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October 20, 1964 - Image 6

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The Michigan Daily, 1964-10-20

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THE MICHIGAN DAILY

TUESDAY, OCTOi3ER 20, 1964

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I

PAUE A X

PROVES OLD MEN CAN WIN:
Channel Adventure Ends In Blackout,_

Gold Medal

By BOB CARNEY ,
t
"Your goal and pleasure was
simply to be in the Channel, to
feel it and rub your nose in it and
taste it and of course to go as
far and fast as your luck and
skill allowed."
Harry Huffaker, a Michiganf
dental school student and ex-
All-American swimmer here, re-
ceived a letter with these remarks
early this spring. The letter, from
a friend in Dover, England, re-
ferred to Huffaker's unsuccessful
attempt to swim the English
Channel in the summer of 1963.
He had gone 20 of the 22 miles,
before he blacked out and was
pulled from the water.
Huffaker went "as far as skill
and luck allowed" again this past
summer, when he swam 90 per
cent of the distance in record time,
only to fall unsuccessful two miles
from shore.

The same day Huf faker's at-)
tempt failed, the record was brok-
en by Barry Watson, who covered
the distance in 9% hours. Itl
would have been very possible fort
Huffaker to better even this time,
since he had covered 19 miles ini
only 7% hours.
"You could see the people on
the Dover shore," he said. "TheI
word got around that we were
close to a record.",
But a record wasn't in the cards,
and within minutes Huffaker
blacked out. After about 8% hours
in the water, he was pulled out
unconscious.
Asked about the disappointment
of coming so close and then being
forced to lave the water, Huffaker
said surprisingly that he wasn't
very disappointed.
"I did everything within my
power to make it," he said, "so
I can't be very unhappy with the
swim. The reason for by blackout

was something we'd never heard
of. It's disconcerting, though when
you think -of the fine weather we
had. There's only about a week outi
of every month that you cani
attempt the swim, and even then
it can get pretty bad."
Too Much Protein
The condition Huffaker refer-
red to which caused his with-
drawal from the Channel was
diagnosed as matabolic acidosis, a
condition affecting excretion of
acids from the kidneys. The con-
dition affects all competitive
swimmers, but is aggravated byj

literally swimming in circles, and because at the Channel's narrowest
when my trainer, Del Andrews point, there's more of an area to
wasn't able to steer me, I left the aim for on the English side. In TOKYO(A - Mike Larrabee,
water' A half an hour later I was a period of adverse tide, that ad- the elder statesman of the nation's
feeling fine." ditional area can make the dif- sprinters, and Edith McGuire
Asked why he and his trainer- ference." raced away with two more gold
father, Melvin Huffaker hadn'tsmk medals yesterday and the Ame-i-
examined the cause of an identical 'for a swimmer who knows so I an equestrian team added a silver
blackout the year before, he said much about the technique of the as the United States equalled its
that they had decided it was Channel swim today, Huffaker 1960 harvest of Olympic hard-
. khil fk f vin it in knew little of distance swimming ware-71.

l I tui

cuse y ac oz ralnng sine
he had done little swimming in
preparation.
For this reason, Huffaker train-
ed intensively for the '64 swim,
making sure that lack of training.

two years ago. As a member of
Michigan's NCAA championship
team in 1961, Huffaker swam the;
50 and 100 yard freestyle and the,
200 yard individual medley, but

vl S
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HARRY HUFFAKER, MICHIGAN dental school student, failed by only two miles in attempts to
swim the English Channel during the past two summers. In his latest attempt last August, Huffaker
swam 90 per cent of the distance in record time but was forced to leave the water after he blacked
out. The Channel record was broken the same day by Barry Watson.

The three medals gave the
United States 31 gold, 21 silver
and 19 bronze medals with five
days of competition left in this
18th Olympiad. Russia, having its1
difficulties, has 14 gold, 11 silverA
and 17 bronze, but expects to score
heavily in gymnastics, a weak
spot for Americans.I
Miss McGuire, a 20-year-old
Tennessee State co-ed who al-
ready owns a silver medal, was'
just one-tenth of a second off the
world record when she won the
women's 200-meter dash in 23 sec-
onds flat, an Olympic record.
Oldster Wins
And Larrabee, at 30 an old, old
man for a sprinter, picked the
best of all possible spots to win
his first major race. The high'
school teacher from Fillmore,
Calif., charged home the winner'
in the 400-meter dash in a time of
45.1 seconds, about one yard in
front of Yale graduate Wendell
Mottley, who was running for
Trinidad.
Michigan's Kent Bernard did
not make the finals after finishing
seventh in the last heat. Andreze'
Badenski of Poland finished third.
Thesvictories were the United
States' 11th and 12th in track
competition. The men have won
10-one more than they gained in
Rome - while the women once
again swept the dashes and are
favored in the 400-meter relay,
yet to come.
O'Hara, Ryun Out
The track team, however, con-
tinued to have surprising ups and
downs. Tom O'Hara of Chicago
and young Jim Ryun of Wichita,
Kan., proved major disappoint-
ments when they failed to make
the finals of the 1,500=meter run,
the metric mile.
"I don't really know what hap-
pened," Ryun said after finishing
last in his semifinal. "I felt good
before the race. I just didn't have
it."
He was timed in a disappoint-
ing 3:55 flat. Under the arbitrary
formula of adding 17 seconds to
arrive at an equivalent time for
the mile, the 17-year-old who was
the first schoolboy to break the
4-minute mile would have been

left no doubt that he was the man The women's relay team, which
to beat.I includes 100-meter gold medalist
And,twhile, the U.S. track team Wyomia Tyus of Griffin, Ga., and
was moving along as well or per- 200-meter gold medalist Edith Mc-
haps better than expected, Ameri- Guire of Atlanta, Ga., was timed
can athletes also were upholding in 44.8 in an easy semifinal.
another tradition. The United The Americans ran in tnis or-
States has never won a medal, der: Willye White of Chicago,
gold, silver or bronze, in Greco- Miss Tyus, Marilyn White of Los
Roman wrestling.fAnd the U.S. Angeles and Miss McGuire.
had none in the finals this year.
Russia, meanwhile, was expect-
ed to grab off a few medals in
that sport, and added another
when Tamara Press, sister of
pentathlon winner Irina Press,
won the womencs discuss throw
Kwith an Olympic record 187-10%l. TO YO (P) - Like his coach
Karin Balzer of Germany equal- Sammy Lee, Bob Webster, former
led the world record of 10.5 in Wolverine diver, is now a retired
winning the women's 80-meter two-time Olympic high diving
hurdles. Wichampion.

COC3
HAPPINESS
IS A
CONTEMPORARY CARD
FROM
C/viebte,' £I##beet4

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312 So. State

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1203 So. University.

an excess of protein. Huffaker
unknowingly had a chicken dinner
the night before the race, and
took egg nog throughout the swim.
"We were puzzled because this
hadn't occurred at any time dur-
ing my summer training. At Torch
Lake, which is nearly as far, my,
consciousness wasn't affected in
the least."
Upon examination of his diet
before the Torch Lake swim, how-
ever, Huffaker recalled that it was
nearly protein free. "We're con-
vinced that my diet made the
difference," he said.
Only Pain
For 19 miles of this year's swim
Huffaker experienced no sign of
a blackout whatsoever. He had
felt pain in his legs early in the
swim, but these pains were caused
by the tightening of his tendons.
He had felt this tightening in
earlier races, but because of the
cold Channel water, it was con-
siderably more painful.
"I took some medication after
about four hours," he said, "and
that put an end to the pain. But
I was afraid to start swimming
with my legs again, and fo3r the
remainder of the swim I used them
only as stabilizers."
"It hit me all of a sudden,"
Huffaker said. "Physically, I had
the capacity to go on. But I was

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You'd smile too
if you had a savings account at
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wouldn't be a problem.
Beginning early this spring he
used all of his free time in prepa-
ration for his duel with the
Channel.
Accordingly, Huffaker felt no
exhaustion during the swim. "I
didn't even feel like sleeping until
about twelve hours after the
swim," he said.
The early part of Huffaker's 800
miles was indoors, with his daily
workouts leading gradually to a
long weekend swim. In his final
weekend indoors, he covered 14
miles, or 1080 lengths, in the
Union pool.
Outdoor Practice
In the early part of May, Huf-
faker went outdoors, and sched-
uled one long swim for every week-
end before the Channel attempt.
The first of these was an 8 mile
swim across Higgins Lake, follow-
ed by 15 mile swims at Lake
Charleviox and Mullet Lake.
In July, Huffaker swam Crystal
ake Roundtree, a distance of 18
miles, before setting a record in
a swim across the straits of
Machinac. (He finished in 2 hours,
45 minutes, bettering the old rec-
ord by almost 5 hours.) His final
swim before departure for Eng-
land covered Torch Lake length-
wise, a 19 mile jaunt. He continu-
ed to train upon arrival in Eng-
land where he had previously
worked at Madieson's Resort area
in Dover as an instructor.
The actual route of Huffaker's
swim, however, was not from Eng-
land to France, but vice verse.
"It's a little easier that way,

no distance events.
No Comparison
According to Huffaker, there's
noa comparison between this type
of long distance swimming and
the competitive swimming he did
in high school and college.
"In competitive swimming, the
man in the next lane wishes you
a superficial 'good luck,' but he's
your opponent," says Huffaker.
"In distance swimming, on the
other hand-especially the Chan-
nel swim-the swimmers are sin-
cerely interested in one another.
Everyone shares unselfishly of the
knowledge he has gained. Sure,
someone has to win, but every-
one is honored just for competing."
Besides the congenial atmos-
phere, however, Huffaker had
other reasons for his feelings about
long distance swimming.

sThe United States was blanked!
in both events.
In boxing, heavyweight Joe
Frazier, last-minute substitute on
the U.S. team, and Bob Carmody
became the first two Americans
to reach the semifinals of the
Olympic boxing tournament.
Frazier, a 20-year-old Philadel-
phia butcher, advanced with, a
third round technical knockout of
Australia's Athol McQuenn. Car-
mody, a 26-year-old Army ser-
geant from Paterson, N.J., out-
pointed Germany's Otto Babiasch.
The two other Americans left-
featherweight Charlie Brown of
Cincinnati and lightweight Ron
Harris of Detroit-have reached
the quater-finals. Frazier joined
the U.S. team when Buster Mathis
broke a knuckle.
Willi Holdorf, a 24-year-old
German, widened his surprising
lead in the Olympic decathlon
competition today and the U.S.
favored women's 400-meter relay
team easily won its semifinal as
track and field competition in the
Tokyo Games moved into the final
stages.
Holdorf hustled t h r o u g h a
steady, light drizzle to a time of
15 seconds flat in the 100-meter
hurdles, first event on Tuesday's.
decathlon program and sixth in
the 10-day grind, and increased
his total to 4,936 points.
World record holder C. K. Yang
of Formosa, who was in ninth
place after the first day of com-
petition, had the best time in the
hurdles - one of his strongest
events-and moved up to seventh
place. The 1960 silver medalist
from UCLA had a time of 14.7 for
881 points and 4,683 overall.
The United States' entries, Paul
Herman, Dick Emberger and Rus-
sell Hodge, held positions 6, 10 and
11 with totals of 4,703, 4,578 and
4,561 after six events.

Webster, who will be 26 years
old next week, roared from behind
Sunday and won his second con-
secutive gold medal in platform
diving, then announced his re-
tirement.
"I can be proud of my second
straight victory in the Games," the
Santa Ana, Calif., resident said
following his dramatic tussle with
Klaus Dibiasi of Italy. "I had to
do it. This is my last competition.
This is the end of the line for me.
Webster, who won his second
gold medal by only one point, was
grateful to Lee, Olympic high div-
ing champion in 1948 and 1952.
"Sammy taught me everything
I know about - diving technique,"
Webster said. "I owe everything
to him."
Webster, though, didn't have
any help as he stood about 11
yards above pool level Sunday,
nearly three points behind Dibiasi
in third place with only two dives
remaining.
Webster had started the day in
sixth place, 4.44 points back of the
17-year-old unknown Italian. But
he had gained ground on the first
of the last three dives and now
stood 2.8 points behind Dibiasi in
third place.
To gain the title, Webster
would have to be at his acrobatic
best. He was just that. He scored
18.72 points on his next-to-last
dive and slipped into first place,
three-tenths of a point ahead of
Dibiasi.
For his final performance, the
Army private chose a dazzling 2
somersault in tuck position with
a 2.6 degree of difficulty. The
largest degree is 3.0.
It was an artistic and impec-
cable effort, worth 18.48 points
and the gold medal. The best
Dibiasi could do was 17.76. Thus,
Webster finished w it h 148.58
points and Dibiasi with 147.54.

I

i

Actually Fun

"Once you're in shape it's arc- timed in 4:12.
tually fun," he says. "Your time He trailed heat winner Peter
during the swim is taken up with Snell of New Zealand by some 150
the scenery and the sun and sky. yards.
You're hardly aware that your O'Hara, the U.S. national AAU
swinming." champion, was seventh in his heat
It's not surprising, therefore, in 3:43.4, well off his best time.
that Huffaker plans to return to Burleson Has Fast Time
England after graduation to even Their unhappy results thus left
the score with the Channel. He is the lean Oregonian, Dyrol Burle-
one of fifteen of the world's top son, the only survivor from a
long distance swimmers invited to squad that was considered the best
Lake Widemere in Northern Eng- the United States has had in four
land for a long distance meet in decades at this prestigious dis-
1966. He'll follow the meet with tance.
the Channel swim. Burleson, from Cottage Grove,
But this time Harry Huffaker Ore., won his heat in an excellent
hopes his luck and skill will allow 3:41.8, but even that was well off
him to complete those last two the spectacular showing of Snell,
miles. the world record-holder at a mile.
___________ The tireless New Zealander'
-- - - - methodically clipped off a time of
3:38.8, equal to a 3:55.8 mile. His
lap times of 56.5; 1:55.8 and 2:55.8
)rmal Rental ,

GRID SELECTIONS

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Pants
Skirts
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laundry-
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Sweaters
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Suits ... $ 15
Coats & $140
Dresses.

Complete F

Tom Morse of Cooley House who picked three out of 20 winners
in last week's Grid Selections contest joins a long list of famous los-
ers. Casey (of at the bat fame), the hare, Mary Throneberry, General
Cornwallis, - Tom Dewey, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Nikita
Khrushchev, Williams Jennings Bryan, Studebaker, Detroit news-
papers, Philadelphia Phillies, Harvey Haddix, Earl Morrall, Boris
Batternof, Charles Darnay, Harold Stassen, Hamilton Berger, Cap-
tain Hook, General Custer, Lewis Firpo, Emma Lou Bates, Don
Quixote's donkey, Brand X, Charlie Silvera, Ralph Cramden, and
Ralph Branca, to name a few.
Martin Barrett of 736 Packard joins a long list of winers in-
cluding Melina Mercouri who is now starring in "Topkapi" at the
Michigan Theatre.
So get your entry blanks in to the Student Publications Bldg.
by midnight Friday and maybe next week you too will join the greats
of Grid Picks.
THIS WEEK'S GAMES
1. Minnesota at Michigan (score) 11. Houston at Mississippi State
2. UCLA at Illinois 12. Washington State at Idaho
3. Purdue at Iowa 13. Pittsburgh at Navy
4. Northwestern at Michigan St. 14. S. Carolina at N. Carolina
5. Wisconsin at Ohio State 15. Stanford at Notre Dame
6. Duke at Army 16. Florida at Alabama
7. California at Southern Cal. 17. N. C. State at Virginia
8. Tennessee at Louisiana State U 18. Dartmouth at Harvard
9. Kansas State at Oklahoma 19. Clemson at TCU
10. Miami (0) at Ohio U. 20. Oregon at Washington

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