letter from the editor
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Eighty-three years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Big Blue:
Inhuman
brand of football
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
News Phone: 764-0552
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1973
Recognizing Chile's junta
ON MONDAY THE United States joined
the ranks of 29 governments that
have established diplomatic relations
with the recently imposed military junta
of Chile.
The announcement of recognition,
which came in Santiago rather than
Washington, took no one by surprise. Lit-
tle comment, if any, was made in the
Congress or the press. After all, Wash-
ington has seldom refused to embrace a
military government ready to live up to
its "international obligations."
The pattern was set long before the
present administration entered the White
House. American support for repressive
right-Wing governments has left no cor-
ner of the globe untouched. Whether it
has come in the form of NATO arms for
the Portugese colonialists in Mozambique
or Michigan State University police ad-
visers for Saigon, Uncle Sam has always
been ready to lend a hand.
AMERICAN MILITARY aid to Chile,
which was increased dramatically in
the three years of the Allende govern-
ment, may well have been a key factor
in the armed forces' ability to act deci-
sively in the coup.
Capitol Hill and the press, however,
have by no means been silent on the is-
sue of repression. Unfortunately, the ex-
ample of Chile does not seem to have to
come to mind..
No, when we hear of repression we hear
only of the Soviet Union. Sen. Henry
Jackson (D-Wash.) and others have op-
posed the normalization of trade rela-
tions with the Soviet Union because of
its reportedly harsh treatment of dissi-
dents. The warnings of Soviet physicist
Sakharov regarding the dangers of de-
tente capture repeated headlines in the
nation's press. Yet what is said of Chile?
A CURIOUS DOUBLE standard is de-
veloping on the issue of repression
and civil liberties. Within a two-week
period the Chilean junta has deposed a
freely elected government, eliminated the
nation's political parties and taken con-
trol of the press. It has publicly burned
Marxist literature, arrested thousands of
leftists and eliminated Chile's largest
trade union, yet the Senate decries re-
pression in the Soviet Union.
Chilean poet Pablo Ueruda, his home
sacked by military authorities during the
coup, dies mysteriously of a "heart at-
tack" while the Western press lionizes
Solzhenitsyn.
What this double standard amounts to
is a face-lifting for the worn ideology of
anti-communism. While repressive right-
wing governments who are economically
cooperative are not only tolerated but
promoted and supported, the Soviets
must pass what amounts to a civil liber-
ties test to normalize relations.
IF REPRESSION is to become a national
issue in the United States, there is
little reason to focus our attention only
on the policy of detente with the Soviet
Union. Rather, we would do well to ex-
amine a foreign policy that has seen re-
pressive right-wing governments as legi-
timate means to an economic end.
By CHRISTOPHER PARKS
and EUGENE ROBINSON
LET'S GET one thing straight
from the beginning: We like
football - really like the game,
especially the college game. Like
thousands of other geeks, we troop
down to the stadium every Satur-
day or so and scream, yell, jump
up and down and all the other
things fans are supposedtotdo.
That said, then we say this:
Michigan football and the game it-
self would be better off without
Bo Schembechler.
Bo Schembechler - the man who
each year produces a Mammoth
Blue Wave which methodically de-
cimates a string of hapless chumps
- must go.
Wehave no quarrel with t h e
:Schembechler record. He wins,
and wins a lot. Of course, he can't
seem to win the Rose Bowl, but
no one's perfect.
THE REASONS Bo must go lie
deep in his basic philosophy.
Schembechler, to us, epitomizes all
that is wrong with college foot-
ball. He and the others of his ilk
should be quickly shipped off to
the professional leagues where
they belong.
Bo Schembchler is the personi-
fication of tough, plodding, meth-
odical football. Chew 'em up and
spit 'em out. Crunch 'em up, gnash
gnash. Bo doesn't care about play-
ing the game, he only,cares about
winning it. And this totally amoral
outlook on football is ruining the
game for all but its most fana-
tical devotees.
In placing the winning of the
game above the game itself, Bo
loses track of "extraneous" items
like creativity and guile. He plays
by the statistics. Under the Schem-
bechler game plan you can al-
ways expect the expected. No
free-wheeling or innovation -
something might go wrong. The
percentages are all against you.
IT IS UNIQUELY inhuman, this
Schembechler brand of football. It
could as easily be played by beefy
robots wired into a central com-
puter.
This "don't take chances, win-
ning is all" philosophy produces
victories all right, but in doing so
it crushes imagination and fun.
Face it: Michigan football is bor-
ing, at least to the fans if not the
players. It produces high scores,
good ratings and broken bones.
Watch today as the Wolverines
sink Navy. Watch Bo refuse to
take chances or inovate despite the
lopsided score. But most crucially,
watch for something very much
more threatening just below the
surface.
Watch Bo turn red in the face -
screaming, yelling and berating
his players at the slightest error.
See if Bo isn't beginning to re-
semble Ohio State's little maniac,
Woody Hayes. Look close and see
if you can't detect a glimpse of
Ohio State scarlet under the maize
and blue uniforms.
IT IS A FUNDAMENTAL ar-
ticle of faith among the Michigan
Football fanatics that there ;s
nothing in this world (or perhaps
the next) so vital, so necessary
as beating Ohio State.
For years, these folks suffered
through season after season in
which Ohio State was not beaten.
Year after year in which the dull,
brutal meatgrinder spawned by
Woody Hayes bludgeoned its way
through the Big 10 developing a
reputation for mindlessness almost
unequalled in college football.
It was never enough for 0 h i o
State to win - their goal was noth-
ing short of total annihilation.
Woody was well known and well
hated for his obsession with 50 and
60 point maulings (generally of
weak teams) which goosed his rat-
ings in the polls.
BY THE END of the sixties,
wealthy 'U' alumni and others with
Influence had become convinced
that "nice guy" "Bump" Elliott
had to go, what with his lack of
aggressiveness, his failures in re-
cruiting the "big beef" and above
everything else, his failure to pra-
duce teams which could beat Ohio
State.
Many felt that what was needed
was someone who cquld out-Woody
Woody - an aggressive colorful
man (read: a fanatic, and a ma;i
who believed in "basic football"
(the sports writer's euphemism for
the plodding, unimaginative style
of Lombardi, Hayes, et al.)
So they hired a coach from Ohio
(Bo); recruited a ton of Ohio
beef; dusted off Woody's old play
book: "101 Off-tackle variations I
have Known and Loved," and
PRESTO: Ohio State, only bigger,
more scientific and tougher.
THE BRAND new Michigan
meatgrinder was unveiled in 1969
and it quickly set upon a succes-
sion of weak opponents whom it
predictably gobbled up.
At the end of the season (Oh,
ecstasy!) Bo beat Woody (goody,
goody). And Michigan went to the
(gosh) Rose Bowl.
And then, something kind of
strange happened. Just before the
Rose Bowl, Bo suffered a heart
attack, attributed - at least in
part - to anxiety resulting from
an obsession with winning "The
Big One."
Most found the incident shock-
ing and worried that their newly-
found Saturday Savior might have
to hang it up. A few saw the in-
cident as a graphic- and rather
frightening clue as to the mentality
which had too quickly taken root
in Michigan football.
BUT BO CAME BACK, and led
his minions to victory after vic-
tory. Every Saturday; it w a s
smash, grind and groan for sixty
minutes in games that were more
human demolitions than victories.
Most people loved it - a winner
at last. A few asked whether the
50 to 60 point margins weren't a
little excessive, and wasn't the
whole thing somewhat pointless
and dull.
And then, another strange but
compelling incident took place.
In the closing minutes of a close-
lv fought (and very dull) Michigan-
Ohio State game, a desperation
State pass was intercepted by
Michigan.
Woody Hayes, feeling chances for
victory slip from his grasp, explod-
ed in a fury. In a two or three
minute r.ampage before 100,000
incredulous fans, Woody went tot-
ally berserk, cursing, hollering,
tearing up yard markers and even-
tually running out onto the field
to vent his spleen.
It was a profoundly twisted per-
formance - the result of a blind
unreasoning pre-occupation w i t h
victory which had warped his lif?.
EVEN MORE COMPELLING is
a recent book detailing the obses-
sed mentality of another football
machine, Daryl Royal's University
of Texas team. At Texas, accord-
ing to the author (a former Texas
player), almost any degree of bru-
tality and dehumanization is jus-
tified in the insane drive to pro-
duce "a winner."
Or consider the case of Okla-
homa, where recent revelations in-
dicate that athletic officials were
ready to lie, cheat and totally sub-
vert academic standards in order
to obtain, for theteam, a highly
prized quarterback.
The crass excesses graphically
portrayed in the cases of Ohio, Tex-
as and Oklahoma are the almost
inevitable results of an unreason-
ing obsession with developing a
successful (i.e. winning, highly
outward manifestation of the
ranked) football team. And the
outward manifestations of t h e
Schembechler influence clearly in-
dicate that such an'obsession !as
already taken hold at the Univer-
sity.
YOU CAN'T BLAME Bo for
being what he is. You can, haw-
ever, question whether Bo and all
he represents are what we want
football to be like, here in Ann
Arbor.
How do we feel about the Univer-
sity joining the ranks of the "Foot-
ball Mills" - Texas, Oklahoma,
Ohio State et al.? Let's at least
consider the question before it
becomes academic.
Way back, so long ago that it
seems few of us remember, games
were supposed to serve as a coun-
ter-point to the dreary crunch of
life and work. They were supposed
to be "fun" - an exciting, crazy
expression of the human imagina-
tion as well as a "healthy" out-
let for the aggressions inherent in
the beast.
But there's no room for imagina-
tion or even fun in the cold, highly
computerized Schembechler game
style.
How dreary; How dull! How
downright stupid! Either the game
is inherently, sick or Bo's vision
of it is, and we prefer to believe
the latter explanation is true.
FOOTBALL NEEDN'T be this
way. Those of us (perhaps few in
number) who love the game but
believe it can be raised above the
level of brute bestiality feel strong-
ly that the Schembechler-cult is
a destructive mania which should
be rooted out of the college game
before we all lose sight of the real
reason that this game, or any
other game, exists. As a satisfying
healthy and above all, a human ex-
perience.
II
C utting corporate drug abuse
THE FEDERAL government announced
Tuesday that production of the drug
methaqualone will be limited. This over-
due action is a step in the right direc-
tion, and hopefully the quota will be
strictly enforced.
For at least a year and a half now,
various media across the country, includ-
ing this newspaper, have noted the in-
creasing abuse of the drug methaqualone,
comumly known on the street as "Quaa-
ludes" or "sopors".
What with today's fad of mixing down-
ers with alcohol, it is not too surprising
that methaqualone has quickly gained in
popularity. In addition to the. dangers
of mixing two drugs, however, some re-
ports indicate that methaqualone may be
addicting and result in death for the user
who withdraws too quickly.
Methaqualone, because of its dangers,
is perhaps the best example of who the
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Dan Blugerman, Cindy Hill, Cheryl
Pilate, Ted Stein
Editorial Page:: Zachary Schiller, E r i c
Schoch, Charles Wilbur
Arts Page: Diane Levick
Photo Techrician: Karen Kasmauski
greatest drug pushers in the country are:
American corporations.
MANUFACTURE OF methaqualone in-
creased, for little apparent reason
(except profits), from eight million
units in 1968 to 147 million units in 1972,
according to the federal Drug Enforce-
ment Administration. Much of the in-
crease has found its way onto the
streets.
And despite media publicity and federal
government warnings, the manufactur-
ers of the drug have both refused to re-
duce their production and declined to ad-
mit that the drug was in any way dan-
gerous.
Such corporate callousness prompted
the federal government to place produc-
tion quotas on methaqualone under the
Controlled Substances Act. It is unfor-
tunate that such action was so long in
coming, although perhaps not surprising
considering the nature of federal bureau-
cracy and the corporate interests which
swing so much weight.
How effective the control mechanisms
will be remains to be seen. Manufacture
of drugs in this country, whether pre-
scription drugs, or tobacco and alcohol,
is big business. And big business disap-
proves of federal actions which cut into
profits.
Stills
By TOM KIPPERT
"No, this isn't Crosby, Nash and
Young," chortled Chris Hillman as
he introduced one of Manassas'
songs. But Stills on his own, de-
spite the shadow of the former
supergroup, excited an appreciative
crowd at Crisler Arena last night.
Surprisingly, the band opened
with a stirring rendition of the first
side of their premier album (Ap-
ril 1972). The numbers indicated
that precision was present, but the
real excitement was yet to come.
Flowing along, Stills dazzled his
audience with amazing virtuousity
on the wah-wah pedal and some
solid vocals. Dallas Taylor, the
group's drummer, was exceptional-
ly quick and lived up to his repu-
tation as a top-rate drummer.
This first set concluded with a,
moving version of The Byrds' "So
You Wanna Be A Rock 'n' Roll
Star."
The acoustic set was next. Chris
Hillman and Al Perkins delighted
listeners with a sampling of the
country-rock skill that they so hum-
bly possess. A few Stills fans (my-
self included) were upset that only
Hillman and the very talented
Perkins began the second series of
tunes. But it gave Stills' comrades
a chance to display their wares as
true country artisans.
dazzlies
Rebounding quickly, the Band
started their crowd - pleasing rock
'n' roll. Especially encouraging
was the way Stills, Hillman and
steel guitarist Perkins built into an
exciting, if not very technical, end-
ing on Stills' "The Treasure." The
energy created was the brand from
which quality rock is really made.
The always popular "Carry On"
drew raves from the crowd as it hit
them musically and visually. A
spinning light globe was used for
novel excitement, throwingdrotat-
ing light beams onto the audience.
The rockers in the audience were
also set spinning as the nostalgic
Stills number reeled with powerful
guitars (a S. Stills trademark) and
the always masterful rhythm sec-
tion of Dallas Taylor, bassist Fuzzy
Samuels and percussion ace Joe
Lala.
Backstage Stills expressed the
hope of recording again with three
former friends (You know who
they are!) and remaining with his
own band.
His comments seemed to parallel
his performance well: both were
easygoing. Stills' manner invites
conversation; he doesn't act like a
"Superstar."
Truly, Stills is one of the most
personable and important popular
artists of our times.
Cris le r
crowd
-~~ S OA tIEW -
- - - - - ~ --r
Daily Photo by KAREN KASMAUSKI
CULTURE CALENDAk
FILM-UAC-Mediatrics presents The Graduate in Nat,
Sci. Aud. tonight at 7 and 9:30; Cinema II and Ann Arbor
Film Co-op feature Two English Girls in Aud. A at 7 and
9 tonight and tomorrow night, weekend matinees at 1 and
3 p.m.; Cinema Guild shows Fellini's 81/, tonight at 7 and
9:05 in Arch. Aud. and Fellini's The Swindle tomorrow
night at same times; Bursley Hall Enterprises features
Penn's Bonnie and Clyde tonight in Bursley west cafe-
teria at 9; Couzens Film Co-op presents a cartoon festival
of Roadrunner and Walt Disney at 8 and 10 tonight in
Couzens cafeteria.
MUSIC-The Ark presents Irish folksinger Owen McBride to-
night at 8:30; University Musical Society presents the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Alda Ceccato at Hill
Stephen Stills
to
tonight
6:00 2 4 News
9 Movie
50 Star Trek
6:30 4 NBC News
7 Reasoner Report
56 Together: A Chuck Mangione
Concert
7:00 2 CBS News
4 George Pierrot
7 Town Meeting
9 Police Surgeon
50 Lawrence Weik
7:30 2 Dusty's Trail
4 Johnny Mann's Stand Up
and Cheer
7 New Dating Game
9 Norm Cash .
8:00 2 All in the Family
4 Emergency!.
7Partridge Family
9 This Land-Documentary
56 The Session
50 That Good Ole Nashville Music
8:30 ? M*A*S*H
7 Movie
56 Playhouse New York: The 1940s
"Particular Men"
50 Wacky World of Jonathan
printers
9:00 2 Mary Tyler Moore
4 Movie
9 Main Chance
50 Perry Mason
9:30 2 Bob Newhart
10:00 Carol Burnett
7 Griff
9 To See Ourselves
50 Lou Gordon
10:30 9 Document
56 Two Arctic Tales
11:00 1 7 News
9 ProFootball
11:15 7 ABC News
11:20 4 News
11:30 2 Movie
"The Shuttered Room"
(English 1967)
7 Movie
"A Rage to Live" (1965)
50 Movie
"Hands of a Stranger" (1962)
11:50 4 Johnny Carson
1:20 4 News
1:30) 2 Movie
"Captive Wild Woman" (1943)
7 Movie
"Life at the Top." (Englisti
1959)
9 CBC News
1:45 9 Movie
"Lord Jim" (English 1965)
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