PAGE TEN THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1966 PAGE TEN THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY, MARCH 11. 1966 '11' Tradition... Once Upon ABasketball Court A (EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the last article in a two-part series analyz- ng Michigan's basketball tradition.) By HOWARD KOHN and DAVE WEIR Around noon last Saturday they began wandering into Yost Field House to claim a front row seat. By four o'clock they 'had crammed into every legitimate spot and were crowding up among the rafters. They had all come-the alum- ni, the grad students, the sen- iors, the freshmen and all the others that knew and appreciated -to give Cazzie and teammates one final tribute. They thunder- ed and cheered and, sensing that an era was coming to an end, they paid homage to their team with, roars of approval. They even hung a sign from the balcony which read: "Thank you, Cazzie Rus- sell." And after Cazzie had eclipsed more records and the Wolverines had clinched their third consecu- tive title, they poured out of the stands. Up went Russell and Dar- den to rip the nets from the orange hoops, supported by the shoulders and hands and the intangible spir- it of the fans below. The Perfect Ending It was the ideal climax to the story of an ancient field house and the men who changed it. For all intents and purposes, the saga of Yost Field House was over. The team was going to the NCAA tour- naments seeking that crowning glory of national prestige, and next year Yost must give way to a sparkling, water-proof All- Events Building. But there had not always been a championship team to send off to the tournaments. Recent Mich- igan basketball history has been one of mediocrity and failure. Bas- ketball and Yost meant little in the fifties when Michigan fell in- to the depths with a dull .321 per- centage in 15 years of Big Ten play. There had been few cheers, let alone roars, since Ozzie Cowles and his zone press earned the Wolverines a spot in the regionals back in 1948; Cowles, first full- time coach for Michigan, intro- duced the zone press to the Big Ten to the woeful hue and cry of the other teams. Conference riv- als claimed it was illegal; Cowles pointed out that it had been used in the early twenties; and, mean- while, Michigan rolled up 10 wins and two losses for its first cham- pionship since 1929. But the Wolverine cagers were bounced in their first try at tour- nament play by Holy Cross and a skinny forward naned Bob Cousy. The fans had come out of hi- bernation that year, after long years of watching the Bowery Boys on Saturday afternoon, but they soon went back to sleep. And at times it appears doubtful whether they ever awoke. Oldtimers tell the story of Cowles' first day after the tourna- ments. He walked into his office and one of the other coaches ask- ed, "I noticed you haven't been around for the past few days ... where did you go?" It may seem a little far-fetched, but it was the zone press that stayed and not Cowles. The Lean Years The one-year coach left for Minnesota for what Michigan Ath- letic Director Fritz Crisler ex- plains as "an attractive coaching offer and a radio and television deal on the side." The following 15 years were famine for Michigan basketball, at the box office and on the score- board. "Basketball was usually in the red, while swimming and hockey were showing a profit," remembers Crisler. Plus, by 1951 Michigan complacently settled in the base- ment of the Big Ten, and, except for two brief first-division pene- trations, there it stayed 'til 1964. "Michigan's teams sort of disin- tegrated, and many times there were less than a thousand fans at games," recalls assistant coach Jim Skala, who was a player for the Wolverines in 1950-52. Ernie Mc- Coy had replaced Cowles in 1949 and he lasted for three years, be- fore taking the athletic director- ship at Penn State. Psych among the Pigeons A Michigan basketball tradition had really never been and it look- ed like it would never be. Yost Field House became a good place for Psych majors to watch pigeons as long as it didn't rain. "No one enjoyed watching us get our ears pinned back," says Don Weir, ticket director since 1947. Or as Crisler points out, "The world loves a winner." There is an anecdote about the "enthusiasm" back in 1952 when Skala was team captain. It was the last game of the season and the fans were conspiculously ab- sent from the "condensation cen- ter." "Don't let the crowd get to you," quipped Skala as he shook hands with the Purdue captain before the game. This was a period of nothingness down on State Street, where the field house represented the outer limits. But it was not, above all, just a cut-and-dried proposition. There were reasons to Michigan's miserable showings-some avoid- able and others unavoidable. 'You Gotta Have ... "It was mainly a lack of really excellent players in my opinion," emphasized McCoy. And Bill Per- igo, the man who replaced Mc- Coy, agrees. "Michigan was a foot- ball-minded school. There was lit- tle recruiting for basketball, and we didn't have any kind of repu- tation to attract great players here.'' Perigo oftentimes had to rely on "recruiting" his cagers out of PE classes and off the football team. Paul Groffsky, captain in 1955, was one of the better prod- ucts from gym classes. Assistant coach Tom Jorgenson, who played with Groffsky, con- tends, "It was a usual thing back then, but I seriously doubt if it could happen today in our age of hard-sell recruiting." Recruiting the Art thats what hurt most . . . we had to contact the alumni in order to raise some money so tie boy and his parents could visit the cam- pus." No wonder that as late as 1959 only one high school recruit, John Tidwell, was in the Michigan line- up. This contrasts with today's prac- tice of scouting players while still in junior high. Recruiting is ex- tremely intense. "In the last 30 days, either Tom (Jorgenson) or I have seen at least one high school player on 25 of those days," explains Skala. "It's rough when your own children start calling you 'Uncle' Daddy." "We have an organized plan of recruiting today. There are pub- lication aids like Dave Bones' weekly booklet which lists the top high school players in the coun- try. And when we find a player we feel would help us, we send! a letter to him, to his coach and to his principal because we need a great deal of information about him before we can give him an1 athletic scholarship," expounds1 Skala. rollment at Michigan and his as a basketball power also helped reign of terror under the Big Ten overcome another handicap that backboards is now history. He was plagued Perigo during his coach- the first basketball All-American ing tenure. "I often suspected that since 1938 and the first step to- other schools would use Michi- ward big-time recruiting at Michi- gan's high academic standards to gan. scare off prospective players," re- "When I came to Michigan. calls Perigo. "Of course, we had there was this feeling that the some boys who dropped out Wolverines couldn't win at basket- around Thanksgiving of their ball. I felt this idea was >stupid freshman year because they felt because every other sport had been they couldn't make it academical- successful here, and I felt we could ly. attract players because Michigan Strack's 1962 team changed the was an excellent university," com- semester break superstition with mented Strack. a resounding victory over Wiscon- The Beginning of a New Era sin at Madison in the first game "We worked hard toward enroll- after finals. It was the first time ing good players, and in 1962 we Michigan had won its conference got all-staters Larry Tregoning opener in 11 years and its first and George Pomey, in addition to road victory in 37 games (includ- Buntin. There wasn't any secret or ing non-conference contests). any luck involved . . . it was sim- One Way To Go ... Up ply selling the university to the Michigan came in eighth that player." year, beating runner-up Wiscon- The next year Cazzie came .sin twice but losing to second- "brought to Michigan because of division clubs, but 1962 was the Michigan," and the championship last season of mediocrity. The Wol- era was here. verines climbed to fourth in 1963, But to go back to the fifties three games in back of Ohio State; once again, and to the caliber of then tied with OSU for the title high school players in the state in 1964 and won it outright in of Michigan then. "This state just 1965 and 1966. could not compare to the quality Strack, Cazzie and Company of cagers produced in Indiana and meet Western Kentucky tonight as Illinois for, a long time. Basketball they take a final try at a na- wasn't emphasized on a high tional championship after finish- school level around the state, and ing third and second. And last Michigan suffered because a uni- Saturday's fans who couldn't for- versity was more dependent upon get bluebooks and hike over to recruiting in-state players then," Iowa City will be at the tube offers Perigo. watching last Saturday's team. Today Jorgenson can smilingly Basketball is king at Michigan say, "Michigan's high school play- tonight. The story behind its esca- ers are the best ever. We are re- lation-like that of the Model T cruiting a bumper crop this year Ford to the Ford GT-has an ex- and look at the Big Ten. Who's on planation. Strack organized re- top and who's on the bottom?" A cruiting and brought Buntin and quick glance shows Michigan and Cazzie to Michigan, and, in or- MSU as number one and two, while derly fashion, Buntin and Cazzie Purdue and Indiana are tied for brought victories. last. There is a new tradition at "Our state and our university Michigan. But whether it can sur- are basketball conscious now . . . vive without its builders, and a freshman enrolling at Michigan whether it can find more building can't wait to go down and watch blocks for more championships will his first game." be answered next year and the Michigan's national reputation year after ... w - -- -- - V 4 "Back then," Big Ten r was only a photo-science.' even allowed to leave ca talk to high school play were interested in comingt igan,' explains Perigo.1 I, :1F Christianity and, Exi"stenti*alismf LECTURE-DISCUSSION DR. ARTHUR HOLMES Chairman, Philosophy Department, Wheaton College 7:30 . . UGLI Multipurpose Room ... Friday MICHIGAN CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP ecruiting Sweeping Is Out "I wasn't Scholarships are another im- mpus to provement over recruiting in the ers who fifties. "Athletic tenders, which to Mich- originated in the Big Ten in the I think mid-fifties, used to entail giving the athletes a job like sweeping the ice rink and selling programs. Now giving jobs to an athlete is illegal according to conference rules, but there are tenders which cover room and board, tuition and books," says Jorgenson. The full coverage tenders came in 1960. The stipulation for need was taken out in 1958 and now all that an athlete must show is a predicted 1.7 college academic average based on his high school record, rank in his class, and his college board scores. The biggest improvement for Michigan recruiting, though, was Coach Dave Strack and his two assistants. Strack, Skala and Jor- genson were hired in June of 1960, after Perigo's retirement. Their first two years were mere- ly transitional. But then Strack found Bill Buntin in Brewster Center, a recreation center in De- troit where the burly Northern High graduate was playing after sitting out his senior year in high school with a broken leg. Most scouts had missed Buntin in his junior year, but a tip sent Strack out to see him play rec ball. The story of his consequent en- 9 LLOYD GRAFF The New Tradition SPORTS NIGHT EDITOR: GRETCHEN TWIETMEYER /111/el iI. i '"" r THE INTERFRATERNITY COUNCIL and PANHELLENIC ASSOCIATION wish to extend CONGRATULATIONS to the Men of the New SIGMA PI FRATERNITY Papaya A&M languishes on a lonely mesa in downtown Escondido, a boondocks burg in the suburbs of Maine. Its faculty includes a bartender who teaches veterinary medicine and a bicycle thief who tests the water content of iodized pepper. In the student body, seventy eight pawns rack their slates on rock candy filberts while countering their Anthropology midterms. It's an insti- tution that happens while it siand ares when it ain't. Little occurs except when it isn't in spades. Flitting through marrow of this jocose campus a wallobee jostles. Its ilk declines on this night instead of all other nights because the NCAA incest taboo twitters morosely. Not that I wish to imply wasps or giggles in the wistaria. Circumlocution notwithstanding, everything in triplicate tends to get knocked out of the basketball tournament except in odd years be- ginning with the year eight After Deuteronomy. For this reason Papaya, the Fuscia and Ochre, nicknamed the Mods, rock with the Deltas in ebullient rectangles behind the toolshed looking gentle spitting teeth. This spelling bee is enamoured of clob- bered willow trunks that bark munificently when they smear. Flab- bergasted they glurg. Oooooh. Yes, religionists deify the fiberglass and cringe when stupified. It racks. But never fear, the veterinarian with a penchant for the Old Pirate will rupture the golden tresses before he gets his thinblefull tonight, at least that's what they say. Don't believe it. Rasping violently, hockey evanesces. Sweet coquettes in peach- flavored jumpers will harangue voluptuously before they see Clem run. Dreamers. Oh say can you see the shoelaces on me? Reluctant artifice acti- vates the cerebrum and purges the gangrene from wheezing jambs, but little do they know. The Pentagon has six sides. Frivolous but awe inspiring brooding finches cackle thunderously. "Turn off the carbon dioxide and peel the strawberries, you fink." "So eat more chicken. Its good for you. So you shouldn't be thin. And don't make no tsimmes about it either. OI!" That's the beauty of Maine. It ares. But to happen, that's something else. Like it takes off. That's the great thing about navels. Do you like apricots? They're yummy. Which has everything to do with catcalls to caged ani- mals. What they don't know in Escondido won't hurt them. A cheetah can outrun a waterbuffalo, but it doesn't have horns. Neither does Gonella Bread, baked on a hearth. Hey fella. Is that what's wrong with Society? Yes, says the skippy peanut gallery. Jump into a date bar, it's a security blanket. "But you lie," screeches Omar relieving his aggressions. "Hey Diddle Diddle, the Wildcat and the fiddle. Certainly." Pagannini's one note samba falls on deaf ears in the mona stry. Is that all you've got to say, you ogre? No, fleas are eaten by a Caz. Dream little Oscar.,Dream. Dream. 0. 4i ae Gerard J. Barrett Robert E. Bates Jr. Albert H. Bell James C. Bender Marvin G. Booth Michael A. Copeland Phillip R. Cooper James A. Densel Robert E. Fraker Therin E. Glasky Joseph D. Harlan Kenneth A. Horton Kenneth R. Meldrum Joseph L. Mercier Larry H. Metnick Gerald A. Meyer David W. Moore Dan C. Omahundro Thomas A. Parmenter Gerald F. Price Michael J. Roessler Frederick G. Ruben James A. Sewell Jon C. VanLandschoot i School Time is OLYMPIA TIME of 04^p4rdo University Typewriter Center Home of OLYMPIA, the Precision Typewriter 613 E. William St. 665-3763 m A "Uk n A -wN /A!N A lUEL^ I 1 11 1 I 11 1