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January 01, 1951 - Image 1

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Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1951-01-01

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Dufek

Wahl Spark Wolverines to Big Ten Crown
*. 1* 4

By JIM PARKER
After all the honorary titles, All-American team berths and mile-
long adjectives describing superlative play have been handed out
by the sportswriters and sportscasters, Michigan's Al Wahl and Don
Dufek each point to one title with particular satisfaction - those
which were bestowed upon them by their teammates.
For Wahl it was the election by his teammates at the end of
the 1949 season to the captaincy of the Wolverines 1950 football
squad and for Dufek it was the team's selection of 'him as Michigan's
most valuable player.
BUT EVEN MORE GRATIFYING to the two Maize and Blue
greats is the fact that the honor came to them after each had started
out on the Michigan eleven playing in 'the shadow of another player.
When Wahl returned to the Michigan campus for his first
year of varsity competition after having served with the Army of
Occupation in Germany, the six foot three inch 220 pound tackle
found himself playing opposite another Al by the ijame of Wistert,
third in the line of the immortal Wistert family of Michigan, and
All-Amei'ican like his two brothers.
The headlines in 1948 went to Wistert, but the fine, aggressive
play of Wahl at right tackle earned for him the nackname of "Brick"
in his first year of varsity competition.
THE NEXT YEAR WAHL more than came into his own. His
rugged line play earned All-American honors for himself as he led
the Wolverines of 1949 to their third straight Western Conference
Championship (shared with Ohio State that year).
Then as captain of the 1950 Wolverine eleven, "Big Al" led

Michigan to the story book finish that netted the Maize and Blue
the Big Ten crown and its third opportunity to field a team in the
annual Rose Bowl classic.
WITH DUFEK THE CLIMB to fame was even more difficult.
Originally headed for South Bend, Ind., and the Notre Dame football
team, Dufek soon left that campus and came to Ann Arbor.
. On the Michigan freshman team, Dufek's gridiron future
looked anything but good. As a result of an unimpressive fresh-
man year, the Evanston, Ill., youngster was not even invited out
for varsity practice the next year, 1948.
Dufek was not to be denied, however. He went out for practice
anyway, working his own way without the benefit of being on the
training table. Hard work finally earned "the Duffer" a berth on the
varsity, but it was in a spot overshadowed by Tom Peterson, regular
fullback on the 1948 National Championship team and the squad's
leading scorer.
BUT NOT EVEN PETERSON was enough to stop the rapidly
improving Dufek the next year. The 1948 regular was forced down to
the second team and Dufek moved into the starting role. The 1949
season proved the wisdom of the change as Dufek took over the team
scoring leadership, bulling his way to five touchdowns for the Big
Ten Co-Champs of that year.
And in 1950 Dufek more than earned the title Most Valuable
Player (chosen second most valuable in the Big Ten by The Chicago
Tribune), again pacing the Michigan scoring (42 points) and leading
the team on the ground with 589 net yards rushing.

*

i

DON DUFEK-MICHIGAN'S MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

AL WAHI-MICHIGAN'S ALL-AMERICAN CAPTAIN

ROSE BOWL
EXTRA

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SAitr igan

A&
:43 a 4ir 149

'ROSE BOWL
EXTRA

Latest Deadline in the State

VOL. LXI, No. 76 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 1951 ,

EIGHT PAGES

S

* f "

S S *

*

s * "

* f

'M' Seeks Third
Bowl Win Today

LEO KOCESKI

BILL PUTICH

OZZIE CLARK

TONY MOMSEN

CARL KREAGER

ROGER ZATKOFF

'01 Michigan Team
In First Bowl Game

The Big Ten Champs
OFFENSE

Fans Recall Great
'M' '47 Bowl Team

By CY CARLTON ,
It should be a sunny Monday
this New Year's Day in Pasadena
when Michigan's Wolverines face
their third Rose Bowl game since
the start of football's "Run for
the Rosas Carolinas."
There will undoubtedly be few
fans in the stands of the giant
bowl who were witnesses to the
first Rose classic. But in the
hearts of many old time fans in
Palo Alto and all over the Paci-
fic coast, bitter memories 'still
echo about that fateful day in
1902 when Michigan first went
to the big Bowl.
* * *'-
FOR ON THAT afternoon, the
first day of 1902, one of the great-
est aggregations ever to wear the
_ Maize and Blue togs of a Michi-
gan grid machine took the field
against Stanford's soon to be
scalped Indians. The score writ-
ten that day by the Ann Arbor
warriors is now legend. It was
of course, 49-0.
That was an era that made
football opponents throughout
the length and breadth of the
midwest shudder whenever the
pair of names of Yost and Mich-
igan was mentioned.
For it was the day when the
fabulous point-a-minute teams
roamed the stadia for Michigan,
when the then not-so-old master
tutored his Wolverines to count-,

were no weaklings in those by-
gone days either. As Yost himself
put it that year, "a fact showing
the great defense of the line is
that there has been only one back-
field tackle this season."
IN THEIR last three games
against Chicago, Beloit and Iowa,
the defense only allowed seven first
downs. Four teams never had
possession of the ball within Mich-
igan's territory and only two
squads ever moved the ball be-
yond the Maize and Blue's 30
yard line.
The Rose Bowl game itself turn-
ed into a veritable track meet. Be-
fore the amazed eyes of Pacific
Coast fandom, Michigan ran up
its astounding score before the
game itself properly ended, the
contest being called with ten min-
utes to play.

PLAYER WT.
Lowell Perry (85) 178
Al Wahi (72) 217
Al Jackson (64) 195
Carl Kreager (56) 220
Tom Kelsey (65) 190
John Hess (79) 195
Fred Pickard (89) 1180
Bill Putich (24) 165
Leo Koceski (18) 165
Charles Ortmann (49) 190
Don Dufek (30) 185

HT. Pos. PLAYER

6-0
6-3
6-0
6-4
6-2
6-2
5-11
5-9
5-10
6-1
5-11

RE Leslie Popp (83)
RT Robert Timm (67)
RG Ralph Stribe (75)
C John Padjen (58)
LG Jim Wolter (66)
LT Bill Ohlenroth (77)
LE Russ Osterman (80)
QB Pete Palmer (28)
RH Wes Bradford (19)
in Don Peterson (46)
FB Russ Rescorla (35)

WT.
180
185
198
180
190
205
170
190
155
175
180

HT.
6-1
5-11
6-0
5-9
6-0
6-1
5-11
5-11
5-6
5-10
6-0

DEFENSE

PLAYER
Harrly Allis (88)
Tom Johnson (76)
Pete Kinyon (68)
Tony Momsen (59)
Dick McWilliams (69)
Dick Strozewski (62)
.Ozzie Clark (86)
Ted Topor (27)
Don Oldham (14)
Tom Witherspoon (16)
Bob Zatkoff (70)

WT. HT.
190 6-0
205 6-2
195 6-0
200 6-2
248 6-3
200. 6-0
200 6-1
215 6-0
166 5-8
178 5-11
208 6-2

Pos.
RE
RT
RG
C
LG
LT
LE
QB
RH
LH
FB

PLAYER
Bud Reeme (82)
B. Bartholomew (73)
Don Dugger (61)
Dick Farrer (55)
John Powers (60)
Ben Pederson (78)
Merritt Green (84)
Jerry Burns (25)
Ralph Straffon (32)
Dave Tinkham (37)
Laurence LeClaire (39)

WT. HT.
195 6-2
198 6-3
174 5-10
195 6-0
175 5-11
215 6-2
175 6-0
155 5-8
188 5-8
170 5-10
190 6-0

By TED PAPES
The football eyes of a nation
look toward Pasadena today where
Michigan is participating in its
third Rose Bowl.
Most American grid fans can
easily recall the last Wolverine ap-
pearance three years ago. They
can still see the . black banner
headlines which proclaimed that
team as one of history's greatest.
WITHOUT detracting a thing
from this year's Big Ten kings it
can be said that they have a tre-
mendous reputation to live up to.
T h e i r predecessors astounded
Southern California in the 1948
classic by a score of 49-0.
That was the culmination of
a Hollywood-style regular season
which produced nine consecutive
triumphs, including six against
their rugged foes in the Western
Conference. They amassed a to-

tal of 345 points compared with
53 by their opponents.
Their closest calls came in bat-
tles with traditional Big Ten ri-
vals, Minnesota and Illinois. They
retained the Little Brown Jug by
turning back the Gophers, 13-6,
and overcame the Illini, 14-7.
* * *
THE MOST one-sided victory for
the Wolverines was their 69-0 ava-
lanche over Pittsburgh's Panthers.
They romped over Michigan State,
55-0, in the season opener.
Their crushing single-wing of-
fense was statistically the best
in the nation. Backfield intricacy
reached its peak under Coach
Fritz Crisler who developed four
magicians, Howard Yerges, Bob
Chappius, 'Bump' Elliott and
Jack Weisenberger.
They worked behind a line com-
posed of lightning-fast blockers.
Chappuis commented that anyone
could star with such a forward
wall paving the way to enemy goal
lines.
DEFENSIVELY the Wolverines
fielded another sterling combina-
tion, one which doled out a mini-
mum of yardage and points. Sel-
dom has a team been endowed
with such a balance of talent be-
tween star attackers and protect-
ers.
Seven team members were

By BILL CONNOLLY
Daily Sports Editor
PASADENA - This afternoon,
California's Golden Bears will be
trying for the third successive
year to blot out the Big Ten's tor-
rent of triumphs in the Rose Bowl,
but they're up against an aggres-
sive, tradition-minded Michigan
team which is atfull strength for
the first time in the extended 1950
season.
True to the tradition that is
Michigan, the history books that
tell the tale of the California
coast classic were last opened by
players in Maize and Blue uni-
forms on January 1st, 1948. On
that day, the 1947 chapter of the
Wolverine football club renewed
the charter that was written by
the great 1901 team that inaugu-
rated this New Year's Day tussle.
Identical coats of whitewash
were painted on the Rose Bowl
scoreboards by those two great
Michigan teams which blazed the
Westward trail for the current
crop of Wolverines, as Stanford
(in 1902) and USC (in 1948) were
defeated, 49-0.
The 1950 Wolverines who in-
vade the Pasadena den of ,the
Golden' Bears today saved their
big push for the season's stretch
run, and it landed them on the
top of the Western Conference
pile-up of football teams for the
fourth successive year. .
Much of their early season dif-
ficulty was broupht on by the al-
most chronic injuries heaped up-
on their ace left-half, Chuck Ort-
mann. The ,Milwaukee marauder
showed up for the important sea-
son finale, Ohio State, in pretty
fair shape and literally kicked
the Buckeyes, with whom the
Wolverines shared last year's
crown, off the Conference throne.
.* * *

ines suffered under the one-two
punch of a surprising tie with
Minnesota and a 0-7 defeat by
Illinois, all of which saw the ex-
perts and home-folk alike writ-
ing off all chances of the Bowl
bid which accompanied a Big Ten
title.
But the Wolverines made
them all look bad by bouncing
back off the ropes to kayo In-
diana, Northwestern and Ohio
State in rapid order.
The Wolverines found their jer-
seys and cleats-but not their de-
termined will to win-dampened
by the Arctic weather conditions
as they dug into the snowbanks in
the Buckeyes' horse shoe stadium
for the showdown battle.
In the greatest punting duel on
the books of Big Ten football,
Ortmann outdid Ohio's All-Ameri-
can Vic Janowicz, as a blocked
punt. by line-backer Tony Mom-
sen resulted in the six points
which gave Michigan a 9-3 win
and the Western Conference
crown.
* *. *
CALIFORNIA, Pacific Coast
Conference representative for the
third straight year, was pre-season
rated at best an outside chance to
repeat its performance of the
prior two years.
As the season wore on, how-
ever, the development of a
crushing running attack and a
top-flight defense proved to be
enough to get the Bears through
a PCC campaign that most con-
cede to have been the toughest
of the post-war years..
The Bears main stock in trade
has been the running of John Ol-
szewski, Jim Monachino and Pete
~cnaarum *inse.unre proiue

CHUCK ORTMANN

LOWELL PERRY

TOM JOHNSON

DON PETERSON

Schabarum. These. three provided
BENNIE OOSTERBAAN'S boys not only the running, but also a
had it rough from the very begin- lot of the blocking.
ning. Michigan State hung one on
the Wolverines, 14-7, in the sea- And the line, which was par-
son openere ticularly riddled by the graduation
of 25 seniors, developed into a
Sandwiching in a 27-7 win hard charging, tough unit by the
over Dartmouth in between that end of the season.
one and the Army gave the That key that many thought
Michigan outfit a chance to re- might be missing, a quarterback,
.nnl jn,. three nurtArs of n lav 1._-.P _

m

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