HEMING WA Y ENJO YS RADIO WORK Press box life Z rnaoo UI. Ui KDALMBACDH..E om aemingway Dr. David Noel Freedman - Director, Program on Studies in Religion * Professor of Biblical Studies -X* int an illustrated lecture on: he Tablets and Their Significance * (New Archeologlcal Discoveries from Syria) . EPT. 30, 1977 2 p.m. Aud. 4 MLB * -X. By DON MacLACHLAN Ever wonder what it would be like to watch a football game from the 45 yard line in the press box or a basketball contest from midcourt? For sports broadcaster Tom Hemingway it is a regular occurrence and part of the job-sitting behind as microphone describing the action to his radio audience. "SOMETIMES I DO miss not being able to just watch and enjoy a game without getting wrapped up in it," Hemingway said. Sound funny? Well for a man with a demanding schedule like Hemingway's it certainly could be relaxing to simply sit in the end zone and observe a game. Hemingway, WUOM's sports director, handles the play by play for Michigan football and basket- ball home and away. In addition he covers every Detroit Piston game for WJR in Detroit. When foot- ball season winds down Hemingway's leisure time is drastically reduced. "I'LL NEVER forget a sequence last year where I had a Michigan game Thursday night, then a Pistons game on Friday," Hemingway recalled. "That Saturday afternoon I did the Michigan- Purdue game in Lafayette. Luckily the Pistons played at Indiana Saturday night." "After the Detroit game I hurried back to do the Michigan-Marquette game here and finished off with a Pistons game that night." "That was probably the roughest stretch I han died," Hemingway admitted. "But that's my job and luckily I enjoy basketball." In between plane flights to different cities Hemingway is busy with his homework-such as looking over players and statistics for the upcoming game. "I THINK IF you find out in a hurry that if you don't prepare you will be the first one to know and the audience won't be very far after that,'' Hemingway said. Despite all the preparation and accumulation :of. interesting tidbits, especially for football games due to their length, an occasional mistake remains inevitable with all those numbers and names pop- ping in and out of the lineup. "There is no sense disguising a mistake," Hemingway said. "If you've got the wrong guy carrying the ball for a TD and you don't correct it-that is bush. I don't think the listeners think you'll be 100 percent correct anyhow." Hemingway graduated from Michigan State in 1959 with a degree in Radio-TV. He has covered sporting events over the radio for almost twenty, years-but that first time on the air still stands out in his mind. "IT WAS A HOCKEY game up at State and I was scared to death, just petrified," Hemingway con- fessed. "It left me after I got into it but hockey isn't an easy sport. They wear those helmets and either you spot the guy's number or you are de'ad." Since that first time his voice graced the airwaves the easy going Hemingway has covered numerous Michigan games. He started at WUOM in 1962, and in those 15 years he does have a few favorites. "I got here the same time that Cazzie Russell did," Hemingway said. "In .1965 they won in double overtime against Indiana in Bloomington. Michigan was down by eight with about 50 seconds to play and they came back to tie the game at the end of the regulation time. "In the first overtime they were behind by four points with 30 seconds left and tied it. Finally in the second overtime they came back to win. It was a great Indiana team. That is when they had the Van Arsdale twins and Jon McGlocklin. Those players and Cazzie still remember it vividly." IRONICALLY THE only sport Hemingway didn't play as a youngster was basketball. His first love was baseball. The veteran announcer still covers heaven the Michigan baseball team in the spring. Hemingway loves the life behind the mike. Earlier in his career he freelanced for WWJ-TV in Detroit from 1965-1970. Being in front of the camera is a completely different world from the privacy of his radio booth. "There is no doubt TV is where the glamor is," he said. "Being on TV establishes you as a sports ex- pert and on radio you are down a few rungs on the ladder. But I could never go back to a TV slot. It was really hairy for awhile." Despite all the travel and demands on his time Hemingway is content with his play-by-play duties. His summer consists of mostly free time but for the next eight months all systems are go. "It's a fun thing," Hemingway said. "I sometimes think I'm stealing money. The epitome of life is spending 24 hours a day doing what you en- joy. If your work is a part of it then you've got your leg up on some people." .... ..... vim::...... . .....4 The MDaily Sports NIGHT EDITORS: RICK MADDOCK ERNIE DUNBAR .;; CMU STAR IN PISTONS' CAMP: t . .n De dicati By KATHY HENNEGHAN Four years agh, Ben Poquette didn't even ithink he would make Central Michigan's varsity basketball team. Today he is trying out for the Detroit Pistons. The 6-9 Chippewa center was the first player drafted by the Detroit club last June. Coach Herb Brown sees Poquette as a power forward, or possibly backup center to Bob Lanier. Michigan fans may recall that had it not been for Poquette, the Wolverines just may have made that trip to Atlanta in last spring's NCAA tournament. Central played-North Carolina-Char- lotte in Bloomington in the first round of the regionals. Poquette missed a last second tip-in that would have won the game for the Chippewas. Instead UNCC advanced to Lexington, met Michigan in the regional finals and the rest is his- tory. "We played well against Charlotte," recalled Poquette. "We should have won that game." onpays Seemingly, Central would have been easier for the Wolverines to handle than Charlotte proved to be. Michigan beat CMU 104-63 at Crisler last December. Not so fast, said Poquette. "If Char- lotte could do it (beat Michigan) we might have been able to," he said.. "When we played Michigan we didn't have two guys who joined the team in January - Jeff Tropf and Dave Grau- zer. They changed our whole game." And he doesn't think the Big Ten, is any tougher than the Mid-American Conference, of which Central Michigan is a member, although Michigan ,,# posed of both Central and -lent Stht (102-66)rather easily., "I think our league is just as good. The level of play is comparable," Poquette claimed. "Just look at the record of Big Ten teams against MAC teams - I think Michigan was about the only team who didn't lose to one of them. "Miami (O) beat Purdue, Western Michigan beat Michigan State, we beat State, Toledo beat Indiana - right there are some pretty big wins. And the teams in the MAC are all pretty equal. It's a wide open league." The MAC served Poquette well. It is doubtful he would have had comparable playing time and exposure at a larger school. By his own admission, Poquette's cage career got off to an inauspicious start. At East Lansing High School he was a gangly, seldom-used reserve un- off for Poquette IYl wrrurrr r Sri rl r - - 'ore than fifty percent of the, rd is starving. Another twt y percent, just plai hwy. And yet, in the face of st uon, they have hope. R that the rains will return to African Plain. Hope that t*w rice crop will be bigger Hope that someone, with anything to come to help them W Wbattle for life. Fmm ein the Peace Ch They'd like to st Ip for themselves, t isoners of fate, re just too weak to dv up. But with the.*ce Corps a -is to flicker. seen others before. Seen des you can Two thousand WAo0ftthe parched earth of SSimSeen how their ehelped reduce losses. Who are ,They're people UIIS.AD )INE Ben Poquette til his senior year. Then he came into his own, setting school records for blocked shots and rebounds. Poquette was the center on a team that was ranked sixth in the state before bowing to Saginaw High School in the regionals. Although he had im- proved immensely, he worked close to the basket and was hardly whai one could call mobile. Central was the first school to recruit him, and the only school to seriously in- terest him. "After the season I was also con- tacted by Eastern, Toledo and Michigan State," Poquette added. "Since I had grown up in East Lansingi I sort of wanted to get away from State, Plus, Brian Brpslin (an .MSU cager. also from East Lansing) told me it would not be in my best interests to go: to State." "I liked Central since they talked to me first. I thought I could play there eventually, but I didn't think I'd make their varsity team right away. Its seemed too hard for me and I didn' think I had a chance." But , Poquette made varsity and played about half the time the first year, and started atecenter for the next three years. He averaged 17 points and I2 rebounds a game last year and setsthe, school record for blocked shots. I Whetlfer or not Poquette can play ins the NBA is another question entirely. "At first it didn't seem possible for me to play in the pros," said Poquette. "But by the end of my junior year I was: averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds & game. I was playing really well and we, were winning. C "An assistant coach told me, 'Keep it, up and you could play in the pros. Yous have the size and the quickness.' Then I worked really hard over the summer because I knew I'd have to have a good} senior year to have any chance,' Poquette explained. "My coaches talked to Will Robinson, the Pistons' chief scout. He felt that I'd go in the second or third round of the draft, and he said the Pistons would consider drafting me," he said. "After that I wasn't too worried. I decided to wait and see what happened. "My dad heard on WJR that I'd been drafted. He called me, then the Pistons called me. I was shocked. After that, the phone didn't stop ringing." Poquette's main competition on the Pistons looks to be Phil Sellers, a second-year man out of Rutgers, or Al Eberhard, a three-year veteran from Missouri. Poquette feels he has a good shot at making the team, but it is by no means his only option. He is one semester short of his phys- cal education degree-- all that remains 'is student-teaching. Or, he might consider playing Euro-; peani ball for a year or two. He toured- France and Italy for three weeks last. summer on a Pro-Keds squad which in- cluded former Purdue center Tom; Scheffler. "The trip was an opportunity for all; the clubs over there to see us and to make offers," Poquette explained. "If- the Pistons decide to cut me, a couple: teams are interested in me. If it doesn't; work out this year, there's always next: year." All things considered, the future looks; fairly bright for a guy who didn't think' he could make Central Michigan's var- sity. People with commitment and skills who've assessed their lives and decided there must be more than just having a job. They looked into themselves and knew it was time for the talk to end and the work to begin. They're very special people, these people. Totally prepared to give everything they've got. And getting back even more than they give.. That's the beauty of the Peace Corps. The work is hard and the pay is lousy, and the progess comes a drop at a time. But the rewards are infinite. Join the Peace Corps and then take a good long look in the mirror. You'll never look the same to yourself again. The Peace Corps is alive and well. Call toll free: 800-424-8580. Or write: The Peace Corps, Box A, Washington, L T E L =' J ' ' ll Jt! J Ii I tl _ 41 11 ='Jt ='JI JL'=' Jfr "..ll t'=' NOON LUNCHEON SOUP AND Sandwich--50C Friday, September 30th PROF. TOM WEISSKOPF, Econ. "HOW A RADICAL ECONOMIST LOOKS AT THE U.S. ECONOMY" GUILD HOUSE-802 Monroe (CORNER OF OAKLAND) C C CJ CI C] Pr-j I FP rj _ ' J Congratulations Ann Arbor you are the NATIONAL CHAMPS MOLSON BEER) IMPORTED *t A meAL - ~C IR