THE MICHIGAN DAILY
FAGE
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Past Athletic Season
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Tradition
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MERT CHURCH
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JIM GALLES DON LUND
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TED G) REER
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WALTER KELL
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RALPH CHUBB ROSS HUME
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By BILL MULLENDORE
With the 1944-45 Michigan ath-
letic campaign a matter of history,
Wolverine sports squads can look
back on another in a long string of
fruitful years which started in 1924
and has continued up to the present
time.
For it was in 1924 that Michigan
began to hit its winning stride in
Western Conference competition,.and
it has been running at full tilt ever
since. A look at the record books re-.
veals some interesting statistics
which demonstrate just how com-
pletely Wolverine squads have domi-
nated the Big Ten sports scene.
Since 1924-25, Michigan has col-
lected 80 Conference champion-
ships in all sports, a record unap-
proached by any other Big Ten
school. During the last 15 years
of the 21-year period from 1924-25,
Wolverine squads have brought at
least three Conference champion-
ships to Ann Arbor, another mark
unequalled by any Big Ten insti-
tution.
And this year the Wolverines did it
again, topping the three-title mark
with one to spare, by winning cham-
pionships in swimming, indoor track,
baseball and tennis, besides annex-
ing a flock of individual and team
honors outside Conference circles.
All of, which serves to make 1944-45
another great year for the Maize
and Blue.
Looking back over the preceding 10
months, the following highlights of
the campaign come immediately to.
mind:
Coach Fritz Crisler's football
team, lightly regarded at the start
of the season, turned out to be one
of the best in the country, fight-
ing all the way with Ohio State for
the Big Ten crown, only to lose out
to the Bucks in the final game of
the season, 18-14. The Wolverines
won eight and lost two, scoring 204
points to 91 for the opposition and
bringing Crisler's coaching record
at Michigan to 48 games won, 11
lost, and two tied.
After getting off to a whirlwind
start with eight straight non-Con-
ference victories, the Wolverine bas-
ketball team found the going tougher
in Big Ten play and wound up in
fifth place with a Conference record
of five wins and seven losses. Still
and all, it was the best Michigan cage
performance since 1938.
Coach Ken Doherty's indoor track
team provided one of the most ex-
citing finishes in Big Ten history as
it nosed out Illinois, 55 1/10 - 54 1/10,
for its third straight indoor triumph.
The Wolverines slammed the mile
and scored 37 points in the mile, half-
mile, and two-m~ile in an unparalleled
exhibition of distance running which
left mid-western cinder observers
gasping.
Not to be outdone, Matt Mann's
swimmers came through with their
second successive Big Ten triumph
and the 15th in the history of the
University. Capt. Mert Church,
winner of the 50- and 100-yard
races in both the Conference and
the NCAA meets, was selected
"swimmer of the year" by NCAA
coaches and was later named to
the coaches' All-American squad.
Jim Galles took the Conference
165-pound wrestling crown as the
Wolverines failed in their bid for
their second team title in a row.
Coach Wallie Weber, in his first year
as mat coach, saw his charges finish
seventh in the Big Ten while win-
ning three dual meets, tying two, and
losing one.
Hockey was tht oniy Michigan
sport in which no Conference sched-
ule was drawn up, and the Wolver-
ine pucksters didn't do so well against
an assortment of amateur sextets,
most of them of Canadian origin.
Playing under new coach Vic Hey-
liger, former Michigan ice star and
ex-Illinois hockey mentor, the Wol-
verines won three and lost six, in-
cluding a double defeat at the hands
of Minnesota.
The outdoor track team got the
spring sports schedule off on the
right foot with a sizzling perform-
ance at the Penn Relays, capturing
four of the five events entered and
finishing a close second in the
fifth. Eastern sports scribes hailed
the Wolverine showing as one of
the "best ever" in Relays competi-
tion.
Coach LeRoy Weir's tennis team
brought the third Conference title to
Michigan by running off with the
Big Ten meet. Previous to the Con-
ference clash, the Wolverine netters
had won 10 straight dual meets with-
out a lass for an undefeated season.
Mirhigan's oldest coach in point
of service, Ray Fisher, was handed
another CU nference championship on
his 25th anniversary as Wolverihe
basebad mentor. Diamond titles are
nothing new to the veteran coach,
who has brought his teams through
to 10 ;,hampionships since 1921. His
1945 edition missed ou+ on an unde-
feated season when it lost its opener
to Western Michigan, S- 4, in ten inn-
ings, but then proceeded to win 20
straight, including eiglt Conference
tilts, to hang up one of the finest
records of any Fisher-coached nin.
Attempting to repeat its indoor
triumph at the Conference outdoor
meet, the track team ran into a
snag in the form of a crippled but
determined Illinois squad and went
down to a 65/ to 54. 1/6 defeat.
Again the Wolverines, led by Ross
and Bob Hume dominated the dis-
tance events, but Illini team -bal-
ance proved too much to overcome,
despite valiant Michigan efforts.:
Although favored to cop still an-'
othUr Big Ten title, the golf team
found the going a little rough at the
championship meet and was forced
to be content with third place. The
linksmen, also playing under a new
coach in the person of Bill Barclay,
lost only to Ohio State in dual com-
petition and avenged that loss with a
later dual victory.
Three invitational meets in three
sports, two of which remain to be
played, conclude the 1944-45 sched-
ule. The track squad closed out with
a brilliant showing at the NCAA
meet, placing third with a small but
dynamite-laden seven-man squad.
The golf and tennis squads will get
their cracks at Collegiate titles later
this week.
So, Michigan sporls lovers can
soon write finis to the 1944-45
campaign. It was not the best in
Wolherine history, nor was it the
worst. Michigan squads failed to
equal last year's record of eight
Conference titles of a pssible nine,
but they did keep alive the "three-
a-year" tradition. With the 1945
football season already looming
large in the athletic horizon, the
competitive struggles will soon be-
gin all over again, as still another
sports season gets underway.
But the names of some of the
Michigan men who brought glory to
their school will remain in the minds
of all those who have an interest in
the Wolverine sports scene. Picking
at random, this writer recalls thE
feats of such men as Bob Wiese,
Milan Lazetich, Dick Rifenburg, Bob
Nussbaumer, Bob deahan, Jim
Galles, Ross and Bob Hume, Mert
Church, Ray Louthen, Bob Steven-
son, Don Lund (who completed his
nine-letter skein to become the sev-
enth such athlete in Wolverine his-
tory), Jinx Johnson, Phil Marcellus,
and a host of other stalwarts who
helped write another glorious chap-
ter in Michigan's sports annals.
Major League Standings ...
NATIONAL LEAGUE I AMERICAN LEAGUE
W L Pet. GB W L Pet. GB
New York.......29 19 .596 .. Detroit.........26 17 .595
Pittsburgh......26 20 .565 1 New York.......27 19 .587
Brooklyn.. ...26 20 .565 12 St. Louis ........22 21 .512 32
Chicago .........23 19 .548 22 Boston ..........23 23 .500 4
St. Louis.. .....25 21 .543 22 Washington.....21 23 .477 5
Boston ..........23 21 .523 3z Cleveland .......20 22 .476 5
Cincinnati......21 23 .477 5 Chicago .......... 21 24 .467 62
Philadelphia ....10 39 .204 9 Philadelphia, .....17 27 .386 10
TODAY'S RESULTS TUESDAY'S RESULTS
Boston 10, Philadelphia 0. St. Louis 1, at Detroit 2.
Brooklyn 7, New York 4. Washington 5, New York 3.
Cincinnati at St. Louis, postpon- Philadelphia 7, Boston 5 (12 in-
ed, rain. nings).
Chicago at Philadelphia, night. Cleveland at Chicago, night.
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