Saturday, September 14, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Nine BO WANTS HIS SCALP Stolz hopes for Spartan revival By JOHN KAHLER Denny Stolz, the head coach of the Michigan State Spartans, has been feeling sorry for him- self lately. And for good reason. Michigan State, formerly one of the nation's gridiron power- houses, has fallen on hard times of late. Stolz could manage on- ly a 5-6 record in his inaugural season as Spartan mentor, a mark that contrasts badly with the Big Ten championship teams fielded in 1965 and 1966. MSU may have difficulty reaching even 5-6 this year. A large share of last year's best players have grluated. There is no junior or senior talent to speak of on the ros- ter. The schedule, featuring Notre Dame and UCLA, is a tough one. And if that isn't enough, the Green Meanies have been hit by a wave of injuries. Hawaiian center Charles Ane is out with a broken foot, ("He drooped a cocoanut on it," says Stolz in a display of gallows humor), second string quarterback Mar- shall Lawson has a broken hand, and tackle Paul Smolin- ski is out with a knee injury. But the most damaging in- jury was that suffered by a freshman tailback, Ted Bell. The best high school player in Ohio last year, he was the prize catch of Spartan recruit- ers. Bell was to add some dash to what shapes up to be a punchless Spartan attack. But Bell didn't even last til contact drills before getting. rung. His twisted knee re- quired surgery, and he will be lost for the season. So. Stolz has reason for tears. The behavior of the MSU alums has often been compared with that of the piranha, and another Farmers' almanac S. 14 Northwestern S. 21 Syracuse S. 28 at UCLA 0. 5 Notre Dame 0. 12 AT MICHIGAN 0. 19 at Illinois 0. 26 Purdue N. 2 at Wisconsin N. 9 Ohio State N. 16 at Indiana N. 23 Iowa losing season woeld put his job in serious jeonardy. The task of pilling MSU through will once again fall on the Spartan defense. This unit shapes up as being potentially good against the run and po- tentially disasterous against the pass. MSU spokesmen are very high on the middle of the Spar- tan line, consisting of Jim Tau- bert and Greg Schaum at the tackles and Kim Rowecamp at middle guard. Terry and Pat McClowry, a set of identical twins, man the linebacking posts, and man them well. De- fensive ends Otto Smith and Mike Duda are not particularly outstanding, but they are all Stolz has. The Stnartan coaches are proying that the opposition sticks to the ground against them, for the secondary was wied out by graduation, and the replacements, Joe Hunt, Ken Jones, John Breslin, and Tom Hannon are as geen as their home jerseys. Their first test, incidentally, will be against Northwestern and Mitch Anderson, who has led the Big Ten in passing yard- age the last two seasons. But Stolz feels the secondary will be better than last year's bnch. "Defensive backs are sumposed to be the fastest peo- ple on your team, right? Well, we clocked our defensive backs last year, and they were the slowest people we had." The defense will have its work cut out, since the Spartan offense does not appear to be very potent. Popular Charlie Baggett comes off knee surgery for another season at quarter- back, and fullback Clarence Bullock is being mentioned as a possible all-conference selec- tion.. With Bell sidelined, the tail- back position will be manned by either Rich Baes, a sophomore walk-on, or Tyrone Wilson, who has yet to live up to his poten- tial. Flanker Mike Jones, split end Mike Hurd, and tight end Mike Cobb are 'a capable corps of receivers for whatever pass- See DENNY, Page 11 MSU's Baggett launches a bomb Candid Canham continued (Continued from Page 3) that was a hundred years ago, we could not initiate contact with a high school athlete even by letter. The athlete had to write to you, and usually an alumnus would go and see the athlete and say "Hey, Michigan's interested in you. If you're interested in them, write them a letter" We had great teams in those days. Na- tionwide the good teams are still the good teams. Maybe you can't go back that far, but something has got to be done. DAILY-What is your feeling toward professional leagues who sign athletes with college eligibility remaining and what do you think its long range ef- fect will be on college athletics? CANHAM-Well, of course, we're pret- ty bitter about it. We're extremely bitter about the basketball and the baseball people. Professional baseball has ruined the college game. They sign kids right off the campus and have been for years. Today, with certain exceptions college baseball across the country just does not draw people anymore. And the reason is that you can't fool the public. They know that all the good high school kids and most of the college aged play- ers of top quality have been signed to pro contracts. They have ruined the col- lege game. NOW basketball is starting it. For in- stance, this year basketball has gone into Marquette, Notre Dame and Michi- gan and taken their outstanding player. Now those were three teams, any one of which could have been a national cham- pion next year. It's very difficult to see how any one of the three can be a na- tional champion because professional basketball has wrecked their teams. We're going to have a good basketball team, and you know Marquette and No- tre Dame are, too. We would have had a super basketball team and the resulting publicity is going to hurt our attendance. Without Campy Russell our kids are go- ing to have to play super basketball to be a real contender like they would have been with him. So, all of us in intercol-. legiate athletics are really upset about the pros. Of all of them, only Pete Rozelle of the NFL is genuinely concerned with pre- serving college football. You'll never see the NFL sign an O. J. Simpson or a Den- nis Franklin off of a team. Pete's too smart for that and the league is too smart for that, but I don't know about the rest of these guys, even hockey and track and field now. DAILY-If the W o r l d Football League started signing off college campuses do you think the NFL would have to keep pace? CANHAM-That's our worry. If the World Football League, out of despera- tion, turned to that then there's no as- surance that the NFL won't be signing players off the campuses in self defense. That's the concern that we have. I've talked with quite a few of the WFL peo- ple and they claim that they're not going to do that. If they don't, then fine. Who knows what someone will do when they are in a financial bind. DAILY-In the book, "Hail to the Victors" by John Behee, your conduct over the years in helping black ath- letes at the University was praised. Some of your predecessors as athletic director, especially Fielding Yost had no such reputation. Why the differ- ence? CANHAM-In my particular case, I guess the book is flattering in that re- spect. I think circumstances dictate a lot of what happens also. I had black friends as I was growing up and I roomed with a black athlete when I was a student at Michigan. This was 35 years ago. I just don't look at it in racial terms, to this day I don't. I've hired sev- eral blacks here recently and if I had found a white for those particular jobs I would have hired whites. I don't really know about Yost's feel- ings. I didn't know him that well. Yost had a Southern background and in those days it would not be hard to see a man having some kind of a prejudice, but I really can't speak about Yost. I do know there were some problems with black athletes in those days here, and I sup- pose the athletic director has to be the responsible party. DAILY-Yost was the athletic direc- tor when a football game between Michigan and Georgia Tech was scheduled at Ann Arbor in October, 1934. Tech and most Southern schools practiced "Jim Crow" separation of, the races, barring blacks from par- ticipating in games for or against Tech. One of Michigan's best players, end Willis Ward, was forced to the sidelines because of this rule when Yost refused to cancel the game. What would you have done in that situa- tion? CANHAM-I'd like to think that I would have cancelled the game. Sure. But you'd have to go back in that time span. Maybe I'd have been a prejudiced guy in those days, too. You don't know. Willis Ward today is a judge in De- troit and one of my very close friends. I've known him for years and years. That game was a very, very bad spot in intercollegiate athletics. It also was not uncommon. What happened at Michigan was just one incident. It happened al- most every time a Northern team played a Southern team. DAILY--Do you remember Jerry Ford when he was in school here? CANHAM-Well, Jerry was a little bit ahead of me.' To tell you the honest truth, I don't know him well. I talked with him several times after he became Vice President, but I haven't had any contact with him since he's become President. I really don't know him well. DAILY-Ford was never known when he was in Congress as being any kind of a civil rights advocate, but you'd like to think that a man who w- s going to be President of the United States would stand up when some injustice like that did occur, on a team of which he was a member? CANHAM-Well you see there again you've got to be fair. You've got to look at the time span. You know his voting record better than L All I know is my feeling is that he will be very good on civil rights as a President. I think that he's just an honest man. Everybody I talked to that played with him and knew him says so and that's what we're looking for today. DAILY-Do you think that because intercollegiate athletics have become so much of a business that it is de- tracting from the sports themselves? CANHAM-Intercollegiate athletics it- self has not changed. The athletics them- selves hove not changed, it's the tremen- dous crunch in trying to raise enough money to keep the program going. Infla- tion has hit intercollegiate athletics like you wouldn't believe. Let me give you an example. When we flew out to Los Angeles to play UCLA two years ago, we chartered an airplane for about $16,- 000. This year we're playing out in Palo Alto, and it will cost us $27,000 for the same plane. THOSE of us in administration realize that unless you can keep the ship afloat financially then the actual competitive end of intercollegiate athletics will change dramatically. We don't want to see that happen. We want to field good teams. We want to field well equipped teams. We want to have adegate travel bhdgets. I really think the sports them- selves have not changed-administration, through necessity has changed. DAILY-Last year at the NCAA bas- ketball tournament in Alabama, John- ny Orr said, "Don Canham just ex- r tended my contract from a month to a year-Hell with .C-nham, that's ten- ure." Orr's comment was made in fun, but what kind of boss do you feel you are? CANIIAM-4 think I'm fair. I think I make every effort to run it like a busi- ness, frankly. You hyave to first of all realize that the management, at least, of intercollegiate athletics is not fun and games. If we fail on the field, we have to go to the university for funds. I try to hire people who are capable and then let them handle their program. If they don't handle their program right and properly, I have to do something about it. I think any good administrator has to do the same thing.