Sports

Page 12

Thursday, July 8, 1982

The Michigan Daily

Lozier trades 'M' cage uniform
for courtside seat and microphone

By RON POLLACK
For former Michigan cager Mark
Lozier, the transition from Wolverine
basketball player to ex-Wolverine
basketball player has been an easy one.
You see, he never actually left the
court. He just moved to a new spot on
the floor.
Whereas Lozier used to spend his
time on the court, he is now on the
sidelines doing color commentary for
ON TV during Michigan, Michigan State
and Detroit college basketball contests.'
IN BETWEEN his days as
Michigan's co-captain during the 1979-
80 season and last year when he worked
for ON TV, he announced Saline High
School basketball and football games.
"TV is a new challenge that lets me
direct my energy toward athletics
without beinga player or coach, which I
don't want to be," said Lozier. "It's
nice to be a player, but after awhile you
have to hang it up. My father coached
high school basketball, football,
baseball and track, so I grew up with a

coach and I decided I didn't want to do
it.
"Athletics were nice but now its
nothing but a nice memory. Athletics
gave me an advantage in life since
you're being tested daily, be it practice
or a game, and that can't help but help
yogi in business."
LOZIER ADDS that having played
basketball helps him announce the
sport, although he expreses reservations
about his abilities in his latest en-
deavor.
"I think that having played basket-
ball gives me insights that others might
not have," he said. "But announcing is
tough. It's certainly a lot harder than I
thought it would be. Personally, I think
I'm a terrible announcer. It's difficult
to say something spontaneously and
have it sound intelligent. But I do think
I've gotten better since my first broad-
cast.
"It's self-satisfying being able to talk
and sound intelligent, and while I don't
think I announce real well right now, I

think I'm improving and before I'm
done, or get fired, I think I'll be able to
do it well.
"YOU HAVE TO prepare and do your
homework. So it was easy to do
Michigan since I know most of them,

personally."
But wasn't it tough just watching and
not playing? Didn't he ever feel like
getting back out on the court?
"Sure, a couple of times,' he said.
"You can't really separate yourself
from it. That's why I'm playing here
(the Sandy Sanders Summer Basketball
League at Pioneer High School on Mon-
days and Fridays). I'm trying to get
away from it since I don't want to be a
former athlete struggling to keep up
with the young guys. But I still play
because it's enjoyable, although I don't
play with a passion like I used to."
As for his long term goals, Lozier
says that basketball plays no part - be
it participating or announcing, which
he will nonetheless do next year. He
just finished graduate school in
business and has a job with a Dearborn
corporation, Key International. At Key
International, Lozier says he is a
"glorified office boy being trained to be
a general manager. But that's quite a
few years down the line."

Lozier
... former 'M' co-captain

Danielson: Some Lions'
players use drugs on
recreational basis

DETROIT (AP)- Quarterback Gary
Danielson of the Detroit Lions says that up to 15
percent of National Football League players use
illegal drugs including cocaine, but that it's no
worse than drug use in society at large.
"I'm certain some of the players on our team
use drugs on a recreational basis," Danielson
was quoted as saying in yesterday's editions of
The Detroit News. "But I want to stress I don't
believe we have a serious problem.
"I NEVER HAVE seen one of our players use
cocaine before a game, and I would hope no one
does. When I say four or five guys use drugs
recreationally, I compare that to society's use."
Danielson estimated that 10 percent to 15 percent
of the players in the NFL use drugs.
"Frankly, I'm kind of surprised at all the
notoriety recent revelations have received," he
said. "It's an everyday occurrence in other cir-
cles."
Former NFL defensive lineman Don Reese
was quoted last month in Sports Illustrated as
saying that drug use was wide-spread in
professional football.
"THERE ARE players using drugs, but not to
the extent Reese says," Danielson said. "As a
result, the public has a distorted view."
"If there is a problem and a player knows
about it, I would expect him to come to us about
it," said Lions General Manager Russ Thomas.
"I'm not aware of any problem we may have."
Danielson said he has not seen players using
cocaine before a game, but he said he has seen
some taking pills. While he did not know if the
pills were amphetamines, Danielson said
players from the 1960s told him of being handed
pills by team personnel without being told their
use.

"There were guys who thought an am-
phetamine is a pill you take to play football, a
football pill," he said. "They didn't know what
the pills were; the trainers just gave them to
them."
Howe to stay
in Hartford
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)- Gordie Howe has
been named special assistant to the managing
general partner of the Hartford Whalers, the
National Hockey League team announced
yesterday.
The announcement appears to crush a rumor
that Howe had been interested in a job with the
Detroit Red Wings, his former team which is now
under new ownership.
Howe, 54, will work directly with Managing
General Partner Howard Baldwin, attending
NFL board of governors meetings, representing
the club on some committees and handling
special public relations assignments.
Baldwin said Howe, who recently complained
of dissatisfaction with his job as director of
player development and of being poorly treated
by Whalers' brass, also will be given special
scouting assignments. Howe and the team
agreed to the new duties over the weekend,
Baldwin said.

Not for men only
Twenty-three-year-old Toni Onichuk is a rarity. The 110-
pound secretary referees minor and commercial league
hockey and hopes one day to break into the NHL.