10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 8, 1998

Fighting Illini hope the future is Rocky


By Sharat Raju
Daily Sports Editor
The names read like a Chicago Bears
Hall of Fame honor roll call: Dick
Butkus, George Halas, Red Grange.
Before donning the blue and orange
for the Monsters of the Midway and
before they galloped into the annals of
professional football history, they
donned the blue and orange for another
team, further south of Chicago.
In Champaign-Urbana, amidst the
corn and wheat fields, some of college
and professional football's greatest ath-
letes began their careers at Illinois.
In their somewhat storied tradition,
the Fighting Illini have won four nation-
al titles, the last one acquired in 1927..
The Illini also are among one of the
founding members of the Big Ten, first
competing in football in 1889.
Throughout the next century, the Illini
had marked success, including a Big Ten
championship in 1983 and a Rose Bowl
berth in that season.
But since 1994- its last winning sea-
son at 7-4 - Illinois football has gone
from bad to terrible.
How terrible? Well, before the 1995

season, The Illinois offense played
against the Illinois defense in a presea-
son scrimmage game. For each first
down, the offense would get points. For
each time the defense forced the offense
to go three-and-out, they were rewarded
points.
The Illini defense destroyed the
offense by more than 30 points, not
because the defense with All-Americans
Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice was that
good, but because the offense was just
that bad.
The whole team was bad. After beat-
ing Indiana 46-43 in Oct. of 1996, the
Illini lost their final six games.
Then they went 0 for 1997. Pretty bad
start to coach Ron Turner's reign.
This season did not look promising,
since Illinois' only offensive threat, run-
ning back Robert Holcombe, graduated
and went to the pros.
But - lo and behold! - the Illini
won a game. In fact, they've won two in
one season!
On Sept. 15, the Illini defeated Middle
Tennessee State, a Division I-AA team.
The Memorial Stadium crowd stormed
the field in celebration - no joke. The

string of 18-straight losses was snapped.
But naysayers belittled the accom-
plishment, saying "They're not a
Division I-A team" or "Middle
Tennessee State is a high school" or
"Where's Tennessee?"
So, to stick it to all the critics, the Illini
went out and beat a 'real' team.
Northwestern became the most recent
prey of the Orange Crush, falling 13-10
last week -- Illinois' first road victory
since 1995.
"We tried to find ways to get their
confidence up," Turner said. "Nothing
does it better than getting some wins. We
got a couple, but we've got to find a way
to get some more."
Before everyone starts jumping on the
Illinois bandwagon, everything has to be
put into perspective. The Illini play No. 1
Ohio State on Saturday. That puts things
in plenty of perspective.
But if this is the start of a resurgence
or rebirth of Illinois football, returning to
the upper division of the Big Ten rests on
one person's shoulders for the next few
years.
Running back Rocky Harvey, a fresh-
man out of Chicago, carried the Illini to

victory with two touchdowns on 40 car-
ries -- and that was only part of his day.
"I don't know if I'd heard of a back
carrying the ball 40 times in one game,
catching a touchdown, rushing for a
touchdown, getting about 70-80 yards in
punt returns and intercepting a pass - in
the same game," Ohio State coach John
Cooper said.
Harvey had made waves in the state of
Illinois before even stepping on the
Illinois campus. He's the all-time state
rusher with over 4,000 yards, breaking
the old record by 1,700 yards. Harvey
rushed for 2,500 yards and 40 touch-
downs in 15 games in his senior season,
averaging 15 yards per carry.
Now, he's the driving force for a
young Illinois team.
"He's pretty quiet," Turner said. "But
he's very intense and intelligent. He
takes everything in. He has the great
football instincts and intangibles you
look for in a running back.
Could Harvey be the next great, like
Grange or Butkus was? It might be a lit-
tle premature to think in those terms.
But Harvey and Turner have brought
life back to a proud tradition that has

The

0

New Zamboni to join
- li' l_ _ineup at Yost

By Chris Duprey
Daily Sports Writer
There will be a new presence
around Yost Ice Arena this season. It
will see plenty of ice time this season,
but won't be in action until next
weekend's two-game series with
Niagara.
It's not a new defenseman.
Michigan doesn't need any more than
the nine that it has on the roster
already.
It's not another freshman goal-
tender, either. That would make three,
plus senior Greg Daddario, which
would make for quite a crowded net.
The Wolverines have secured the
purchase of a new Zamboni machine
- an investment that's long due.
The new machine is scheduled to
be shipped today by truck from the
Zamboni company's headquarters in
Pasadena, Calif., of all places. It
won't arrive until sometime next
week, missing the regular season
home opener against Lake Superior.
The two current machines will have
to handle the workload until then.
And it couldn't be coming at a
better time. Today, one of the old
Zambonis died a somewhat painful
death, breaking down while cleaning
the ice before Michigan practice.
The weight of the machine left
cracks in the ice while it stayed in one
spot too long, so the Wolverines were

forced to inconveniently skate around
cones until the ice recovered.
"This (previous) Zamboni is too
old to be doing 15 cuts a day, seven
days a week," said Craig Wotta, head
Zamboni keeper and building coordi-
nator at Yost. "If the only resurfaces it
had to do were for Michigan practice,
it would be fine."
Both of the aging, veteran
Zambonis will be used part-time in
the future, to preserve their lifespan.
"At Joe Louis Arena, where the
Red Wings are the only client, it's
going to last a good long time," Wotta
said. "We have groups on the ice from
6 a.m. to 2 a.m. every hour. It's more
like 'How many hours' than 'How
many years'."
While the new Zamboni's paint
job will make it indistinguishable
from the others, fans will be able to
pick out the newcomer because this
one works.
The third period of last season's
Feb. 13 home victory over Miami was
delayed because a Zamboni had
stalled out on the ice during the sec-
ond intermission.
At first, Yost staff tried to hook it
up to the other Zamboni for a tow, but
they were unable to pull the broken
machine off of the playing surface.
Finally, the busted Zamboni was
chained up and pulled off the ice by a
number of helpers, while fans chant-
ed motivational slogans.
For a while, it looked like the
Zamboni would never make it to the
concourse.
"We can all look back and have a
laugh out of it, because no harm was
done. The game ended," Wotta said.
"But certainly, we don't want a repeat
of that."
So, by next Friday, a new Zamboni
will be in town, delighting fans as
much as Yost hot chocolate, out-of-
town score reports where Michigan
State is losing, and Score-O.

Sharat Raju
Like u- or not, college
thletes serve as heroes
"Who on Earth do you think you are?A superstar? Well right you are."
- John Lennon, "Instant Karma!"
waited near the hockey office after one of the many Michigan home games last
season, waited for the postgame interview to begin. Out from the lockerroom g
and up the stairs came Marty Turco, still wearing his huge goaltender pants -
the only hint at what position he plays. The T-shirt he wore underneath his pads
was sopping wet with sweat. His socks were sticking to his feet, now without the
skates.
He didn't look like the NCAA all-time victories leader. He didn't look like the
brick wall that won a national championship, en route to a second one. He just
looked like any player returning from the game. He's not that much taller or bigger
than me, I remember thinking at the time.
He didn't look like a hero.
Before Turco went into the hockey office to face the media, a little boy, not
much older than eight-years old, approached the senior goalie with a game progt
and a pen.
Turco stopped in his tracks and turned to the little Michigan fan. The netminder
knelt down alongside the kid, took the pen and began writing his name. Turco
talked to the boy, asking his name, where he was from, what grade he was in, if he
played hockey.
The boy appeared happy but scared - that rare combination of conflicting
emotions that you feel when meeting a superstar or your hero.
I remember thinking, Wow, this guy is a hero to this kid and to probably count-
less aspiring little hockey stars. But he's just another athlete to me, another face I
have to know and another student with whom I go to school. In college sports, we
tend to forget that these students are not just athletes, but they also serve a social.
role. They are heroes to so many little kids in Michigan and across the country.
There are probably hundreds of Pop Warner football players who weren't too
athletic and were stuck at defensive back since nobody passes at that level. How
many of those kids do you think stood up and cheered every time they saw Charles
Woodson last year?
Or how many overweight kids wished to one day be breaking backboards like
Robert Traylor? Probably thousands. At college, without having a younger genera-
tion to interact with, we just don't realize how much kids look up to college athletes.
Televised coverage of collegiate athletics is expanding from just football and
basketball to hockey, volleyball, baseball and others causing increased scrutiny o
18- to 23-year-olds to become role models.
For a non-Michigan native, it is somewhat hard to relate to the admiration of
collegiate athletes. I never grew up near a major college that was good at anything
(except Notre Dame, but to hell with that).
My friends and I would cheer for professional sports stars, rooting for Ryne
Sandberg, Andre Dawson and Michael Jordan. We were fortunate enough that our
heroes never got in trouble with the law, never were implicated in sexual impropri-
ety or drug abuse (except for that slap on the wrist Jordan got for gambling on
golf).
But growing up now ... that's hard to say. There is a distinct leadership defi-
ciency in this country. It seems like it is harder to find role models who can handle
the pressure of being a role model.
In an old commercial, Charles Barkley said, "I get paid to play basketball. It'
not raising your kids." True, he isn't physically raising anyone except his own chil-
dren. But does he have a responsibility for being in a high-profile position to main-
tain a facade of decency?
I think so. Short-sighted athletes might not realize that fans watch everything
their hero does. The same thing goes for college sports.
The power of money in professional sports sometimes alienates athletes from
children, from the ordinary working class. Perhaps the temptations that athletes
face lure them away from being the saintly, hard-working athlete. I don't make mil-
lions of dollars for striking out 100 times in a season, so I can't say.
Well, maybe it's now time for collegiate athletes to fill in that void. College aW
letes are still considered 'amateurs,' regardless of what suburban utility vehicle
Traylor was seen driving on campus.
In this time, the 1990s, when people lament the social breakdown or the loss of
'family values' or whatever, heroes outside the family structure are needed. Ideally,
heroes should come from parents or grandparents or relatives. But some are not for-
tunate enough to have such roles models in their immediate vicinity, for whatever
reason.
Maybe the increased scrutiny on college athletes will give kids an opportunity
to see a different type of role model, one who hasn't been 'spoiled' by money or
hype.People might need college athletes to serve that purpose, but are college ath-
letes prepared to do so? Unfair as it may seem, they will have to.
- Sharat Raju can be reached at sraju@umich.e

WE'RE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER WITH
UNEQUALED OPPORTUNITIES FOR EMPLOYMENT.


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