THE MICHIGAN DAILY 1 n ti T11TLI: Intraqua Wrestling Tournament Starts Today Winners of Matches To Be Given Starting Spots Skillman Appears To Be best 136 Pounder; Sachsel, Johnston Are Other Likely Victors By STAN SAUERHAFT "The intra-squad wrestling tournament to determine the best men in each weight will begin today," Jim Galles announced yesterday. Galles, who was training the squad during Coach Wally Weber's ab- sence, stated further that the tournament would probably continue untilI Thursday with the final result being the selection of the first-string men in the various weight divisions. As it now shapes up most of the eight weight classes can boast at least one outstanding man with the 136 pound class presenting the most hotly contested race of them all. Here there are four men any one of whom might take all in the forthcoming tournament. Of the four leaders, Newton Skill-< Coach Doherty TOOTH N' NAIL: 'says Thiiclads howl Officials Attempt Need Psam eMEven Squad Looked Ragged, l j In [4ia.4 Frfit-dav',. 1 ee; N ervieni 1Look Good After watching last Friday night's track meet Coach Ken Doherty said that it showed that there is a lot of work in store for the thinclads be- fore they will be ready for stiff com- petition. Team Looks Ragged As a whole the squad looked rag- ged, but there were some good times clocked for several events. In the 440 Dick Forestal was timed at 50:9 which was better than some times handed in during some of last year's Conference meets. Bob Hume, last By WHiTNEY MARTIN NEW YORK, Dec. 18-P)-The highest scoring team isn't meeting the best defensive team and the two highest scoring teams aren't meeting each other, but on the whole the sponsors of the four major bowl football games Jan. 1 have done a first-class job of lining up attractions. The idea probably wasn't to book a scoring orgy or to pit an irre- sistable force against an immovable object in the first place, but was to line up teams that appeared fairly evenly matched and that would provide an entertaining game. It isn't much fun to watch two fine defensive teams stage a tug-of-war in the middle of the field, and. when two teams score practically at, will it gets rather monotonous also. Had the two high scoring teams a score of something like 722 to of the eight involved in the bowl 66 in a meeting of that kind. games been matched you would find If you wanted to see a bulldog Alaasmthn aveage yofboutaffair between fine defensive teams Alabama, with an average of about you'd match Tennessee, which has 31 points for eight games, meeting allowed its eight opponents an av- Tulsa's golden hurricane, which erage of only six points, against averaged approximately 38 points Alabama, whose eight foes ave - for nine games. You might expect aged slightly less than seven points. Naturally, these figures have no more meaning than double talk when comparing the strength of the bowl rivals, as each team has been meeting different opposition, and even if they had met the same teams the figures would mean little, comparative scores being as tricky as they are. But for those who like to look at the figures and draw some kind of man, formerly of Cranbrook Academyt and now a Navy V-12 standard bear- er, might be conceded the inside track, while Ray Murray, until nowC considered one of the better boysu in this weight class, has shown in- Curtis Voted1 Best Wornatt Athlete of '44 NEW YORK, Dec. 18.-P)-Ann Curtis, statuesque San Francisco miss1 who holds a national swim 'record1 for each of her 18 years, was named the Woman Athlete of the Year today1 by the country's sports editors who were polled by the Associated Press. The coast mermaid showed the same speed in the vote getting that she displayed in the National Outr door Championships when she an- nexed all four freestyle titles, the third time the trick ever has been done. Breaks Own Record At the recent NIational A.A.U. con- vention, Miss Curtis sought approval for 18 U.S. swim records. Twelve were recognized, the. remaining six being rejected because they already had been superseded by Miss Curtis her-self. Seventy-one editors participated in. the poll with the coast beauty listed first on 31. Mrs. George Zaharias, nee Mildred (Babe) Didrikson, was second in the tabulation because of her golf exploits with 12 first place selections and 80 points, compared to the 105 tallies for the winner. Curtis Reigns Beside Nelson The queen of the girl swimmers thus reigns beside Byron Nelson, To- ledo, 0., golfer, whom the voters previously had elected the Male Ath- lete of the Year. Pauline Betz, who won the Na- tional Tennis Championship for the third straight year, was third in the poll and was followed by a trio of golfers- Dorothy Germain, Patty Berg and Betty Hicks. Miss Beig was the 1943 queen and Miss Hicks wore the crown in 1941. Today's honor climaxes a two-yeai campaign by Miss Curtis in which she has won eight national titles, set 18 U.S. records and surpassed the world times for both the 800 meter and 880-yard swims. She has rejected various movie offers in hopes of carrying the colors of the Crystal Plunge Swim Club at San Francisco into Olympic compe- tition. Pro Football League Changes 'Draft' Plan NEW YORK, Dec. 18-()-The National football league at its post- playoff meeting today ironed out a few kinks in its system of "drafting" college players and set the stage for its annual meeting in Chicago, Jan. 10. The principal action was changing the system of awarding extra draft choices to the low ranking clubs. Hereafter, only the clubs which fail to win four games in a season will participate in the second and fourth- round drawings. Under the old sys- tem the low five clubs in the standing had these choices. The league also decided that first choice in the draft this winter will be decided by tossing a coin by Brook- lyn, Pittsburgh and the Chicago Car- dinals. The Pittsburgh-Cardinals combined was automatically ,dissolv- ed at the end of the season with each club retaining its full draft rights. Similiarly; Detroit, Washington and the Chicago Bears, which finished on even, terms, will flip for sixth choice. terest in entering the race for the 145 pound top position. Bob Gittens, only returning letterman from last year's championship team, and Dick Free- man who wrestled a little last seas- on, round out the top quartet battling for the 135 pound starting berth. By no means, however, should it be construed that the 135 pound bracket offers the only close race for leadership. Both the 145 and 155 pound divisions present similar prob- lems in predicting the probable vic- tor because neither weight division has succeeded in producing a grap- pler who has shown sufficient mas- tery to be classified as the best in the division. However, if a selec- tion on the basis of past perform- ances had to be made now, George Darrow, a 145 pounder and Jim Zum- berge in the 155 pound weight would have to be given the nod. In the other weights, selection of the probable winner is less dif- ficult. Art Sachsel in the 121 pound class seems to be the only logical choice as head man. However, , Sachsel is going to Detroit Mon- day to take his Army physical exam, and, if he passes, it will be unlikely that he will finish out the season. In the 128 pound weight, Bob Johnston seems to be having things his own way, while Charles Telfer appears to be headed for the 165 pound leadership. In the 175 pound class Hank Mantho has outshone all the other men in the preliminary practices. Walt Bloomenstein is the most probable candidate for the first- string position in the unlimited class, if his infected leg continues to improve at its present rate. Bloomenstein's only competition is coming from Frank Saravia, a Cu- ban youngster with little experi- ence. To further clarify his own position on the wrestling team, Galles stated that he would not compete as long as there are available capable men in the heavier weights, but if anything should happen to one of the grappl- ers in either the 165, 175 or unlimited weights, he would probably step in as a substitute. Galles said that his present weight was 168, but that his work in medical school took up so much of his time he was unable to get sufficient practice. I WIDDOES GETS COACH HONORS-Lou Little of Columbia Univer- sity presents the World Telegram "Coach of the Year" Award to Carol Widdoes (right) of Ohio State at award presentation dinner in New York. BENNIE BEAMS: Basketball Squadl Hits Peak InWesterni Michigan Tilt By MARY LU HEATH Coach Bennie Oosterbaan yester- day stated that his Wolverine basket- ball squad hit itspeak in Saturday night's contest with Western Michi- gan and played its best game of the year against the Broncos. Obviously pleased by; the showing the Michigan cagers made, Ooster- baan averred that "the boys deserved a lot of credit for the win and exhibited plenty of fighting spirit to triumph over Western." Wolverines Tense at First He added that the Wolverines were very tense during the first part of the game, when the Broncos amassed a 17-pointitotal, to lead by one marker at halftime. But Michigan loosened up considerably in the last stanza to trounce Western by a convincing 50- 35 total. Oosterbaan quoted the Broncos' assistant coach, Bob Mauss, as stat- ing that Western "was high for this game, and really wanted to win it." Michigan, however, was also anxious to repeat its earlier triumph over the Broncos, who were reportedly much improved over their first showing. Oosterbaan was particularly pleased by the Michigan defense in the sec- ond half. Mullaney Switches to Forward The Wolverine starting lineup in- cluded forwards Bill Gregor and John Mullaney, who has played at center in previous games. Bob Geahan start- ed at center, with Walter Kell and Don Lindquist at the guard positions. Michigan used eleven men in the contest, with Keith Harder taking scoring honors for both teams. Har- der, whose 19 points added to the earlier 46-34 defeat of the Broncos, registered 14 markers Saturday, with Mullaney's 11 points taking the run- ner-up spot. John Buscher, Western guard, led his squad with nine points on two field goals and five free throws. Other Wolverines who appeared in the game were Don Lund at center, Bruce Hilkene at forward, and Bob Hamilton at guard. Ted Berce also played at a forward position for ten minutes. Oosterbaan said that Mor- rie Bikoff, former letterman who played a considerable part of the game, had improved a great deal, and played a "pretty fair" brand of ball. This victory