editors:
laura berman
dan borus
contributing editor:
mary long
sundciy
mcigctzine
inside:
page four-books
page five-features
page six-week in
review
Number19 Page Three Februar
y 23, 1975
FEATURES
Waging the University's fight
in
basketball
recruiting wars
By JOHN KAHLER
AFTER THE BASKETBALL game,
the tunnel of Crisler Arena is
crowded with fans streaming into
their cars. Bill Frieder stands in
their wake. For Frieder, the game
in just beginning.
There are several lanky high
school basketball stars here to-
night and Frieder is Johnny Orr's
recruiting co-ordinator. The high
school players meet Bo and Joe
Johnson and C. J. Kupec and other
symbols of M.chiwsan's athlptic
excellence, and then Frieder makes
his pitch. He sings the virtues of
Michigan with the convictions of
a true believer. He is a master
salesman and he knows it and he
loves every minute of it.
In college athletics, good coach-
ing is only incidental in producing
winning teams. The name of the
game is recruiting - convincing
high school athletes that their fu-
ture athletic success lies at your
school. And in the highly compe-
tive college athletic scene, recruit-
ing is a dirty business. Hardly a
month goes by without an NCAA
investigation into the recruiting
practices of a member institution.
So far this year, Seton Hall, Ten-
nessee, and Clemson have all been
called up on the carpet.
The world of big-time college
recruiting is a world of coaches
promising bank accounts, automo-
biles, color television sets, and lu-
crative land deals to the athletic-
ally gifted. So intense is the pres-
sure to land the blue chip athlete
that coaches have altered high
school transcripts to skirt academ-
ic admissions requirements.
EVEN WHEN TOTALLY within
the rules, recruiting requires
go-getting salesmanship, constant
follow-up, total flattery of the
prospects and promises, promises,
promises. More thoughtful coach-
es find it distasteful. It's not
good for the kids -- it's not good
for the coaches, too," reflects Bo
Schembechler. "Here I am prositu-
ting myself to sign some seven-
teen-year-old kid to come to Mich-
igan."
No sport depends so heavily on
recruiting as basketball. One play-
er can often make the difference
between a championship team and
a a mediocre ball club, and the
coaches know it and act accord-
ingly.r
heck, it's a challenge. I'll be disap-
pointed in myself if we don't come
up with some of the kids we're re-
cruiting this year.
"If we can just get one of those
kids . . .," he muses. It's like win-
ning a big ball game. You're en-
thusiastic, you're gung-ho, and you
want to land that kid.
"This is a class university,
they're going to get a fine edu-
tainly
fellow
be reported by a vindictive
athletic department. Also,
In college athletics, coaching is only incidental.
The name of the game is recruiting-and recruit-
ing is a dirty business. For basketball coach, Bill
Frieder, recruiting is a way of life: "You're en-
thusiastic, you're gung-ho, and you want to land
that kid."
Michigan's commanding general
in the recruiting battles is Frieder.
A thirty-three year old man with
short black hair which he wears
in baby bangs, Frieder returned to
his alma mater after a three-year
wunderkind coaching stint at Flint
Northern High School, in which he
won two state titles and set a
Michigan Class A record for most
consecutive victories.
Salesmanshin came naturally to
a man who snent his youth sell-
ing vegetables for his father's firm
in Saginaw. Frieder possesses a be-
lief In himself and his school, a
dedication to his work bordering
on fanatacism, and an uncanny
knack of judging basketball poten-
tial. although he never played the
gemme as an undergraduate. He
proved so suited to the emotional
and nrofesvional demands of his
work that Orr named him recruit-
ing co-ordinator after his first re-
cruiting go-round.
"j LOVE recruiting," says Frieder.
"I like to meet people, and,
cation, they're going to get a lot
of exposure, and plus that our
program is at a point now where
they're going to come in and get
the opportunity to play right away
as freshmen. We use everything
that we can to sell the kid, to say
this is the place to go."
Everything?
"We stick very close to the
NCAA guidelines. I'll be honest
with you," Frieder says, "we've lost
some kids in the past because we
just weren't able to do some things
other schools do. But that usually
catches up with those schools. An
investigation here would cost me
my job."
THIS FEAR, AND not the moral-
ity of the recruiting conflicts
has kept the Michigan program
relatively clean. Extensive investl-
gations by the Daily have not
turned up any abuses. Michigan is
not the most popular school among
its midwestern colleagues, and
any Michigan recruiting violation,
if discovered, would almost cer-
the athletic department philoso-
phy dictates that athletes who are
"bought" tend to be spoiled.
"Michigan, goes after good kids,
what we consider to be quality
kids," Frieder claims. "We've seen
too many programs fall apart with
what I call "bad actors", bums,
or kids with a problem. We want
to get a kid with good character.
And usually, hopefully, he's got
good grades. We won't recruit a
kid who got into two fights as a
junior or who misses a lot of school
even if he's 6-10 and a super ball-
player."
For awhile last year Frieder
went after Moses Malone, a 6-11
do-it-all superstar now in the
ABA, who made the NCAA pre-
dictor rule of a 1.8 Grade Point
Average only because he had a
4 0 his last term. Frieder contends
Michigan recruiters quit when thev
noticed a new air conditioner in
Alone's home, nremmably given
by a salivatint recruiter.
"That's illegal, and we can't
afford to do that. So we quit re-
eruiting him. Sometimes the big-
gest nroblem in recruiting is that
the high school coach is on the
take. He wants a iob, he wants
mnne. he wants to flv to all the
orrnes. and we ennnnt nronme
tl'ose things. As a result, we lose
ii+ on the kid."
Michigan is not without re-
sources, however, and Frieder
does not hesitate to call unon
them. Verv few schools have more
aiumni entrenehed in high cornor-
ste pliaes. and who are willing to
lie their eomnanv to heln out the
old school. In these days of re-
cession, the summer jobs nrovided
by alums are almost as good as
straight cash navments and per-
fectly legit under NCAA rules.
As part of the deal to get Joel
Doilv Photo by KEN FINK
Thompson to enroll, Freider con-
tacted Woody Skaff, who runs a
chain of furniture stores in Flint.
Skaff who had employed present
Michigan forward Wayman Britt in
the past, put Thompson on the
payroll for the summer. Another
Frieder recruit recruit, Burrell Mc-
Ghee, spent last summer working
at a General Motors plant in his
hometown of Warren, Ohio - at a
time when workers were being
laid off. Britt has also worked for
GM.
VVEN THE INCREASINGLY hard
economic picture has not hurt
the willingness of old alums to
find places on the payroll for
Michigan athletes. "When I go
down to Gulfport, Mississippi, I'll
be getting in touch with the alums
down there to offer some summer
jobs to a couple of kids we really
want down there," Frieder says.
But recruiting for Ann Arbor has
its drawbacks. Purdue center Tom
Scheffler's parents would not let
him matriculate when they read
of State representative Perry Bul-
(Continued on Page 5)
John Kahlfr retired last month from
his position as the Daily's Associate
Sports Editor.
Ann Arbor's thriving chfropractors:
A cure f
By MARY LONG
A CHIROPRACTOR and a witch
doctor get equal billing from
the American Medical Association.
Medical doctors are ashamed of
them. The average man on the
street shuns them as evil and ig-
norant weirdos whose basic area
of expertise will lie in the art of
pocketing their dollars.
These doctors of manipulative
medicine are a classic case of the
outsider who wants in badly. Very
badly. So most of them work hard
and wait patiently for the invisible
seal of approval that will deem
them outcasts no longer.
Some are less patient than oth-
ers, of course. "I'm so fed up with
all the hush-hush crap" says Phil-
ip Seltzer, doctor of chiropractic
(D.C.), potential explosions in his
voice. "If only we could end this
silly Mickey Mouse game our pa-,
tients have to go through . . . the
crazy comments about seeing a
chiropractor. Calling us quacks,
calling us shams. We're trying like
hell to get the truth to people, but
the situation is still nuts. The com-
plete ignorance abou what we do
as physicians is incredible."
WHICH RAISES THE big ques-
or the common
manipulative science based on the
role of the spinal column and ner-
vous system in maintaining health.
There is no use made of either
drugs or surgery.
THE BELIEF IS that much of dis-
ease is caused by interference
with nerve transmission. The
chiropractor analyses these inter-
ferences of normal nerve transmis-
sion by use of X-ray equipment.
Correction of the problem is un-
dertaken by manual adjustment.
Nerve transmission is thus restored
or as D. C. Harold Swanson poetic-
ally phrased it: "We turn on the
faucet and let the life juices come
flowing on through."
Swanson, who is partially re-
tired, bemoans the fate allotted
him due to public ignorance in
more dramatic terms than Seltz-
er's. "Everyone is ready to hang
us with no evidence," he savs
plaintively. "Chiropractors are
treated like something the cat
dragged in."
Well, not quite, doctor. In fact,
the situation seems to have gotten
a lot better for these physicians of
manipulative medicine. Consider:
chiropractic services are now cov-
grants for the first time.
"YES, WELL, IN a se
really startin' to
says Swanson with Gra
enthusiasm. "And the re
this" he says with a l
for emphasis value, "t
reception for chiropract
ting better, because we'
better."
No one, not even the
completely disagree with
one thing, the educations
ments have been elevate
for a physician to claim
reimbursement, he must
years of pre-chiropractic
the college level and t
complete a four-year co
school of chiropractic.
"We're right up ther
same study bracket ast
Swanson boasts and Se
in his urgent manner,
thev call us quacks. how
one say we don't know w
doinv? We're using the
books! The very same b
except for eliminating
cologv and surgerv. the
edueation is identical."
THAT LAST STATEME
backache?
their devotees will point proudly at
the Biochemistry books and all the
,nse we're other volumes with properly sci-
catch on" entific titles - and they're all
andpa-like there - Neurology, Embryology,
asoning is Bacteriology, you name it - there
ong pause are other books too.
he public There's the 336-page Textbook
Ic is get- of Procedure and Practice for the
re getting Chiropractic Profession, published
by the Parker Chiropractic Re-
MD's will search Foundation. This work im-
him. For mediately states its intention of
al require- teaching chiropractors all the
d. In order "gimmicks, gadgets, and gizmos
Medicare that can be used to get new pa-
have two tients . .. Thinking, acting, feeling,
study on doctor, determines the amount of
hen must money you will take to the bank
)urse in a . . . Remember, enthusiasm is the
yeast that raises the dough."
e in the JN ORDER TO raise the all-im-
the MD's" portant dough, to hold the key
ltzer adds to success, the chironractor must
"How can "LLL: Lather Love Lavishly!
can any- "When you meet a new patient"
vhat we're says the textbook. "you can push a
same text button. You can push the LLL but-
ooks! And ton, the love button It's like a
pharma- light bulb that you switch on.
course of When you meet a new natient,
LLL him in. When you do this, you
NT raised divarm a patient who has- devel-