Sports
Saturday, July 31, 1982
Page 12.
The Michigan Daily
Schenibechler blasts USFL
By BOB WOJNOWSKI
Special to the Daily
with wirereports
CHICAGO- Michigan head coach Bo
Schembechler used the dais at the an-
nual Big Ten Football luncheon yester-
day to blast the new United States
Football League and its possible inter-
ference with college athletics.
Schembechler, the dean of Big Ten
coaches, was commissioned by his
fellow coaches to make a statement
detailing the Big Ten's policy on a
variety of current issues. And the
Wolverine's head man pounced on what
is quickly becoming a major issue-the
drafting tactics of the USFL.
"We (Big Ten coaches) have passed a
resolution that says we will not
cooperate in any way with a
professional League that drafts in
December and intends to withdraw our
players from their classes on the first of
February," said Schembechler.
The USFL is planning on instituting a
December draft, a fact that has
angered Schembechler, but yesterday
marked the first official action taken by
the Big Ten.
"We do not think it is necessary for.
them (the USFL officials) to do that,
and if they don't change we will not
permit them to come on our campus to
view our practices, to study our films,
or to meet with our coaches, until they
have some program that is going to
guarantee us that agents will not con-
stantly pursue our players prior to the
completion of their eligibility," said
Schembechler.
"We are not opposed in any way,
shape, or form, to professional foot-
ball," he continued. "I think it is a great
opportunity but only if I go into the
game with a degree in my back pocket.
In the Big Ten conference we are still
academics first and football second."
In response to Schembechler's tirade,
USFL officials admitted they may
request that players leave school early,
though they will urge them to return to
school to get their degrees.
The head of the USFL said yesterday
that college players drafted by the
USFL before they finish college should
return to school to earn their degrees.
"There's no question that we realize
the importance of an athlete going back
to school to finish his degree," USFL
Commissioner Chet Simmons said in a
telephone interview.
Simmons said the league had not set a
definite date for a draft but
acknowledged that because of the
league's season, March through July a
winter draft was likely.
"It's obvious that if your going to
play in March we're going to need some
lead time," he said. "It would be
physically impossible for us to draft the
way the NFL National Football League
does."
The NFL holds its collegiate draft in
May.
Simmons admitted that the USFL
might ask players to leave college for a
time, but that he plans to encourage
them to return to school and will
provide a yet-to-be specified incentive
for them to do so.
"There are a number of kids who
have taken a semester off and then
gone back and finished their
education," Simmons said. "As far
as I'm concerned, thats going to be a
priority of the USFL."
Schembechlers speech was the
highlight of the eleventh annual lun-
cheon, which fetured all ten Big Ten
coaches and two players from each
school. Tailback Lawrence Ricks and
linebacker Robert Thompson represen-
ted Michigan.
Lindsey Nelson, CBS sportscaster,
served as master of ceremonies for the
luncheon, which for the first time was
held at the Mariott Hotel to accomodate
Schembechler
... academics are first
the crowd of better than fifteen hun-
dred.
Also present was Indiana track star
Jim Spivey, who received his trophy for
Big Ten athlete of the year. Spivey beat
out former Michigan running back But-
ch Woolfolk by one vote to capture the
award.
Basketball elimination
angers USF fans
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)- The
decision to abolish men's basketball at
the University of San Francisco was not
popular with fans and alumni who have
followed the Dons' winning program for
decades.
"It's sleazy," said Kevin Mc-
Donough, a lawyer who attended the
university, then graduated from its law
school.
"IF YOUR kid gets arrested, you
don't disown him. You try to straighten
him out. This -is too bad. Forty years of
a great tradition down the drain."
The decision was announced Thur-
sday by university President Rev. John
LoSchiavo. He said the school, with its
proud 58-year history in basketball
highlighted by NCAA championships in
1955 and 1956, abolished the sport
because cheating by some alumni and
coaches has damaged the university's
integrity and reputation.
LoSchiavo said his decision was
based on a series of violations over
several years, but it appeared to be
triggered by the Quintin Dailey case
this year. Dailey's problems began
when he was charged with, and later
pleaded guilty to, assaulting a student
nurse and ended with revelations that
the All-American guard received as
much as $5,000 in under-the-table
payments from an alumnus.
LOSCHIAVO noted that other univer-
sities have experienced similar
problems, "some of them even worse"
than the Dons' admitted violations of
NCAA rules.
'If these problems are as pervasive as
they appear to be," LoSchiavo said,
"The consequences can be more im-
portant than their impact on any single
institution.
LoSchiavo said the university would
meet its scholarship commitments to
its athletes and help others try to tran-
sfer.
San Francisco attorney Art Zief, a
school booster who attended
LoSchiavo's news conference, was in-
censed by the decision.
"I THINK IT'S a travesty," he said,
"because the president didn't have the
guts to stand up and take the heat.
Anyone knows what goes on at these
universities. I don't condone it,
although I think it's wonderful for an
alumnus to give a kid a job, but that's
not worth closing down the program."
Incoming freshman Renaldo Thomas
of Gary, Ind., was bitter about the
decision because the school recruited
him, then left him "out in the cold."
Thomas blamed Dailey's "grudge"
against Coach Pete Barry for the even-
ts that led to the program's downfall."
"I hold it against Dailey," Thomas
said. "It wasn't a team, it was in-
dividuals. It was Quintin Dailey. He
didn't have a grudge against the school,
it was against Pete Barry."
Barry still is employed by the univer-
sity but has no team to coach.
Pumping Iron --
Mike Cohen of Savannah Georgia strains to lift 175 pounds in the clean and
jerk competition at the National Sports Festival in Indianapolis. Cohen set a
meet record with a total of 285 pounds lifted.