Sports Monday Trivia
Name the last American
League switch hitter to
win the Most Valuable
Player award.
(For the answer,
turn to the bottom of page 5)

Inside Sports Monday
Michigan Sports Calendar 2
College Football Roundup 2
Field Hockey 2
Rich Eisen 3
Pro Football Roundup 3
More 'M' Football Coverage 4,5
Cross Country 6
Griddes 6

r

Irish,

Ismail

reign

over

Michigan

Blue's uninspired
play numbs fans
"The Game."
Might as well have been called "The Game That
Was Hyped Too Much And Bored Me To Death."
And my guess is that many of the other 105,911
people inside Michigan Stadium felt the same way,
except I was dry and warm in the press box.
But there was no reason the game should have had
such a numbing effect. It was the Wolverine season
opener, and against Notre Dame, the top team in the
country.
The Marching Band had a new director and they
looked better than they have in some time.
p Steve The halftime show allowed the
national championship basketball
Bonder team to relive that "One Shining
Moment."
But during the game, the
Wolverines took the fans out of the
game and effectively relinquished
their home-field advantage.
They accomplished that feat by
not being able to move the football
until their final couple of drives
when a redshirt frosh quarterback
Blond r'snamed Elvis did what is eschewed in
Bo Schembechler territory: passing.
The key to the game was Michigan's running, or
rather lack thereof. Sure they handed the ball off and
pitched it enough times, but they didn't gain many
yards doing it. .,
Schembechler is a disciple of the legendary Woody
Hayes, which means he believes in running the
football until the other team drops dead from
exhaustion.
That style of football can and does work, and
Schembechler has certainly proved that with his 224
career victories.
And this season, Michigan looked as if it would
pick up where it left off last season, when the
Wolverines were one of the top teams in the nation.
A veteran backfield sporting perhaps the top
running back trio in the country was poised and ready
to rack up yards.
The offensive line was one of the largest ever at
Michigan (averaging 293 pounds) and had three
returning starters with one other starter who played
significantly last year.
But for all the size and bulk, the offensive line had
their problems clearing holes for the backs to run
through. A running back can only do so much when
he's got four or five defenders on top of him.
Notre Dame Lou Holtz put it best after the game
when he said: "I came out and saw puddles on the field
and thought we're giving forty-six pounds away for
each guy. But just because they're big doesn't mean
we're going to give up a lot of yards."
See NUMB, page 5

Irish
stew Bo's
Blue,
24=19
by Adam Schrager
Daily Football Writer
In the grander scheme of things,
11 and 12 seconds are considered to
be insignificant.
But that's all it took for Notre
Dame sophomore Raghib "The
Rocket" Ismail to translate his two
kickoff returns of 88 and 91 yards
respectively into points as the top-
ranked Fighting Irish beat No. 2
Michigan, 24-19, Saturday at
Michigan Stadium.
Credit the fact that Ismail needed
one more second on the second
return than on the first because he
had three extra yards and two more
tackles to break. In addition to
becoming the first player to run a
kickoff back for a touchdown against
the Wolverines since 1957 when
Minnesota's Ron Engel took one 95
yards, Ismail also became the first
player ever to run two back against
the Wolverines.
"(Ismail) might be the best that
I've ever seen," said Michigan
special teams and head coach Bo
Schembechler. "He's faster than the
speed of sound. We couldn't tackle
him."
Following a 7-6 Notre Dame
halftime lead, Ismail caught the
second half kickoff, cut up the
middle to the left sidelines and
outran Wolverine defensive back
Corwin Brown for the first score.
After an Irish field goal, the
Wolverines stormed to within five
points with a five-yard touchdown
pass from redshirt frosh Elvis Grbac
to senior co-captain Derrick Walker,.
Just as the Wolverines seemed to
gain momentum, the Wilkes-Barre,
Pa. native, who led the NCAA last
year in kickoff returns, struck again.
Michigan kicker Gulam Khan
blasted one to Ismail that he caught
on the right hashmark, cut up the
middle, and broke two tackles as
See IRISH, page 4

DAVID LULINER/Dain

Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice (9) hands off to Raghib "Rocket" Ismail (25) on a reverse play.

'Rocket'
by Adam Schrager
Daily Football Writer

Ismail gives, Irish.boost

Raghib Ismail is quoted in the Notre Dame media guide as
saying that the one thing about himself he would change is
"not to procrastinate so much."
With 4.28 speed in the 40-meter dash, catching up
shouldn't be too difficult for the Fighting Irish sophomore
flanker nicknamed "Rocket." If there's any question about this,
ask the Michigan special teams coach whose personnel was
burned for two kickoff return touchdowns.
"We did not anticipate returns like that," said Michigan head
coach Bo Schembechler, who accepted responsibility for the
Wolverine special teams. "We thought we had pretty good
kickoff coverage coming into the game.
"(Ismail) might be the best that I've ever seen. He's faster
than the speed of sound. We couldn't tackle him."

That's not to say that a couple of Wolverines didn't have
opportunities. Ismail leapt over a blocked Michigan defender
before outrunning Corwin Brown (4.5 in the 40) in his first
touchdown scamper of 88 yards. Outside linebacker Brian
Townsend and starting cornerback Lance Dottin had shots at
Ismail on his second return of the day, a 91-yard scamper, and
missed.
"(Our kickoff team) usually does well if I make one person
miss," said Ismail, who has brothers nicknamed "The Missile"
and "The Bomb." "The entire return team is confident that if
the ball is kicked to us, good things will happen."
For the Wilkes-Barre, Pa. native, good things have been
happening since he came to Notre Dame 13 games ago. As
impressive as his feat Saturday was, this is not the first time
See ISMAIL, page 4


by Eric Lemont
Daily Sports Writer
You would never find Bill
Freehan sticking a tack on the
teacher's chair. Or swindling a
smaller kid named Calvin out of his
lunch money. Or running around
the bases backward after hitting a
monstrous Little League home run.
In fact, Freehan's 45-year-old
brother, Bob, couldn't come up
with one light-hearted anecdote
about his older brother. Neither
could his secretary of 11 years or
his business partner of 16 years.
Is this guy human?
"He (Bill) wasn't a happy-go-
lucky, carefree, I-don't-give-a-darn
type of individual. He was always
concerned about what he was
doing," Bob Freehan explained.
"He always took things, I guess
other people might classify it as
seriously, but he was just trying to
do as well as he could as kind of a
demonstration to himself."
But maybe this 6-foot-2 inch,
215-pound rock of stability is juste
what the Michigan baseball
program needs right now.
When Freehan used to come to
bat in Little League, the opposing
outfielders performed what became
known as the "Freehan Shift." A
maneuver designed to counteract his
ability to pull long home runs.
After the investigation of and
subsequent resignation of former
Wolverine head coach Bud
Middaugh enncerning illeeal

THE
Michigan's new baseball coach
looks to put his team on track

The Irish denied Freehan this
opportunity, so he came to
Michigan where he was permitted to
play both sports. After batting .446
as a catcher his sophomore year, the
Detroit Tigers tendered an offer the
young Freehap couldn't refuse.
"I went into (baseball coach)
Don Lund and (football coach)
Bump Elliot's office and said,
'What am I going to do? They're
talking the kind of money in
excess, in substantial excess, of
$100,000.' What are you going to
do when you're 19?"
Hmmm.
As hard as it is to overlook the
value of a liberal arts education....
you get the idea.
He joined the Tigers.
Freehan played 15 seasons as a
catcher for the Detroit Tigers. In
that time he hit 200 home runs,
earned 11 All-Star Game
appearances and five consecutive
gold gloves ('65-'69). He is best
remembered, however, for catching
the last out of the Tigers World
Series victory in 1968.
Leaving the Tigers in 1976,
Freehan has kept up with baseball
by doing commentary for PASS and
helping instruct Tiger catchers in
spring training.
"I really enjoyed that (spring
training) more than I did the TV
work and I think that had an impact
on me to take this job because I
enjoyed it so much," he said.
Those around him have noticed a

Blue Spikers move to

5-2

after weekend split

by Jamie Burgess
Daily Sports Writer
The women's volleyball team
went up against Mountaineers,
Falcons and fatigue last weekend,
beating Bowling Green but
dropping their match against West
Virginia. Both matches were played
at Bowling Green.
Michigan survived near-defeat
and the rigors of a three-hour
match, defeating Bowling Green 12-
15, 9-15, 15-13, 15-11, 15-12. But
the Wolverines couldn't outlast
West Virginia, who took advantage
of Michigan's seven blocking errors

to win 13-15, 15-8, 15-9, 16-14.
Despite the scores, West
Virginia had more than talent to
their advantage.
"I made a poor decision to not
(have the team) stay overnight,"
admitted head coach Joyce Davis.
"We came back Friday night about
12 p.m. We left the next day at
eight. Some of the kids told me
they didn't get to sleep until three
or four."
Frosh Hayley Lorenzen, her
voice hoarse, said that fatigue was a
factor. "I didn't play against
See SPLIT, page 6

University and it bothers me to
knnw that the first investijzation

Birmingham, to be around baseball
again.