PAGE SEX
THE MICHIgAN DAILY
SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1967
PabulousFemslmprovelllichiganAthletici
mn age
4
Miss Kraker Sweeps;
Long Hair Follows
Miss King's Diving
Makes Big Splashes
By CHUCK VETZNER
Sports Editor, 1966-1967
Then there's that old thing
about a picture being worth a
thousand words. So if you will stop
reading for a second and take aj
look at the photograph which has'
been enclosed . .
Sure it's an old trick, but when
the image looks like that even
Marshall McLuhan has to 'be imi-
pressed..
Back on word 1,057 we return
to the story. Actually the picture
has all kinds of numerical signi-
ficance.
There are,, of course, the 36's,
the 24's, and that sort of thing.
But this is a sports story. The
important digits are a) 1:22.4; b)
600 yards, and c) 1968.
The female is named Francie
Kraker and she hopes to be in "c"
Olympics because she holds the
women's track record in "b" with
a time of "a". She also runs a
pretty mean half mile (third in
the AAU meet), mile (also third)
and has been experimenting in
crops country races.
Reform Barbers
But that picture. Ah yes. It
makes you wonder why local bar-
ber shops and drug stores adorn
their windows with snapshots of
blubbery football players.
Anyway this particular photo is
not only a scrumtious view of
Francie in civies. It has actually
helped her career.
It was taken a year ago by a
Louisville paper before a track
meet. And since then it has been
seen by sponsors of many other
track meets.
It seems that most people think
aW girl track star looks like a
Brahma bull with a cardboard
placard around her necic: And
since the times don't match their
male counterparts women's track
has been largely ignored. In other
words only Russia could really
dig Tamara Press.
Needs Competition
Anyway here's young Miss Kra-
ker (rhymes with Betty the cake
mix queen) lovely talented and
anxious to improve. But the only
way to improve is to compete
against the best all over the coun-
try and the only way to do that
is get a special invitation or be
the neice of Jack Kent Cook.
Since Francie works in a loca~l
restaurant to earn money as it is
it was awfully important for var-
ious track meets to request her
presence.I
For obvious reasons meet offi-
cials decided that Francie was a
worthy competitor after taking a
look at the picture. Influenced by
any physical charms? Of course
not. People were intrigued' because
she was reading Track and Field
News.
But even Francie admits that
blonde hair might have helped get
her to come of the meets before
she was a name star. And Fran-
cie's philosophy is "Girl athletes
should not be poor male ones. We
must stay feminine."
Ironically her golden locks have
also gotten her in a bit of trouble.
Last summer she was on the U.S.
Women's Track Team and the
manager had a definite distaste
for Francie's coiffure.
"My hair was very long and I
guess it flapped quite a bit when
I ran" explains Francie. "But. I
like it long and natural. I don't
go for hair sprays and curlers."
The patriotic manager, however,
thought her unkepmt strands de-
finitely failed to live up to the
American image. Things got worse
after a meet 'in Boston where a
photographer took her picture just
after an exhausting race. Still
panting, her hair covered the front
of her face instead of the back of
her head. The picture was entit-
led, "There's a girl under there."
"Those photographers ought to
give us time to get rearranged,"
she complained. But the manager,
who wanted Francie to get a crew
cut, forced a minimum compro-
mise of a hair band.
Nowadays of course, Francie is
famous and such problems are in
the past. She is invited to all the
big meets, and her hair can wave
without worry. Not quite. First
comes the real shock.
And then: "I'm nuts about pas-
try, and I have a tough time stay-
ing at my running weight. Some
days I have to live on a hard boil-
ed eggs and wheat germ."
Everything then is not quite per-
fect for the 20 year old sophomore.
Wide World of Sports televised
the meet when she broke the
world's record in the 600 yard
dash, but her event was not
shown.
But Francie is not the type to
complain, and she doesn't have
any reason to., She is a runner on-
ly because she enjoys it. "I don't
enjoy knocking myself out in
practice, but I love the satisfac-
tion." She claims she's working for
a goal. What is it? "Well, it's not'
just the Olympics. Er . . . ah ...
well, I don't know. Every race is
a goal."
Whatever Francie does, she does
for fun. And when she's not run-
ning she's usually dancing. Jim
Ryun might be the greatest mid-
dle distance runner in the world,
but to Francie he was a date who
didn't have too many interests
outside of track, and above all
else "he wasn't a good dancer."
The one thing wrong with track
to Francie is the shoes-she has
to wear them. Undoubtedly she
would be the world record holder
in every distance if the races were
held barefoot. And although she
is willing to put up with her new
extra light weight shoes, she kicks
them off whenever possible. Dur-
ing winter she merrily tromps
around the mezzanine level track
in Waterman Gym while boys
down below are distracted from
their basketball games.
But when the weather gets
warm, off come the shoes and
practice continues on the grass
of the Michigan golf course.
There's one other thing that
Francie Kraker, champion run-
ner, doesn't care for. "I just don't
like to walk," she pouts,
Francie Kraker Micki King_
BUT FACES DRAFT:
SPJt:Rubberbanded Rebounder
By LISSA MATROSS
Associate Magazine Editor
It was one of the nicer lunch.
eons.
Princess Grace and Prince Rai-I
nier were charming, and then,
Monoco is so divine in summer.
After lunch there was swimming
and diving in the royal pool.
After watching a particularly
nice dive, one of the party, a natty
Englishman. complimented the di-
ver, crying, "That was simply mar-
velous! Can you repeat it?"
The Englishman was 'David Ni-
ven and the diver was Micki King,
one of the top three female divers
in the United States. The shdrt
stay in Monoco was part of ai
USAAU-sponsored tour of Europe
for 36 United States swimmers
and divers.I
Former Wolverine
Micki, who graduated from Mi-
chigan in 1966 with a B.S. in phy-
sical education, competed for the
Ann Arbor Swim Club in AAU
meets for three years during col-
lege.
Her titles are awesome. Modest-
ly, Micki rattles off that she was
1965 Indoor 10-meter national
champion, 1965 Outdoor 3-meter
national champion, woman's in-
tercollegiate, 1 - meter national
champ three times in a row, and
several times AAU state champ.
And two-time All-American di-
ver and two times All-American
water-polo goalie.
And two-time Canadian Nation-
al one and 3-meter champion.
And . . . The list is cut short
when Micki looks up suddenly to
tell Lani Loken (daughter of gym-
nastics coach Newt Loken) to
"jump the ankles" on her next
dive off the 10-meter tower.
Explanation
After a short dash around the
pool to answer Gus Stager's tele-
phone, Lt. King (Micki is a com-
missioned second lieutenant in
the Air Force, assigned to the Uni-
versity AFROTC) explains her
dives.
"They're unusually hard dives-
probably no other girl it attempt-
ing them. I do a reverse 11/2 som-
ersault with 21/2 twists off the 3-
meter and a 31/2 somersault tuck
off the 10-meter." ,
If it takes practice just to use
the right names for the dives, it
takes 5 to 6 hours a day to per-
fect them, The dives aren't easy.
Neither is being a female diver.
"There's a definite lack of op-
portunity for women to train and
compete," says Micki. "It's hard
to compete with those in the West
who can coppete more frequent-
ly.
"People just don't have the time
to work with girls."
He Knows How
The exception is Dick Kimball,
Michigan diving coach. As Micki's
coach, Kimball knows "how to get
the most work out of her.
"Dick knows when I'm depressed
and how to get me out of it. And
he's the most versatile diver any-
where and unsurpassed as a
coach."'
("Hey, L4ni, that was a good
one, but let it fall next time.")
Micki's been diving since she
was ten. "My first meet was in
Pontiac, Michigan. I won and
since then I've been at it constant-
ly.
Micki is twenty-two, "ancient
for a diver. "Many retire at sev-
enteen," she says, "but it hasn't
become a chore or a job for me
yet."
Traveler
The European tour of 1965 was
definitely not a "chore" and it
inspired Micki to make further
trips-"I know of no more enjoy-
able way to travel than through
athletics," she says:
Yet, many people don't under-
stand women with athletic ambi-
tions. With mock self-pity Micki
asserts that women athletes "get
the same sense of accomplishment
and rewards as men athletes do."
And women make the same sa-
crifices-=missing social events and
losing study time. The difference
is that male divers don't run
around moaning about stringy wet
hair.
At those infrequent dry-haired
times, Micki works either at the
AFROTC office or the Air Force
recruiting office. She also works
with "Tiger Talk", the AFROTC
newspaper.
Or to keep in shape she runs or
plays paddle ball or tennis. Or
works out' on the trampoline or
tumbles .
The next time Davil Niven asks
Micki to repeat a dive she could
refuse him. She probably outranks
him
By YVONNE COLVARD
He wears rubberbands on his1
wrists, drinks coke with milk at
every meal, sings to himself walk-
ing down the street and can't boil
rice .without burning the pot.
And now the U.S. Army is try-
ing to draft shy guy Jim Pitts,
6'3" Michigan guard.
As the only junior on this year's
team, Pitts was a natural for next
year's basketball captaincy until
he received his draft notice four
weeks ago.
"It's bold. My cousin got drafted
the other day and he's been ship-
ped out already. I never expected
anything like this."
Pitts had already engineered an
appeal to counter-act the notice.
Bolder
"I don't understand it. They tell
you to go to school, go to school,
go to school! It is supposed to be
to the Negro's advantage. Then
they take you out of school, for
a chance to terminate your life.
It's really bold!"
However, Pitts isn't adamant
enough to pull a Muhammad. "I
guess I'll go, if I have to," he ad-
mits.
Pitts' half-serious attitude ex-
tends into his playing attire but
not into his playing.
As the most improved player on
the team, he developed ability
along with idiosyncracies. As good
luck insurance, he wears thick
rubberbands on his wrists.
"I used to wear them in high
school to hold up by socks," he
says. "Then one day I had an
extra one and put it on my wrist."
In addition, Pitts finds singing
to himself as he walks down the
street "relaxing." He doesn't sing
anything special-no 'song in par-
ticular-usually the last "jam" he
heard on the radio that morning.
To a Crisp
At times he becomes so "re-
laxed" that he burns the rice for
dinner. "Hell," he says, "I always
do that. Oh well, I've always got
milk."
"Milk is like food to me, so I
always have a coke for my bever-
age."
?tro s!e~V.M POMl5 ftl-4
JIM PITTS
WOLVERINE GUARD JIM PITTS goes high in the air for one of
the 186 rebounds he pulled down last season. He finished second
NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS
OF ENGLISH
EARN $3.00
by taking an experimental English test
SAT., April 1, 1967-10-12 A.M.
Room 3003, N. Univ. Bldg.
For Information,
Call English Language Institute, 764-2416
in team rebounding and his 362
Ten scoring race.
On the hardwood, Pitts burned
up the Big Ten at the tune of 16
points per game, ranking him
fourteenth in the conference.
"He's worked hard and has im-
proved his shooting under physi-
cal pressure," praises head coach
Dave .Strack.
Strack toyed with the idea of
moving Pitts to forward, the posi-
tion he played at Detroit North-
western, and did, in fact, play him
there when Ken Baxey teamed up
with Dennis Bankey in the back-
court.
Why Not Center?
"When I first came to Michigan,
I thonght I'd be able to play for-
ward. But when you really want
just a chance to play, you'll play
anywhere," admits Pitts.
In a flash of self-analysis, Pitts
agrees that he needs to concen-
points put him 14th in the Big
trate more on his shooting and
speed next year. He already has
the size and aggressiveness needed
for a powerful Big Ten guard.
In high school, Pitts didn't join
the basketball team until after
he'd failed at football in his junior
year. "I decided the game was too
rough when some guy tackled me
lard in a pre-season scrimmage.
So I quit."
Pitts preferred to switch rather
than fight and has yet to regret
his basketball choice. He hadn't
played much on the hardcourt up
to then, since his favorite neigh-
borhood sport was baseball. Yet
in his senior year at Northwestern
he came into his own ftnd lead the
Colts to the city championship.
Where To?
Then the recruiting attempts
began. Offers came from Michi-
gan, Michigan'State and Iowa.
The field narrowed when Hawk-
eye coach Milton Scheureman ac-
cepted teanmate Ben McGilmer in
favor of Pitts. "However, McGil-
mer's in the Army now," chuckles
Pitts.
Michigan State also lost interest
and Pitts finaly faced a choice
between Michigan and Big Eight
football power Nebraska. A talk
with his high school coach, Frank
Snowden, convinced him that
Michigan offered him the most op-
portunities and ms
. although I really wanted
to go to Michigan State, I'm not.
sorry I came here.
"Michigan isn't really good for
Negroes-not only Negro athletes
=Negroes in general. It needs to
do something about the ratio."
Big-Time
Pitts anticipates playing pro
ball after graduation .. . but he's
not looking that far into the
future.
He's had enough problems as
a Michigan cager. Strack suspend-
ed him for the Purdue game and
didn't start him in the Wisconsin
game.
Pitts explains that his suspen-
sion resulted from skipping prac-
tice and from breaking a gentle-
man's agreement with Strack. "It
was a personal agreement between
the coach and I which I broke. It
was entirely my fault," he admits.
For the Wisconsin game, played
in Cobo Hall over spring vacation,
Northwestern High showed in full
force to welcome Pitts, while
Pitts .
-uh- overslept and er-uh-
missed the bus."
Capt. Uncle Sam?
As the only junior on the team;
Pitts is the only eligible candidate
for next year's captaincy. How-
ever, because of his unsettled draft
situation, his official election
won't take place until next fall.
Unless, of course, he is in-
ducted.
But even if they "do send him to
a place where he'll have to learn
to boil rice because it'll be what
everyone's eating, he'll still prob-
ably wear rubberbands on his
wrists, drink as much milk as he
can commedeer and sing the latest
"jam" to himself and to anyone
who will listen.
And if he doesn't?
'IT'S WAR':
Crossemen' Open Season
ak
r. ii
AVAILABLE!
APRIL 3rd
YOUR '66-'67
MZICHIGANENSIAN
"FAST AND ROUGH," LACROSSE is trying to make its mark
in Intercollegiate athletics. Michigan Crossemen will tackle the
Chicago Lacrosse Club today and Michigan State tomorrow.
Both games will start at 1:30 p.m. at Wines Field,
By MARK HALPERT
"From 800-1000 players partici-
pated for each side. The games
were betweendifferent tribes, and
often lasted for several days;
broken legs and arms were com-
mon, and some of the players were
killed. The players went through
vigorous training for these match-
es, and the games were consider-
ed tests of a players virility."
This was American writer
George Catlin's comment on the
Indian game of baggataway, bet-
ter known to the contemporary
followers as lacrosse.
Six nations of the Iroquois In-
dians played this game in upper
New York State even before Co-
lumnbus landed, in 1492. They
adcpted the game as a training
measure for war.
The American version of the
east, and 10,000 is a common
crowd for a game.
Recently the game was started
in the M'Iidwest and it has grown
quickly. Twenty-three Ohio col-
leges have varsity teams.
Two years ago several graduate
students began a lacrosse club at
Michigan. Now in its third season
the club is well established, and
its members are very confident as
the season opens.
The Lacrosse Club will open
their season this afternoon against
the Chicago Lacrosse Club. To-
morrow the team tangles with
Michigan State University. Both
games will be played at Wines
Field and starting time will be
1:30 p.m. for each game.
Co-coachs Bob Fleischmen, a
foi mer All-American Lacrosse star
from Rutgers, and Bob DiGiovan-
1"D LAUG, TOOw
If I had the chance to do what Jeff Brown
I ' _ _ _
SUNDAY, APRIL 2 7:00
The Rev. Jesse Christman
reports the work of the
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rraan uteornb .- rDAlG