The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - September 14, 1992 - Page 3
HokyHowe
Hockey legend Gordie Howe talks
about professional hockey today
John Niyo
Plain and simple, Gordie Howe
is one of the greatest athletes to play
any game anytime anywhere.
Howe's professional hockey career,
which began in Detroit in 1946 and
ended in Hartford in 1980, is
possibly the most prolific in
professional sports history.
He played 25 seasons for the Red
Wings, many as a member of the
fgmous Production Line along with
Ted Lindsay and Sid Abel. He came
* out of retirement in the mid-1970's
to play with his sons Mark and
Marty for the Houston Aeros of the
World Hockey Association. Howe
then played his final NHL season, at
age 50, in 1979-80 with the Hartford
Whalers.
In his 26 NHL seasons, Howe
played 1767 regular season games,
scored 801 goals and 1049 assists
for 1850 points and 1685 penalty
minutes. In 157 playoff games, he
scored 68 goals and 92 assists for
160 playoff points and 220 penalty
Minutes.
Howe won the Hart and the Art
Ross Trophies six times and the
Lester Patrick Award once. He was
a first team All-Star 12 times and a
second team All-Star nine times.
Gordie Howe still holds many
NHL records, among them are -
most career seasons, games, goals,
most years in playoffs (20), most All-
Star team selections (21) and most
consecutive All-Star team selections
(15). One of hockey's toughest
players, he also holds the record for
most career All-Star game penalty
minutes (25).
Howe is one of the few men to
win both the NHL's Stanley Cup and
the WHA's Avco Cup as well.
Daily Sports Writer Brett Forrest
caught up with Howe recently and
spoke about hockey past and
present.
Daily: What do you think of the
current ownership in Detroit? Are
they headed in the right direction?
Howe:. They. are much better
oh yes, definitely. They have a brand
new building and are filling the
ehouse every nightL
D: What are Mark's feelings
concerning his becoming a Red
Wing?
VOLLEYBALL
Continued from page 1
did an outstanding job blocking. We
0were unable to rally back, especially
after the close third game,"~
Giovanazzi said.
The Wolverines suffered their
first setback of the season on Friday
night when UC-Santa Barbara domi-
nated both sides of the ball for a 15-
4, 15-8, 15-4 triumph. The Lady
Gauchos, one of the top-ten teams in
H: Well, he enjoyed
Philadelphia. He enjoyed it a lot. But
when they trade you, it's a business
transaction and when you move, it's
a business transaction. From a busi-
ness standpoint, he is much better
off going there and he also gets a
chance at being with a contender.
D: What direction would you
choose, college or major junior, if
you were a teenager today?
general public?
H: Mrs. Howe thought that as
long as we had the capability to
further educate the kids, then we
should do that. We wanted to leave a
legacy. That's why we did the films.
I don't know if we will ever get
money back from that. Those were
very expensive to make. But at least
we feel good that if somebody is
watching that, they can improve
They could get rid of a lot of
fighting if they did away with the
last two guys on the bench. They do
about 80 percent of the fighting. But
I don't see how they can get rid of it
totally. Some people like it. I think it
should be broken up immediately,
though.
All you have to do is put stiffer
fines and rules in there and I think
that would eliminate it. I don't think
people pay to see 20 minutes of
nothing. Fighting takes up a heck of
a lot of hockey now - needless
fighting, stupid fighting. I think
when the whistle blows, the players
should stop.
D: Why did you come out of
retirement to play for Houston of the
WHA?
H: To play with the kids. We
were champions too. I still had
hockey in me. Never die when the
music is still in you. I always wanted
to play with the boys and I had an
opportunity to do that. It was great.
It was the best time of my life.
D : How difficult was it,
physically, for you to play in the
NHL at age 50 in 1980?
H : Not that difficult. The
traveling was easier. Our closest
rival in Houston was 1500 miles.
Talk about travel, we were all over
the place. Every time we took off, it
was three and a half hour flight.
D: How did you find travel in the
40's and 50's when teams had to
ride trains to get from game to
game?
H: That was good, that was
totally great. It brought the team
together. You were all in one car.
Our conversation was all hockey.
We played cards together. We ate
together. We had our own sleeping
cars. It really brought the team to-
gether.
D: What is your opinion of Eric
Lindros?
H: If you meet him, he's a great
kid. I think he's very marketable. If
you've been around him, he's like a-
magnet. I think he'll be great for the
NHL.
Namesnik's medal
feels good as gold
How I Spent My Summer Vacation, by Eric Namesnik.
It would be considerably more interesting than something any grade-
schooler could come up with, at least in content. He certainly has sone
stories to tell.
A whirlwind summer came to an official close last week for Michigan
swimmer Eric Namesnik as he went back to class and went back to being
a college student again.
Last year at this time, Namesnik was just beginning training for the
most important race of his life, one that required him to put the textbooks
on the shelves for a year.
He took a redshirt season and began concentrating solely on swimming
- to the point where more than half of his waking hours were devoted to
one goal: The Olympics. He put all his eggs in one basket, so to speak,
but came away with no regrets in the end.
"There was a lot of incentive not to do it," said Namesnik, who is the
American record holder in the 400-meter individual medley. "Nothing
was for sure. I had no guarantees."
None, that is, until he had actually made the U.S. team, earning a spot
by finishing first at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis on March 2.
"That was a big load off my back," he said. "Up until that point I had
some mixed feelings. I thought maybe I could just take one semester off,
instead of two. But it's a once in a lifetime chance and you don't want to
take any chances. And anyway, once you've decided ..."
Once you've decided, you just bear down. Swimmers toil year-round-
clinging to that mentality, and Eric Namesnik is no different. He bore
See NIYO, Page 6
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Former Detroit Red Wing great Gordie Howe skates along side the
Philadelphia Flyers' Eric Lindros at a hockey camp this summer.
H: I never even played junior -
and I definitely didn't play college. I
was professional when I was 17, I
was still in high school. I would do
the same thing. That's why I believe
so much in the fact that you should
give yourself a choice and a chance.
You should give your books 100%
when you are on them and give your
sports 100% when you are playing
them. Then there will come a time
when you can make a proper deci-
sion as to which path to take. Murray
(Howe's third son) did that and he is
now a doctor. The last year he
played junior hockey was with
Wayne Gretzky in Toronto.
D : What makes you want to
conduct hockey camps for young
players, make instructional video
tapes and be so accessible to the
themselves.
D: With the so-called new age of
the NHL upon us, what direction do
you thinknshould be taken with
issues such as taking fighting out of
the game and procuring a network
television contract in the United
States?
H: I wish I knew, I'd be a genius.
In order to get accessibility into the
networks, you pretty much have to
be a national sport. It is not covered
in the southern part of the U.S.
They're putting a team in Tampa.
I don't know how they pick
teams. Maybe that's what they're
trying to do - build a national sport
of it by covering all geographical
areas. I don't know how they are
going to get national coverage in the
U.S.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan swimmer Eric Namesnik won a silver medal in the 400-meter
individual medley at the 1992 Summer Olympics.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SOFTBALL TRYOUTS
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 3:00 pm
Varsity Softball Diamond
For more information, please call
Carol Hutchins at 747-1269
the nation, hammered 34 kills of 80
attempts for a .250 hitting efficiency.
In comparison, the Wolverines put
down only 25 kills out of 103
attempts, while erring on 27. The
result was a -.019 hitting efficiency.
Although Michigan came up
short Friday night and Saturday, the
tournament began well Friday after-,
noon when the Wolverines topped
San Diego, 15-11, 15-8, 10-15, 15-9.
Horrigan and Collias combined for
41 kills in leading the Wolverines to
victory.
Giovanazzi said he was very
pleased with his team's play.
"This is a very good win for us,
beating a West Coast team on their
coast," he said. "I feel good about
the match we played."
Michigan will continue its pre-
conference action this weekend
when it travels to Lexington, Ky.,
for the four-team Conference
Challenge Tournament hosted by
Kentucky.
m Eu
'I
Team W L T Pct.
Ohio State 2 0 0 1.000
Illinois 2 0 0 1.000
Indiana 1 0 0 1.000
Purdue 1 0 0 1.000
Michigan 0 0 1 .500
Iowa 1 2 0 .333
Minnesota 0 1 0 .000
Wisconsin 0 1 0 .000
Michigan State 0 1 0 .000
Northwestern 0 2 0 .000
SELECTED MATCHUPS NEXT WEEK
Oklahoma State at Michgan
Notre Dame at Michigan State
Illinois at Houston
Ohio State at Syracuse
Indiana at Kentucky
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R.O.C.K.
student group
WEDNESDAY
9:00 pm
fun, food
provocative discussions
stimulating community
1236 Washtenaw
Campus Chapel
Ct. 663-7990/668-7421
you are cordialL invited to attend
the 1992 University of Mic an !2 wu'Wafenberg Lecture,
'Southr Africa in Transition: Past and Present Influences
byy
'Te Honorabe .e4en Suzman
Former South African Parfnamentarian
Weineday, September 16, 1992
8:00 p.m.
Lec tun 9(aiZ Main~f or
UckfiamBuifaing
MTiis ctur is open to the pubc. No admission wiibe cfarged)
Throughout Helen Suzman's thirty-six years in Parliament she worked consistently, and often alone. to
instigate change in South Africa's apartheid system. Despite the mockery and often outright hostility of
her peers. she persevered in her attacks on all the discriminatory legislation that was passed. She
concentrated on such issues as detentons without trial, human rights and the prison system. Even
when unable to effect change. Sunman was often able to force the government to make public details or
its application and enforcement of laws.
(one block south of CCRB at Geddes and Washtenaw)
(5; dftcva)41
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