ball
once. Dave Denzin's centering sud-
denly fell apart and the Badgers
ubsequently scored a field goal.
Wilbur Cohen carried messages to
Ron Johnson's father from the
press box. Everything went wrong.
Even the officials were infected
with Wisconsinitis. One of the re-
ferees when asked to explain just
why Wisconsin was awarded their
touchdown in the first quarter,'
aid amid the confusion, "I don't
know anything about it."
But the second half was a little
lifferent. The fans who hadn't
'rozen to death woke up and John-
son began his colossal sprinting ;
exhiiton.
The cheerleaders managed to
cut their pratfalls in half as they
got used to the straw along the
sidelines and everybody who
wasn't drunk wishes he was.
Suddenly capturing Tommy
Harmon's record wasn't such a big .
deal and everybody wanted to
know the NCAA total offense re-
cord.
With 3:25 left in the game the
announcer read off the names of
the seniors and what was left, of :
the crowd went wild, paying their
respects to those aged fellows.
Then they took up the chant
"Rose Bowl, Rose Bowl," and they
were not cheering on their local
florist at his neighborhood Lami-
niated Lanes.,
In the Wisconsin locker room,
Badger coach Coatta, the vener-
able winner of the "Take it in
Stride Even if it Kills You Award"
talked about the first half.
"We kept them in the hole even BIG RON JOHNSO
if we didn't move the ball much," day's game. The gre
hie said. "You know," he added, Jim Mandch, to pr
"we're not a team that scores
nuch." Thanks, coach, anything and total offense re
else? "There's no question in my'
nind about it, they're 'a better
football team than we are."
Coatta's team took over undis-
puted possession of last place in
he Big Ten as Illinois finally won, FIRST DOWNS
but they have done so with grace Rushing
and dignity. Passing
After all, without the Wiscon- Penalty
TOTAL NO. OF RUSHES
sins, where would we get the Mich- NET YARDS - Rushing
gans? And vice versa. Passing
Michigan star makes
Harmon number two
Continued from page 1 1 tween Michigan and Ohio State.
"~Coach Frank Maloney (of fen- 1 They (OSU) beat us 43-8 1 a s t
sive line coordinator) yelled at week, but I couldn't say which is
us, stomped out and slammed the the better team.
door," said Johnson later. "That "We played a hard first half,"
did more than anything to fire us Coatta continued, "But we just
up for the second half." weren't good enough. Once John-
And fired up they were. The en- son started breaking loose it was
tire third period was a series of all over.
chain-reaction explosions. "He's the most effective ball-
With 25 seconds gone, Johnson carrier we've ever played against.
took off from the Michigan 33- His totals today would be a career
yard line and went all the way for record for a lot of guys.
the winning score . . . breaking a "I was very impressed with the
tackle attempt by Wisconsin's Michigan defense - it w a s as
Mike Cavill to go the final nine tough as Ohio's," s a i d Coatta.
yards. Michigan plays a basic defense
Tim Killian's PAT attempt was which is good enough that they
wide to the right and the score don't have to rely on stunting.
was 13-9. "They're just too tough all the
Six minutes later. Wolverine way around." he concluded.
safety Tom Curtis intercepted his Elliott said the second-half
comeback was important for the
team. "We were in a jam and we
National were able to come back. That's
the first time that's happened, so
Football now we know we can do it.
"We're going to be ready to play
See Page 7 against Ohio State. This team gets
itself up . . . they proved it to-
I day in the second half. They got
tenth pass (running his Big Ten untracked and opened it up fast."
record to nine) and ran back 43 Several Michigan players were
yards to the Wisconsin three-yard bruised in the game. Middleguard
line. Johnson dove o v e r tackle Henry H i ll suffered a charley-
twice and it was 20-9. horse in his right leg. "I'll be all
Halfway through the quarter, right for next week," said Hill.
Johnson shot up the center and "My leg was a little hurt before
broke right for a 60-yard gallop-'the game, and it's bruised up now,
his fourth TD - and the game but it'll be okay."
was out of reach. Curtis twisted an ankle, a n d
Theni just to add a little top- defensive end Phil Seymour suf-
ping to the victory cake, Johnson fered a knock to the head, but
broke loose for a 50-yard score both appeared to be in good shape
early in the final period. He hurt- after the game. Fullback Garvie
led over the last would-be tack- Craw reinjured his already bang-
ler into the end zone for touch- ed-up legs, but not seriously.
down number five. The win was Michigan's eighth
After the game, Wisconsin men- of the season against one loss. And
tor John Coatta said he expects now there's only one game left.
"a heck of a game next week be- Or is it two?
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N breaks off left tackle for 35 yards and the first Wolverine touchdown of yester-
at back artfully utilizes the fantastic blocking of fullback Garvie Craw (48) and
ry open the weak Badger defense. Johnson set a Big Ten single game rushing
cord of 347 yards.
case of rushing matters
Was it a good game,
or a bad game?
When they were good they were almost perfect, but when they a
were bad . .. forget it.
This week in Columbus, however, they hopefully won't bother s
with anything except being perfect. i
The Michigan Wolverine football squad was challenged yes-
terday by Wisconsin, perhaps the second worst major college foot-
ball team in the nation (New Mexico, apparently, is inferior
to the Badgers). Against this ragamuffin organization, the Wol-
verines showed two extremes of football proficiency which they
had never displayed before.
In the first 30 minutes, Michigan parlayed their poorest half of
football this year into a temporary 9-7 deficit to the incompetent
Badgers.
The second half, in contrast, was probably the Wolverines best
half this season. And Ron Johnson played the greatest game of any
football player any time, anywhere, unquestionably, without a doubt,
ever. So who needs O. J. Simpson?;
All of which makes one wonder what kind of team will face
Ohio State Saturday. If the first half team plays the Buckeyes,
Michigan will get killed. Should the Wolverines play like they did
in the final half, particularly
the third quarter, Ohio State
will get killed.
More than likely, Michigan's per-
formance will be somewhere in
between the two extremes. And of
course, how well the lines play -
the defense in stopping the rush-
ers and rushing the passer, the
offense in protecting the passer
and making holes for the rushes
will be the key.
Symbolic of Michigan's g a m e
yesterday was the performance of
linebacker Cecil Pryor. Entering
f. the contest relatively flat, like his
e f} teammates, the early frustration
and the wet and cold apparently
got to Pryor. His play picked up
/ in spark and enthusiasm and in
the second quarter he flattened
CECIL PRYOR Badger quarterback John Ryan
just as he was getting off a pass. Ryan staggered off the field and
4- was out for the remainder of the half.
During the third period, in the midst of the Wolverine touch-
down deluge, Tonf Curtis intercepted a Ryan pass and returned it
to the Badger 3. Pryor saw a Wisconsin player attack Curtis-
after the tackle, kicking him in an attempt to shake the ball loose.
Incensed, Pryor went after the player with malicious intent, and
the result was both he and the Badger were thrown out.
After the contest, linebacker coach Bob Shaw told Pryor, "We
need you in these games. If you get kicked out of the game against
Ohio State, you won't do us any good on the sidelines."
Michigan tennis coach Bill Murphy then came over, put his
arm around Pryor and said, "That's the spirit, Cecil. Keep it up
down in Columbus."
Pryor looked at both men and said to each, "Yes, coach".
And that is exactly the problem with the Wolverines per-
formance against the Badgers. Do you condemn it because of all
the lackluster play, or do you paise it as a whole because of the
result?
Peace Corps
MICH.
19
13
7
5
364
117
wisC.
12
4
1
53
136
53
FORWARD PASSES ATT.
Completed
Intercepted by
Yards interceptions ret.
TOTAL PLAYS
(Rushes and Passes)
PUNTS, Number
Average distance
KICKOFFS, returned by
YARDS KICKS RET.
Punts #
Kickoffs
FUMBLES, Number
Ball lost by
PENALTIES, Number
Yards penalized
15 24
6
43
70
38.2
26
-3
26
4.
60
1
40
77
9
36.7
6
189
13
176
0'
15
Ryan
Smith
Daw ilns
Todd
Ritcherson
Schinnick
Ryan
WISCONSIN
Rushing
No.
8
11
17
3
Yards Ave.
-12 -1.5
18 1.6
21 1.9
70 4.1
22 7.3
:3 5
Totals 53 136
,Massing
Att. Comp. Yds.
24 5 53
Pass Receiving
No. Yards
2 24
2 18
1 11
1.7
Ave.
22
Ave.
12.0
9.0
11.0
Mearlon
Iteddick
Yana kos
MICHIGAN
Totals 5 53
Punting
No. Yards Ave.
Schaffner 9 313 36.7
Johnson ,
Brown
Craw
Scheffler,
Federico
Thomas
Tota
Brown
Moorhead
Totals
Pa
Harris
Johnson
Mandie h
Staroba
W1erner
Rushing
No.
31.
9
2
11
a1
1
tats 5
Yards Ave.
347 11.2
-37 -4.1
1 ' 0.5
45 4.1
6 6.0.
3 3.0
1363
Passing
Att. Comp. Yds.
14 6 117
1 0 0
15 6 117
ss Receiving
No. Yards
2 65
2 25
1 11
1 16
Totals 6 117
Ave.
8.0
0.0
Ave.
32.5
12.5
11.0
16.0
Punting
No.
7
Yards Ave.
268 38.2
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-Daily-Andy Sacks
JOHNSON BREAKS FOR THE RECORD. Ron Johnson sends
Badgers flying as he breaks off left tackle for a 67 yard scoring
run in the third quarter that broke Tom Harmon's career rushing
record of 2134 yards. Johnson ended the game with a new record
of 2349 yards.
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