THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGEI THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE Myers, Swingle Start Impressively IN ONE ACT: Injuries? Not In Wolverine Camp High Llama. H. O. Fritz Crisler made one of his infrequent pub-) lie speeches the other day to the touring group of sports writers, tagged the skywriters, and in the process broke a time-honored Big Ten rule by letting himself be pinned down on a subject. In fact he- pinned himself down. The occasion was a personal blast at helmet face masks and other football equipment which he claimed were not living up to their original designs.j Hkis contention is that the face mask, originally designed to pre- serve the social order of football players by protecting certain' facial features, is the direct cause of many crippling and death-wielding neck and back injuries. This theory is' backed up with considerable validity by football players both new and old, and a large number of' doctors and trainers. The injury, described by Michigan trainer Jim Hunt, occurs when the face bar, which protects about four to six inches from the face, bends upon impact with another object, thus creating a whiplash effect. The chin strap is very unyielding, so the head is snapped back quite violently, giving risk to a neck injury. The professionals originally started the idea of a face mask, and with good reason. When you make your living at a sport, you desire safety precautions. It seemed like.a good idea, then.- Need a Solution ... Of course when something is discovered to have been a bad idea, there must be a solution. Crisler, who has introduced such things to football as the two point play (called the Crisler conversion in some circles) favors the complete elimination of the mask. Tom Harmon, former Wolverine great, said the same thing in anational magazine. The one difficulty here is that there has to be a universal application. Playing without a face mask while somebody else wears one would be an awful think to ask of your nose. Hed Coach Bump Elliott, who bears no noticeable marks from his playing days, interrupted Crisler long enough to explain why Mich- igan gridders can still be seen wearing the gear in question. "We don't require Michigan players to wear the face mask, but you pretty much have to wear one to protect yourself from the other face masks." It seems there is one person who didn't exercise the prerogative- Forest Evashevski. Dennis Fitzgerald, who gained fame for picking up Yardage on sheer gumption and also winning three Big Ten wrestling titles, was the last player to perform without face protection. The thought here is that Crisler, et al, are asking too much when they request the elimination of face gear. It's questionable whether many players want to inject their nose any more prom- inently into the football wars. The best idea seems to be that a better safety device will be discovered. Last year foam pads made an appearance on the back of Michigan helmets, and just recently the Detroit Lions experimented with a chin strap which unsnaps upon being subjected to a certain amount of impact. Whatever the solution, it must come quickly. As Crisler so aptly points out-"I'd rather have a boy of mine lose a few teeth than see him on a slab in the morgue." No matter how many times someone says that there are just more people playing football than before, it still does not excuse death. Two More Problems... There are two other football improvements which have back fired into serious causes of injuries. One is another pet peeve of Cris ler-football cleats. The other is the well kept and firm sod on today's gridiron. "Those long cleats they wear today we used to call mud cleats," Crisler said. "When you plant those long cleats itno the ground and then get hit, something has got to give." The cleats don't and the sod doesn't, but the knee does. Last year there were more knees in surgery than appendixes. It's a sad sight to see a person with a permanent limp acquired through a football accident. "When I was a head coach, I had two of the cleats taken off thea shoe. There wasn't any noticeable loss of traction and we didn't have many knee injuries." Crisler also found time to explain how some coaches today teach their players how to use the hard plastic helmet to plough into the stomachs of opponents and how to drive heavily taped forearms into the head. In all it made for an educating afternoon. As head of the NCAA football rules committee, Crisler may be able to lead legislation against these no longer safety devices. It's pleasant to see someone remain sane in this era of football growth. Just last week three more groups, including the coaches associa- tion, joined the battle to combat neck and back injuries. Full scale investigations are under way to determine the future of the face bar. Public opinion will soon force all coaches to concentrate a little more on safety. a fresh breath of hope for the '62 grid season. Tomn Myers, a six-foot, 183-lb. sophomore, added 23 yards rush- ing in six tries during his Big Ten debut, while heaving two touch- down passes and personally chalk- ing up a third. He's Coach Ara Parseghian's dream answer to "gasing" up a Wildcat offense that sputtered to a 4-5 mark last year. Prep Standout The Northwestern coach found Myers starring at Troy, Ohio, where he earned all-state recogni- tion as a prep quarterback, played guard on the basketball team and was a pole vaulter in track. Myers threw for 73 TD's in high school and is just' as deadly on the ground, giving NW a top offensive threat in option-play strategy. When Myers isn't toting or throwing, enemy defenders are go- ing to be having their hands full containing fullback Bill Swingle, who led, the Wildcats in rushing against South Carolina, Saturday, with 75 yards in 18 tries. Swingle, who scoredsthree touchdowns in his first varsity game for the Wild- cats, is back after a knee injury kept him out of the lineup for the last half of the 1961 season. First-game success has seen the hope meter rise at Northwestern. But the season isn't quite over yet. The Wildcats are vulnerable to tough.luck -- usually in the form of key injuries. Swingle and Myers have yet to hit the tide of stiff Big Ten competition, and the de- fense is' still a question mark. Injury Plagued Ill fate hit the Wildcats last year more often than opponents did. Injuries to key players, like Swin- gle,. cut deep into NW conference hopes, and; three defeats were by the margin of a touchdown or less. The. Wildcats are relying on the law of averages to boost Myers and company into the top Big Ten ranks this time around. There's one thing for certain,; though, and that's the fact that Northwestern is going to get the full grid test this fall. They'll tangle with Minnesota on October 13, and if the question of the solidity of the Wildcat. defense isn't answered by the Gopher encounter it will be the next week when Par- seghian's crew bumps into Ohio State. Northwestern also meets Michi- gan State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Notre Dame, and iMiami. The Wildcats will be idle this weekend. By STAN KUKLA (Setting: The varsity football practice on Ferry Field. A late September day, a bright but hazy sun, a cool breeze - a day like yesterday.) Actors: Head Michigan Coach Bump Elliott, several assistant coaches, the Wolverine squad, a newspaper reporter. .n Action: The Wolverines are run- ning through warm-up drills be- fore starting to work on defensing pass plays. Their opening game comes in two days, so the practice is an easy one. The players have learned the fundamentals long ago and now they are sharpening their execution of them. Gritty Workout Then the team moves into more serious play. Elliott has one team run through the plays of this Sat- urday's opponent (N e b r a s k a) while the first string defensive unit tries to stop them. Things go slow at first. Suddenly, the defense begins to stiffen and the sun begins to shine a little brighter. But, what is Elliott doing dur- ing this, time? He is taking an avid interest in the execution of the plays but, when one of his players is about to be tackled, Elliott's eyes shift to the ground and he appears to be searching for something. Once in a while he stoops over, picks something up, and puts it into his pocket. Finally Elliott sends his charges over to the tackling dummies and puts them through a brisk 15-min- ute work-out before sending them to the showers. (A reporter enters to interview Coach Elliott." Reporter: Pretty light work-out today, Coach. Easy Does It Elliott: Yes, Well, with the open- ing game just two days off, we're starting to taper off on the prac- tices. We don't want to take any chances with our boys so close to jthe game. Rep: Speaking of taking chances . .. You've had a relatively injury- free fall practice. Have you dras- 1tically changed your tactics from last fall, when you were plagued by I knee injuries? Elliott: We've done nothing dif- tdone real well, injury-wise, thisI ferent. It just seems to be one of those things. Last year everything seemed to come at once. This year -nothing. Yes, That's True Rep: Yes, that's true. The only real injury to a player was Mel Anthony's sprained and re- sprained ankle. Elliott: Well, I can honestly say that our first three strings have fall. Knock on wood. Rep: Last year the Wolverines suffered about six knee injuries and this year there have only been two ... Elliott: Don't forget - we have two days and nine weeks to go. Rep: Right, but you must be doing something different - if not in practice, how about in taping them or something? Elliott: Like I said, we aren't really doing anything different. I think - we've been lucky. You saw me picking up things during prac- tice. Rep: Yeh, I was going to ask you about that. Elliott: I've been collecting four- leaf clovers. See my collection? Let's see, the three today make- um-11 . . . 12 . . . 14. Rep: Good luck Saturday, Coach. E B Brewing co., Inc. Detroit?, Mich. i i TOM MYERS ... soph standout Liston Wants Title Rematch BUT NOT AO A LOT TOO MANYO TWOOF ROOMY t ONE SEATERS, SEAT ERS. Our RALEIGH bikes are the best value For your money in towns 1) Three speeds 3) Unconditionally guaranteed 2) Hand brakes 4) Big Seats Only $41.95 BEAVER'SBIKE &HARDWARE 605 CHURCH ST. NO 5-6607 CHICAGO (P)-A smiling, wise- cracking Sonny Liston promised today to keep his word about giv- ing Floyd Patterson a rematch- even if it has to be held in a train- ing camp. After that, the new world heavyweight boxing camp said, he would fight the contend- ers, "as they list them in the book" Liston appeared at a noon news conference with the harrassed promoters who tried to explain the government's move in seizing some $5 million of the receipts of last night's fight. The 28-year- old champ abandoned his train- ing camp scowl, chewed gum and grinned as he parried the ques- tions asked by some of the several hundred newsmen. Liston said he would wait for Patterson to make up his mind and then would keep his word. "I would have given him a re- match last night after his head cleared," he said. "If we can't get any money for a rematch, I'll go to his camp or he'll go to mine. There'll be a return." There was a $1 million penalty clause in ' the contract to make sure Liston would go through with a return bout and all but $50,000 of his purse, estimated at about $282,000 was held in escrow. The Bolan Brothers reported a crowd of 18,894 paid a gross $665,- 420 gate at Comiskey Park for the fight. Martin Smith, president of Graff, Reiner and Smith, which held the closed circuit television contract, said about $700,000 of their 1 million seats were sold at approximately $6 each, or over 4 million.- Estimates of t h e probable purses, when the accountants and tax people finish their work, came to $1,185,000 for Patterson and $282,000 for the new champ, who gets 30 per cent in the rematch instead of 121/2 per cent. The Internal Revenue Service announced today an unprecedent- ed nationwide drive to seize up to $5 million of the proceeds from last night's heavyweight title fight. IRS said the purpose was to make certain that organizers of the fight pay an estimated $3.9 million in taxes on their receipts from the dramtic, one-round bout. WANTED DELIVERY MAN TO WORK 1 2 HRS. EACH MORNING GOOD SALARY MON.-SAT. 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