11 r Str tan ?ati Vol. LXXX, No. I Ann Arbor, Michigan--Wednesday, August 27, 1969 Twelve Pages SPORTS 0 0 'N'1 f foo t By JIM FORRESTER Associate Sports Editor EVERY YEAR, like mythology's Phoenix, football teams die of old age or go down in flames. Every spring they rise again and in the fall they wing forth to fulfill the purpose in their lives. Last season's Michigan grid corps start- ed as if the entire season would be an in- ferno, a ten week death with no respite. California's Golden Bears growled ,into town and clawed what looked to be an at least mediocre team to pieces by a 21-7 count. The offensive and defensive lines crumbled allowing the Bears to push the Wolverines into the paths of least resist- ance like so much rain water. The great Ron Johnson was able to stagger for only 48 yards and Denny Brown, completed but nine of 31 passes, many of which were' dropped. The entire perform- ance sickened the crowd and prompted a Daily reporter to write, "Maybe the team should go down to play Duke Saturday and stay there." MANY WHO saw the clash that day felt California would be the team to sneak into the nation's top ten, but as the weeks passed their power began to wane and the Blue began to go. In swelering Durham, the Wolverines wolloped the Blue Devils, 31-10 and set the pattern for their play for the rest of the season. First, Ron Johnson ran. He didn't stop that day until he had collected 205 yards and two touchdowns. Then Denny Brown passed and he didn't stop until he had completed 13 of 24 tosses, one for a six- pointer. This was the offense for the sea- son - Johnson runs punctuated by Brown passes. The Wolverine style of defense was set in this game, also. It consisted of letting the other team get close to scoring about every other time they got the ball and then stopping them inside the twenty. The first time Duke handled the pigskin they drove to the Blue 19 before being stopped. THE OFFENSE and defense Michigan displayed against Duke. with all their potential for self-destruction, carried the Wolverines to an enight game w i n n i n g streak in which they scored 256 points to their opponents 84. The next week they handled Navy with the same power that crumpled Duke, put- ting 31 markers on the board to but nine for the Midshipmen. Johnson again keyed the Michigan of- I all's fight fense as he rumbled for 121 yards and two more tallies, one from in close and the other on a 39 yard jaunt. The rushing of- fense received 50 yards of beefing up as fullback Garvie Craw had a fine day. Denny Brown added most of the remaining punch with 128 yards of completed aerials. But the star of the afternoon was de- fensive back George Hoey. The little speedster scorched the Middies with three long returns two punts and one inter- ception. THE WOLVERINES were down 3-0 at the beginning of the second quarter when Hoey took off with a punt he most likely should have made a fair catch. "A more experienced play would never have run it back," moaned Navy Coach Bill Elias after the game. Hoey's "inexperience" carried him 63 yards to the Middie six. The run was what the Wolverines needed to get them going. As then Sports Editor Dave Weir put it, "Navy never quite re- covered." Football swamis made predictions foT a Michigan loss to Navy on the basis that they would be looking to the next Satur- day's clash with the almost ultimate evil - Michigan State. But for the first time in many a year the men in blue took the challenge from East Lansing as "just another game." This was the attitude of Captain Johnson (first black captain of a Michigan grid crew) worked to instill in his teammates. There were no posters in the locker- room crying, "Hate State" 'or "Grind the Green and White." The practice of having the second team wear green jersies in scrimmage was dropped. AS A RESULT the Wolverines dropped State for the first tmie in four long years, 28-14. Again the keys to- the scoring were the legs of Ron Johnson and the arm :f Denny Brown. Johnson trampled the Spartans for 152 yards in only 19 carries -one for a 38 yard touchdown. Brown's arm and tight end Jim Man- dich's hands. though. were the margin of victory. State opened the fourth quarter ; with a score and a two point conversion to take a 14-13 lead. The MSU jinx looked as if it would still hold fast. But about five minutes later Brown launched a 53 yard scoring bomb to Man- dich that put the Blue ahead to stay. Garvie Craw added an insurance score on a 25 yard draw play, one of the few draws Michigan was to run all year. And hopeful fans began muttering about the Rose Bowl. See VETERAN, page two of the Phoenix w -D- .ay -Andy S:k Rudy Tomjanovich: Michigan's cage hope Th e a thle tic monfey game By JOEL BLOCK Sports Editor SOMETHING VERY WRONG has happened to college athletics. I know this when tw million dollars is spent on less than a thousand participnt. ininteollegiate sports and only $200,000 budgeted for the athletic activities of the rest of the 30,000 on mpus.l I know this w\'ln a fct bl ('o'ch can tell a player how to cut hs hair' aAd >ha'e Is fce, or even where to live, what time to go to bed a d what political rallies to stay awvaWy from. I know this when high school athletic stars are ca- joled, coerced, and bribed by coaches and professional recruiters to sign their names to a "letter of intent ," the colleaiate equivalent of the professional contract. '"'HAT HAS HAPPENED is that college athletics has be- come part of the great capitalist mainstream and consequently has been forced to follow many of the prac- tices and techniques of capitalism. For example, decisions must be made at the top by a select professional few, instead of by t h e participants themselves. This is necessary for efficiency and economy. Image projection is important, thus entailing the deployment of sophisticated public relations depart- ments. Because of the importance of the athletic "coin- pany's' image, tight reigns must be placed on the per- formers so they don't get out of line. jiF THE SPECTATORS want to see hard-hitting bone- crushing football, then it will be played that way and bones indeed will be crushed. Spectators also pay to see winning teams, not losing ones, so huge sums of money are invested in procuring the best high school talent and giving them the best possible equipment and coaching. In short, you might say the only difference between the operation of a collegiate football team and a profes- sional one is that the pros admit they're in it for the money while collegians don't. College football doesn't have to be the money-dom- inated enterprise it is today. About 85 years ago a group of men represented Michigan in the football wars. j'HE GRIDIRON HEROES of the 1880's weren't lured to Michigan with full scholarships and living expenses: they cane to Michigan not to learn how to play football but rather for more academic reasons. Now I don't want to sound like a senile alumnus calling for a return to the "Good Old Days." The 1880's Dally- Jiy cwa.idv Ron Johpson: Does Michigan have an offense left? ::: .. . :: . w. -;r3:;.