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-