'SDA JANUARY 14, .hI 2 T rTE MICH UAN DAILY
Natators
To Face Grand Rapids In ]Wt
Mann' Expets
Little Trouble
In Engagement
Wolverines To Even Test
By Allowing Handicaps;
State AAU Meet Next
By BUD HENDEL
Coach Matt Mann's titleholding
Michigan swimming team will dis-
play its wares for the first time in
1942 when it meets the Grand Rapids
Y.M.C.A. at Grand aRpids today.
The Wolverines expect little trou-
ble from the Grand Rapids mermen,
aid the bill tonight will take the
form of a warm-up for the all im-
portant first Big Ten clash of the
season against Ohio State's Buckeyes
here on Jan. 24. In fact most of the
races will be of the handicap nature
in order to give the llome team a
more even chance against the Maize
and Blue water powerhouse.
Also listed in the breather classifi-
cation for the Michigan natators is
the scheduled State AAU Meet in
East Lansing Saturday night. Then
next week Mann and his lads will
meet the invading 'Scarlet horde from
Columbus.
This Michigan-Ohio State tussle
will mark the first time in two years
that the schools have met each other
ip a dual meet, and fireworks aplenty
/are in store for the spectators in the
Sports Building Pool one week from
this Saturday night.. Both teams are
perennial powers in the natatorial
world, and the Buckeyes loom as the
biggest threat to the Wolverines re-
peating as Conference champs.
The Michigan schedule received a
jolt yesterday when it was learned
that the Wayne University dual meet
billed for Jan. 21 was cancelled at
the request of 'the Detroit school.
The encounter with the Tartars was
supposed to be the first major trial
for the championship Mann-men,
but the meet between the two schools
scheduled for March 18 is still on th
books.
Tonight's engagement with Grand
Rapids will be the third for the Wol-
verines this season.
Hogan Defeats Thomson
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13.-(0-Ben
Hogan of Hiershey, Pa., birdied the
enghteenth hole to defeat Jimmy
Thomson of Del Monte, Calif., by one
stroke in the play-off today for the
$10;000 Los Angeles Open Golf Cham-
pionship.
FAST
By ART HIL4.
4tu h f Not See /1ction.
As For Hockey. .
WHAT'S the fastest, toughest,
roughest game in existence? And,
at the same time, the best spectator
sport ever devised by man? 1
Well, there may be a divergence of
opinion on this question. For sheer.
joughness, a certain few will cer-
tainly hold out a claim for the an-
cient Indian game of lacrosse. Many
of those who have traveled in Latin
countries or the Orient maintain
that there is no faster game than
jai-alai. Football will draw plenty
of votes on the spectator appeal
score.
But for a combination of every-
thing it takes to provide thrills in
an athletic contest, this depart-
ment will cast its vote for hockey
every time.
Don't get us wrong, our favorite'
sport is baseball. But we'll take the
Lice sport for universal appeal and
(although, doubtless, mayr will) we
don't see how anyone can disagree.
A girl we know used to sit home
Saturdays during the football sea-
son because she thought the Maize
and Blue gridiron forces (whom we
all considered so fine) put on an
extremely dull exhibition. "The only
sport I like is baseball," she told us.
We saw her the other day and
she had altered her opinion slight-
ly. During the holidays, she had
seen a hockey game. "it's wonder-
ful," she enthused, "I'll never miss
the chance to see another game."
And this is no isolated case. How
often have you heard someone who
has .just seen his first baseball or
football or basketball game give out
with something to the effect that
he couldn't see what all the excite-
ment was about. This almost never
happens in the caseof hockey. In
innumerable cases,' puck fans are
made during the course of a single
game.
So it is fitting, we think, that hoc-
key has risen from the obscure sport
it was 30q years ago to a position
as one of the thr e biggest profes-
sional sports in America.
Of course, the people up in Cana-
da didn't take any such length of,
time to realize what a great game
it was, both to watch and to play.
,They were contesting for the Stan-
ley Cup," emblematic of world hoc-
key supremacy long before the
United States knew what the game
was all about.
HOCKEY. hs had its great mo-
ments, too, just as any other
sport. There was the time, back in
1904 we think (we're a little hazy
on the exact year) when the boys
who .dug for the precious yellow
metal up around Dawson City, Alas-
ka, threw a team together and chal-
lenged the famous Ottawa Silver
Seven to a match for the'Stanley
Cup. The Ottawa club obliged and,
although the visting Nuggets (for so
the Miners called themselves) didn't
win, they were treated to some of
the best hockey they had ever seen.
The Silver Seven won in two
straight games, taking the clincher
by a score of 23-2 and a guy named
Frank McGee (whom, we understand,
they still talk about up north of the
border) tallied exactly 14 goals. That
game would have been a great one
for some' of the people to see who
complain about the lack of scoring
in hockey today.
Then, there is the famous story
of little Georges Vezina, generally
considered to be the greatest goalie,
who ever donned the pads. He
contracted tuberculosis at the
height of his career and was advised
by doctors to quit the game im-
mediately if he expected to live.
Georges pointed out the fallacy" of
this reasoning. "Playing hockey
may kill me," he said simply, "but
quitting the game would bring the
end a good deal quicker."
So Georges played . . . and died.
His death came in mid-season and
those who were there say that the
last game he worked was as master-
ful as any he ever turned in.
There are a hundred other color-
ful tales of the game but space will
not permit of a recounting here. Suf-
fice to say that from the fabulous
Silver Seven and Frank McGee down
to the Boston Bruins of today with
their great Sauerkraut Line, hockey
has provided more than its share of
pulse-tingling excitement to the
sporting world.
This week, the people of the little
old German village of Ann Arbor
will be afforded an opportunity to
see collegiate hockey at its abso-
lute best. Eddie Lowrey's Wolver-
ine sextet is scheduled to take on
the great Illinois aggregation which
is (with the possible exception of
Dartmouth) the best college club
in the land.
Michigan fans wince when they
think of what the Illini did to the
Maize and Blue puckmen last sea-
son. Just for the record, the two
teams met four times and Illinois
won all four contests, 7-1, 8-2, 4-2,
4-1.
Sad to say, the results will probably
be little petter for local fans this
year. Illihois is just as good if not
better this season. So a capacity
crowd would be in order. Such play-
ers as the colorful Amo Bessone,
George Balestri, Aldo Palazzari, Russ
Priestley and all the rest are sure to
put on a real show. And don't for-
get the possibility of an upset win
for Michigan. In hockey, any team
that battles all the wa'y has a chance.
Morrie Bikoff,'flashy little soph-
omore basketball player, may be
forced to remain on the sidelines
Saturday when the Wolverine
cagers tackle Minnesota. Morrie
was injured by a foul during the
surprise Michigan victory over
Northwestern Monday.
Wrestlers Help Keen To New
Breath-Holding Championship
By' IOE SELTZER
One thing stands out most clearly
as a result of the first two wrestling
meets this season:
Coach Cliff Keen can hold his
breath longer than the champion
pearl diver of Aloha Island off New
Zealand.
Saturday night he set what was be-
lieved to be a nev world's record
when he ceased breathing for 30
straight minutes, waiting for Ray
Deane to bring home the first Wol-
verine victory in the third match
against Penn State.
But last night he showed that this
was a mere warm-up as five long
matches had to come and go, 55
minutes in toto, before Mary Becker
flopped his foe's shoulders down and
dried the cold sweat on Cliff's fore-
head with the five-point start of
Michigan's second-half scoring spree.
Weak In Light Weights
The gist of the matter is that if
you split the Michigan mat squad
into the four lower weight classes and
the four upper ones, you have what
is known as two horses of decidedly
different colors. Because the 121-
and 128-pound weight classes have
to date shown themselves to be woe-
fully undermanned, while the 136-
and 145-ers may be termed highly
uncertain, which is to say erratic.
Ah, but from 155 pounds on up.
A distinct pleasure for the coach.
Last year Mary Becker was a definite
nonentity, and now within three days
he trots out on the mat of battle and
scores two sensational victories, one
on a fall and one on a near-fall.
Bill Courtright has to date handled
his men with consummate ease, and
later in the season, when he gets
some pin, holds down cold, he'll be
trading in those three-point decision
victories for five-pointers.
Galles Still Stars
When Jim Galles was a sophomoreI
he was already a shining light on a
squad which sported no small num-
ber of those personalities. As a jun-
ior last year Jim copped the Confer-1
ence light-heavyweight title. And this
year . . . Well, friends, Jim ain't get-
ting any worse as the years roll by.
And now, comes Johnny Greene.I
Man, last night was a riot. John
stalks out, picks his man up and
whango! State's nose is scraping the
mat, Greene astride his back, all in
the matter of one minute or less.
So far John has done right fine, he
has followed offensive wrestling tech-
nique to the letter. Now all he has
to do is pin him, Which he sets out
to do.
But suddenly John stops his ex-
ertions and looks mutely, patheti-
cally toward the bench. He doesn't
say it but you can read it.
"Great guns, Cliff!" his eyes cry
out, "You forgot to show me a pin
hold."
Saturday night the Varsity meets
Michigan State in the Field House.
And by that time Cliff will have
taught Johnny a pin hold. He also
hopes he will have taught some of
his lighter weight men how to bring
home the bacon in the way of points
gained.
Because Cliff sincerely hopes he is
never called upon to set any new
breath-holding record. He insists he
is the nervous type and that his
doctor has repeatedly warned him to
watch the old blood pressure now
that he is at an advanced age.
Track Season
Starts Feb. 14
Cindermen Hard At Work
For Triangular Meet
With its first meet exactly one
month from today, the Wolverine
varsity, track squad has been hard
at work since Christmas vacation
rounding intd shape and the Field
House cinder track is reverberating
to faster and faster footfalls as the
thinclads speed up their times for
their respective events.
The month of February will see the
track squad swinging into the thick
of its winter schedule. Coach Doherty
will take his charges to East Lansing
Feb. 14 for a triangular meet with
Michigan State and Michigan Nor-
mal, then on Feb. 27, the Wolverines
will play host to the Pitt Panthers,
who have long been a power in east-
ern track circles; and Feb. 20 Yost
Field House will be the scene of ac-
tion for a dual meet with the very
strong Notre Dame aggregation.
Fans are already looking forward
to these three meets to afford them
some kind of an indication of how the
Wolverines will fare in the indoor
Conference meet, scheduled for
March 6 and 7 at Chicago.
BIG TEN CAGE STANDINGS
W L Pct Pts OP
Illinois ...... 3 0 1.000 157 129
N'thwestern ..3 1 .750 200 162
Minnesota ...3 1 .750 198 173
Purdue ......3 1 .750 184 109
Iowa ........3 1 .750 181 159
Indiana ......2 2 .500 161 186
Wisconsin . . .1 3 .250 175 166
Michigan . .. .1 3 .250 126 152
Ohio State .. .0 3 .000 123 159
Chicago......0 4 .000 132 242
U
ALLEYS
The
UNION
i
WALKeOVER BROGUES
__ is
geed no breaking ini
Mellow Scotch grain ... stout
flexible soles ... comfort from
the first step. And inside:
Walk-Over "Silver Linings"*
stay smooth mile after
mile. BROADMOOR.
:i i
2.
MAY WE SHOW YOU SOME EXCEPTIONAL VALUES
IN RINGS, BRACELETS, OR PENDANTS IN
I
I uw AN&U _I