THE MICHIGAN DAILY FAGE k.Q Past Athletic Season * * * * *~ *4'* * Ueld ichigan Tradition ;j ;;: * * * * : * * MERT CHURCH * * * JIM GALLES DON LUND * * * : * * TED G) REER :; :; - WALTER KELL y * :4 RALPH CHUBB ROSS HUME ** * * * 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. I - . FFITHER'S DMY ...IJUNE 1 7 t _ _ _ TRO-FOR MEN You'll C t A Bang!! 11? d IF YOU KEE .;. with the CAMPUS NI Subscribe to the DAILY this P UP JEWS After shave Lotion BalancedTlu Fine Hair Dressing MEN LIKE the excep- tijonal quality and the fresh, invigorating, distinctive fragrance of these fine toiletries, so es- sential to GOOD GROOM- ING. And they appreciate the sturdy, compact, man- nish packaging. The ARISTOCRAT TRIO sells for.. - ....... $3.00 YARDLEY'S Orloffs BERGAMOT sum- mer. Mailed to you for only $1.50,, Stop in at the Daily office in the Stu- dent Publications Building, at 420 SHAVING MUG * TALC SHAVING LOTION - SOAP COLOGNE DEODORANT HAIR DRESSING From the clean Highland fragrance to the sturdy little jug, SEAFORTH bears the unmistakable mark of a man's product. Its faint scent of heaths er is reminiscent of the Country of the High= landers. Seoforth is the Schoice of particular men all over the world. A ONE DOLLAR EACH r ETS - TWO TO SEVEN A .2.. Farly American "OLD SPICE" ROGER and GALLFT Maynard Street . . . and ORDER IT FFRD MULFHENS "4711" ..I ElIII I .II