THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1943, -i : MICHIGAN i1 A~ L E~ I '.J PA = THURSAYsMRCH.. 193 rIJ1\1.TCI-T t2lAN TbATTV- - - cWAET" LWL~R A Holiday Seeks TAKING IT EASY By ED ZALENSKI Daily Sports Editor Is Lowrey Capable Students on the Michigan campus have often argued the relative merits of Coach Eddie Lowrey and Wol- verine hockey teams during his long reign here. Michigan hockey has been the butt of jokes, jibes and puns for years.mAnd now, after all these )wars, someone has been aroused enough to express a definite opinion. A junior night editor on the sports staff, Walt Klee, is the au- thor of this expression. Walt is in the ERC and will leave soon for service in the Army. This letter is his final gesture as a staff member. Walt covered the hockey beat for The Michigan Daily and knew the players and Coach Lowrey inti- mately. And so he writes with more than a passing interest. "As I sit down to write this, I am filled with something I 'cannot de- scribe. I am anticipating, momen- tarily, orders that will take me away from the Michigan Campus, its ath- letics, its classes, its books, its good times, and most of all, The Michigan Daily. "I am not going to write on what friends I have made on The Daily; the staff knows how much I en- joyed working with- them. But rather I am going to try to explain something about the swell coach and great fellows that I had the honor of writing about this semes- ter. I talk of no other team than the Michigan sextet. The hockey team did not have a successful season, in fact the team has just completed the most disas- trous season since Eddie Lowrey came to Michigan. It won but one game, tied two, and lost ten. But I don't believe that this record can possibly present a picture of the team. It was the players and the spirit that they showed that make me say that the past season was a successful one. Let me name some of the players who played for Coach Ed Lowrey this season: Hank Loud, Bob Op- land, Bob Kemp, Bob Derleth, Bob Mulligan and Bob Stenberg, Roy Bradley, rGordon Anderson, Ed Reichert Johnny Athens, Dave Pontius, and Bill Dance. Not one of these men came to Michigan just to play hockey. They play for one reason, the love of the sport. Why didn't Michigan have a better season? The answer is simple. There simply wasn't the material to win hockey games. If the War hadn't hastened the graduation of Reichert and Kemp and Opland hadn't fallen prey to ineligibility the team would not have finished the season the way it did. Lowrey lost three of the best men on the team. He was faced with the problem of selecting a new front line from second line material. The easy thing to do would have been to give hockey up, and chalk it up to the war. Illinois did for a while, and nothing was said. But the Michigan coach and the Michi- gan team talked it over one night and decided to carry on, regardless of the consequences. The second half of the season was played with three men who had never played in organized hockey before, and the rest of his team with just plain guys whosloved thehsport. Yet every opponent knew it had played, after playing the Wolverines. People criticize the Michigan coach for the type of hockey they played in the last few games. The team just sat back and waited for the oppo- nents to come to them. But this was the only sensible thing for it to do. The opponents were faster and would have walked away from the Wolver- ines if the team had opened up. The Michigan team was not fast enough to play offensive hockey. It had to play. on the defensive, and wait for the breaks. People ask why Michigan never had a winning, team. This school never thought that hockey was a major sport, and its fine education- al facilities were all that lured players to the school. Last year Lowrey had without a doubt the finest freshman team in the coun- try, and this year's yearling squad was almost as good. But out of six players last year only one stayed n school long enough to play for the Varsity. The rest had either been called to the service or had left school for defense work. This year most of the freshmen have al- ready answered the call to the colors just as I will do in a day or so. After the war when things have returned to normal, good hockey players will come to 'Michigan. Thejn, with the material to work with, Ed Lowrey will be able to put on the ice a team that Michigan will be proud, of. Until that day comes, let us wait and hope for a quick victory over the things that we have learned to hate. And its thirty' for the last time." Rams Lose Dutch Clark PUEBLO, Colo., March 10.- (A)- Earl (Dutch) Clark, coach of the Cleveland Rams of the National Pro- fessional Football league, said to- night that he would not seek re- newal of his contract which expired Jan. 1. orld Mann Predicts Star Will Brea Kiefer Record Gil Evans, Alex Canja To Dive in Cleveland Contest Tomorrow Michigan's perennial record-sma er, big Harry Holiday, will attemp crack the world's 220-yard backsti' record next Thursday night at Detroit Athletic Club poll. The blonde, 6 ft., 5 in. giant f Butler, Pa., will be swimming aga the clock in his effort to lower American and world standard of2 set in 1941 by Adolf Kiefer. New Mark Predicted Matt Mann, Wolverine swimm: coach, predicted his 205-pound a atic star would erase Kiefer's n from the record books barring unexpected. "Holiday is the nation's outsta ing backstroker at present," Mann serted, "and should be given e opportunity to best Kiefer's var records before entering the Army summer." Broken in Practice Proof that Holiday is capable smashing Kiefer's 2:23 clocking c last week in the Sports Building 1 when he blazed the distance in 2: Inearly three seconds better. Holiday has already cracked on Keifer's backstroke records thiss son. He splashed the 100-yardc tance in 0:57 in the Michigan S meet itie during the medley r event, snapping Kiefer's mark 0:57.8 made in 1941. Freshmen to Compete Two Michigan divers, freshman Evans and veteran Alax Canja, & today for the Men's Junior Ind Three-Meter diving champions] tomorrow night in Cleveland. Canja who took a fifth place in low broad title event at the Big ' meet last weekend, will face m of the same opposition he met Evanston. The entire Ohio S corps of divers is entered. This eludes the first, second and th: place winners in the Confere meet: Frank Dempsey, Charlie B: terman and Jim Strong. Evans, one of the best diving p pects to come to Michigan for a c time, will be making his first app ance under the Maize and Blue. Michigan G ridders Teaching for U.S. A couple of former Michigan A American football linemen, Ra Heikkinen and Butch Slaughter, h switched their talents at the req of Uncle Sam. Both gridders who earned All-Am ican rankings while wearingt Maize and Blue, are teaching ae navigation at the University of V ginia Navy Pre-Flight School. Record in Will Lead Netters I CAPT. JINX JOHNSON ... one of two returning letter- men of Michigan's Varsity tennis team around whom Coach Leroy Weir will build his 1943 Conference title contender. Johnson was Mich- igan's number six man last year and won the Big Ten doubles with Gerry Schaflander. 14-Man Squad To Compete in Tech Relays A 14-man delegation will uphold the Maize and Blue in the annual Il- linois Tech Relays Saturday night at Chicago. The makeshift team, minus four of Michigan's outstanding runners, will compete in nine events, including six track and three field. Four Men to N. Y. C. Captain Dave Matthews, Bob Ufer, Ross Hume and John Roxborough are scheduled to compete in the Knights of Columbus Games in New York City Saturday night, and will not make the Chicago trip. Coach Ken Doherty announced the events and Wolverine cindermen who will compete at the Tech meet are Len Alkon, Chuck Pinney and Jack Martin, 70-yard dash; Elmer Swan- son, Liv Stroia and possibly Bud Byerly, 70-yard high hurdles. Also, Pinney, Swanson and Martin, 70-yard low hurdles; Wayne Glas, 440-yard dash; Bob Hume and Ernie Leonardi, mile run; Bob Segula pole vault; George Ostroot, shot put; and Bill Dale and Stroia, high jump. Leave Saturday Doherty is undecided about wheth- er to enter a team in the two-mile or mile relay race. Composing his two- mile quartet would be Art Upton, Glas, Bob Hume and Leonardi, while Alkon, Upton, Jim Sears and Glas would run in the other event. The team leaves Ann Arbor Satur- day at 8:40 a.m. and will stay at East Windermere hotel, returning home Sunday at 2:34 p.m. Weir Trims Net Squad to 24 Hopefuls By HARVE FRANK Trying to build a team that will maintain Michigan's reputation in the Conference, Michigan's tennis mentor, Leroy Weir, has begun prac- tice with 24 players from which he will pick varsity and reserve squads. With only two lettermen back, and they the six and seven men of last year's squad, the Wolverine prospects of finishing near the top of the Con- ference aren't too bright. However, with freshmen now being eligible to play, no team can be judged accur- ately from past records. Second Last Year Michigan took the Big Ten crown in 1941, but dropped down to a tie for second last year after going into the Conference meet ,as one of the favorites. They did, however, cap- ture four individual crowns. One of these was the number three doubles title won by Jinx Johnson and Gerry Schaflander. Jinx is back this season as captain, and promises to show a better brand of tennis than that which won him the crown in the Big Ten number six- man bracket in 1941 without the loss of a set. He also went through last year's regular season undefeated. New Freshman Promising Another freshman appears to have a chance to join Roger Lewis on the Varsity. He is Jerry Gurman, holder of several junior titles in Detroit who just entered college in February. So far he has been working out with the top three, Johnson, Fred Welling- ton, and Lewis. Ed Scott, a member of last year's squad, is also back and seems slated to end up among the first six. The netters, confined to the indoor courts in the Sports Building, get only three practice sessions a week, working out Thursday and Friday nights, and Sunday mornings. As soon as March forgets it's a lion and becomes a lamb, they'll move out- doors and work out daily. Tigers Book Soldiers The Detroit Tigers have been booked to play the Camp Grant sol- diers at Camp Grant on July 14. The Chicago White Sox and Cubs, and the Boston Red Sox also will play them at unannounced dates. By SHERWOOD KATZ Coach Ray Fisher has finally solved the problem of letting everyone out for baseball receive a turn at the bat. Ray has divided the batters into three shifts in order to facilitate the crowded quarters (until the players move outdoors) and give all of the aspirants for the Varsity a chance at the plate. Considering the fact that most of the players haven't held a bat in their hands for well over nine months and that the pitchers have been practicing since Christmas, the batters look pretty fine up there at the plate. It seemed a little strange, though, to see the freshman players standing up at the plate taking their swings alongside of the Varsity hopefuls. Some of the players were a little shaky when they took their turns in the batter's box after seeing some of the hurlers warming up along the sidelines. After taking a couple of swings at the ball one of the hitters turned around and said to Ray, "If the pitchers are only taking it easy now, what is going to happen when they really start throwing that old apple around?" This was the atti- tude taken by most of the batters to- wards the pitchers for the first few sessions. Big Bruce Blanchard, one of the "future" regulars on the team, has started his old ways at this early point in the season. He was batting against "Pro" Boim, one of the fastest pitchers in the Big Ten and really teed off on a couple of "Pro's" fast balls If the hitters continue to im- prove at their present rate it will be very hard for the Maize and Blue to lose their baseball crown. 220-Yard Backstroke Batting Practice Opens TO BRAVE SPRING RAINS! New cravenette raincoats to keep off the spring rains. The old "stand-by" of college men. Variety of styles to choose from. In natural. $10.50 $1.50 W Valker Stadel & FIRST NATIONAL BUILDING ... .. ..., * 4 --- --- -- ni Tiger Hopes Rise Under O'Neill; Thirty-Two Players Are Signed Would you EVANSVILLE, Ind., March 10.-(') -By making much of little, Steve O'Neill tranformed a minor league managership into a return to base- ball's big show as pilot of the Detroit Tigers. He therefore regards the threat of 1943 player shortages with relatively small terror. Right now the Tigers have 32 play- ers, mostly fathers, on their roster for the start of spring training Monday under O'Neill. Privately the Tiger front office reckons that 10 more may be taken from the list for military duty. Headed by Hank Greenberg, the Tigers already have 23 in the service. Here's where O'Neill's minor league background may prove invaluable. Last summer he guided a young Beaumont team to the Texas League GOLFSIDE STABLES Indoor and Outdoor Riding Wooded Bridle Trails Class or Private Instruction CALL 2-3441 A I seasonal championship, and his play- ers never numbered more than 18. Sometimes he got along well on fewer than that. O'Neill insists that a manager nowadays must have the talents of a circus juggler. Charley Metro, a young outfielder coming up . from Beaumont to the Tigers this year, was juggled by O'Neill from outfield. Shortstop Bob Henny took occa- sional pitching jobs. Furthermore, O'Niell's patchwork was assembled so skillfully the team's achievements never suffered. Big Steve should seize upon a new Tiger next week as a real find. Albert Unser, a catcher with nearly ten years of minor league background in- cluding managerships for farms of both the St. Louis Cardinals and Tig- ers, once played a game in which he spent an inning at each position. This was really a box office stunt at Wins- ton- Calem, N. C., but Unser handled each chore creditably. Wings Need Win For Hockey Title DETROIT, March 10.- 0P)- The Detroit Red Wings can clinch the National Hockey Leaguechampion- ship, their fourth in ten years, by beating the Toronto Maple Leafsto- morrow at Olympia Stadium, and manager Jack Adams declares, "We'll be shooting the works." With four games remaining, the Wings have a three-point lead over the second place Boston Bruins, who have only two more games. In their season series. Detroit holds REFUSE HIM the Best %et pCi9 ~, t~urhead,&* NEW STYLES for your spring wardrobe. Hats you'll want to wear everywhere, anytime. We have all sizes in the new spring colors. Come in and let us show you our outstanding stock. When you refuse to give to the RED CROSS, you refuse him part of his right to come back. He gives up his freedom and his life he is used to in order that our country be safe. The money you give to the RED CROSS goes to see that the men on the fighting front get the best possible medical atten- tion. Due to the efforts of the RED CROSS, thousands come back who would otherwise perish on the battlefield. YOU want him to come back! I I I