Friday, March 31, 1972
the
upper deck
may. ... ..... ..... .... .... ....
H's Gus Stager,
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Elever
:.. coach supreme
By CHUCK BLOOM
HE SHOULD be called Papa Gus. It would fit his personality
so well. He is always seen with his arm around some swim-
mer giving fatherly words of advice.
Gus Stager is always friendly, smiling, and cheerful which
is nice when you're a new reporter on the beat. But more than
just the personality, Gus Stager is a good coach; in fact, a damn
good one. In the swimming world he is a coach extraordinaire.
Stager has been swim coach at Michigan for 17 years, tops
in the Big Ten, and in that time he has never finished less than
second in the Big Ten. He has garnered three Big Ten cham-
pionships and four NCAA titles.
On top of that, he is a former All-American swimmer
here leading the Wolverines to the NCAA championship in
1948.
Still, after over 24 years away from active, competitive
swimming, Stager is still in amazing shape. After watching
Buster Crabbe the former great tanker hand out awards at
West Point, Stager, if he wanted to, could probably beat Crabbe
in an all-out sprint race, even though "Flash Gordon" recently
Won in a senior swim meet.
Stager is thought of highly among his fellow mentors
and a typical accolade comes from UCLA's coach Bob Horn.
"Gus (Stager) is a tribute to the profession and the sport. It's
a pleasure even to coach against him."
Stager possesses the two attributes necessary to be a
good coach: knowledge and class. He knows swimming from
years of experience. His class is natural and genuine and he
has more of it in his pipe than some buzzards down in
Tennessee.
The only apparent fault in Stager is his. memory. To put
it mildly, he is no elephant, far from it. Often his lack of mem-
ory can be embarrassing. The swim team's little sparkplug cap-
tain Byron MacDonald tells of one experience.
"When I was a freshman, Gus called me over one day to
introduce me to Carl Robie. He said, 'Barry, (he never called me
Byron; he didn't know my name.) I'd like you to meet one of
the finest swimmers Michigan has ever had .. . uh .. . he is an
Olympic medal winner and . . uh . . . he's awfully good
. . uh . . .'. Then Roble, sensing what was going on, stuck his
hand out and said, 'Hi, I'm Carl Robie.' Gus tends to forget
iames."
Another thing keeping Stager from national promi-
nence is limited recruiting. Michigan just doesn't have the
drawing power in terms of scholarships and alumni grants
as does Indiana or Southern California or Tennessee.
At Indiana, they have eight four-year scholarships to work
with. At Tennessee, recruits are overwhelmed by girls, raccoon
hats, and lax workouts. But Stager sells the school, not the
program. Most of the members of the Michigan team said that
they came here because of the university and Stager.
But most of all, Stager is a nice guy, something that can't
be said for everyone in his field. He always greets you with a
wink, a hello, and a pat on the back. He assists young, novice
reporters in writing their stories. If Stager likes you enough,
he goes out of his way to help you.
He has helped me and I thank him for it. This is only a
small way of showing it.
Bucks
By The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE - Kareem Ab-
dul Jabbar scored 25 points last
night, including nine in a decisive
third quarter, to lead the Milwau-
kee Bucks to a 118-93 victory over
Golden State. It squared their
National Basketball Association
Western Conference playoffs at
1-1.
For that exciting rugby in-
fo, turn the papyrus back to
pg. 9.
Forwards Curtis Perry and Bob
Dandridge added 22 and 21 re-
spectively for the Bucks who shut
off the fast break that had
sparked the Warriors to a 117-106
upset Tuesday night.
Nate Thurmond led the War-
riors with 32 points, but Jeff Mul-
lins scored only 14 and Jim Bar-
nett, 10. The two had combined
for 59 points in the play-off open-"
er.
wallop
inside, sat down with his fourth the Bullets approached their
1 foul. fourth annual . playoff series
d ail y The Bucks proceeded to pour in against New York.
seven straight points, climaxed by The Knicks knocked off theBul-
PoS a spectacular two-handed stuff by lets in four straight at the end of
s p o r tsAbdul. Jabbar that brought the the 1968-69 season, but the even=
crowd to its feet and triggered the ly matched teams have gone the
rout. full seven-game route the past
NIGHT EDITOR: Milwaukee led 90-67 after three two years with Baltimore winning
CHUCK BLOOM periods and opened a 110-79 bulge for the first time last season.
----_ with 5%/ minutes to play. Earl Monroe, a key to Balti-
T Abdul Jabbar swept 22 rebounds more's success a year ago, was
The Bucks took command at for the' Bucks while Thurmond traded to the Knicks early this
27-17 wilth 31/ minutes left in the and Clyde Lee had 18 apiece for season after refusing to play any-
first quarter after out-scoring the the Warriors, more in Baltimore. In the trade,
Warriors 12-1. Abdul Jabbar The New York Knickerbockers Mike Riordan and Dave Stallworth
scored four baskets in the spurt, and Baltimore Bullets, old foes in came to the Bullets.
three of them stuffs. the National Basketball Associa- The . Knicks, who struggled
The Bucks opened a 43-27 lead tion playoffs, open another post- through most of the season be-
early in the second quarter be- season series tonight, cause of an injury to center Wil-
fore Golden State made its only The Bulletstwill have the home lis Reed, have lost their last five
real threat, closing to within 51-46 court advantage in the best-of-7 playoff appearances in Baltimore's
behind eight points by Thurmond Eastern Conference semifinals Civic Center.
and six by Cazzie Russell. even though their 38-44 record The Bullets won three straight
But Lucius Allen and Abdul Jab- was 10hgameshbelow the mark at home last year and two of three
bar connected to give the Bucks a posted by New York. the previous season. The Knicks
55-47 halftime lead. Baltimore gained the extra home last won a post-season game in
Milwaukee opened a 65-55 lead game by winning the Central Divi- Baltimore on March 27, 1970.
in the third quarter when Rus- sion while the Knicks finished After giving his regulars period-
sell, whose outside shooting had second In the Atlantic Divison. ic rests in the final few games
been complementing Thurmond "We believe we can beat any- of the regular season, Shue con-
body," Coach Gene Shue said as ducted a three-hour workout
[SWe have the BEST
REPAIRS and SERVICE
Los Angeles 131, Chicago 124 around-TRY US
Warriors
-Associated Press
MILWAUKEE'S CURTIS PERRY stuffs home a basket as the
Bucks whipped the Golden State Warriors, 118-93, to even the
playoff series at one up.
THREE THIRD-PERIOD GOALS:
'Flyer rally earns win
PHILADELPHIA
(/P) - The
Buffalo took a 1-0 lead at 10:16 1to Buffalo for a rematch with the
Philadelphia Flyers rallied for of the first period and fine goal
three goals in the third period last tending by Dave Dryden protect-
night to defeat the Buffalo Sa- ed the lead until the final session.
bres 3-1 and regain sole posses- Rick Foley got the Flyers even
sion of fourth place in the Nation- at 1-1 at 6:51 of the third period
a1 Hockey League's West Division. when he lifted the puck over Dry-
den after taking a pass from be-
The win put the Flyers two1hind the net from Bobby Clarke.
points ahead of Pittsburgh for the Then defenseman Joe Watson gave
last playoff spot in the section, the Flyers the lead when his 55-
with two games rerhaining in the footer eluded the grasp of Dryden
at 13:20.
Sabres.
In the East Division, To-
ronto, who le a d s Detroit by
two points, will be at home to
play the hurting New York Ran-
gers. The Red Wings finish up in
Chicago against the Black Hawks
while the Leafs fly to Beantown to
to play the powerful but choking
Boston Bruins. It may be Sunday
night before the races are decided.
EXHIBITION BASEBALL
Milwaukee 11, San Diego 10
St. Louis 6, Boston 4
Kansas City 5, Pittsburgh 4
Texas 4, Baltimore 3
San Francisco 6, California 2
Los Angeles 6, Chicago N, 5
Detroit 5, Chicago A, 3
Oakland 6, Cleveland 5
Montreal 5, Atlanta 1
Minnesota 3, Philadelphia 1
New York N 4, Cincinnati 1
SPORTS CAR SERVICE
6 OF ANN ARBOR, Inc.
J
f ~ KEND LL ff
M030R;OILS ,
4705 Washtenaw
(next to Ypsi-Ann drive in)
434-0110
T-W-F-8-6; M and Th 8-9
V I
i
ULRICH'S BOOKSTORE'S
1st ANNUAL
$300,000
I
INVENTORY
involving every article in our store
0
gnlio ctnrf-c Mnnrin11 )
Anri I 'IrtA fkri i gnti irrAnxr Anri I _ Rfk