WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER S, 1952 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE FIVE Underpublicized Linemen Make Backs Look Good, Go Unnoticed Themselves Costly Injuries Reduced By Good Grid Reserves TITANIC TROJANS: Southern Cal Favored To Beat Badgers AO By DICK SEWELL Assocate Sports Editor A triple-threat halfback is only as good as the men up front. Unfortunately tns Iact is easi- ly overlooked and invariably the halfback gets headlines at the ex- pense of the blockers who cleared the way. S* *s IT IS ALSO TRUE that the de- fensive team seldom gets the at- tention paid to the attacking pla- toon which makes the touch- downs. Michigan had its over- looked heroes just as did most oth- er college elevens this fall. Treated in summary fashion in game covers and passed by in feature articles, the hard- working, seldom-praised grid- der deserves some mention be- fore we wrap up the season. First place on any list of this sort belongs to Michigan's stel- lar pivotman Dick O'Shaughnessy. The rugged, accurate-passing Irishman played almost every minute the Wolverines had the ball without a single poor pass. The timing and precision so im- portant in the single wing at- tack require consistently perfect passes from center. The Seaford, N.Y. junior supplied just that all season long. * s * IN ADDITION to putting the pigskin into play, O'Shaugnessy. 0 did a yeoman job of opening, up holes in the enemy forward wall. Art Walker, a sophomore de- fensive tackle from South Ha- ven is another member of the Maize and Blue grid corps who for Michigan, and Balog helped Walker lower the boom on visit- ing runners. Guards Don Dugger, Bob Timm, Ron Williams, and Dick Beison followed the Michigan tradition calling for light but fast guards. Rugged and hard-charging de- spite lack of weight, Beison and Timm bore the brunt of Wolver- ine over-the-middle power thrusts. Dugger and Williams, along with Bob Matheson, put fight and guts into the defensive platoon. * * * DEFENSIVE ends Captain Tim Green and iron-gripped Gene Knutson provided Coach Ben Oosterbaan with one of the fin- est such duos in the nation. Enemy runners had a hard time turning the Michigan ends, and were usually forced inside toward the linebackers. Their slashing tackles stopped more than one enemy speedster. Linebackers Rog Zatkoff and Laurie Le Claire, both seniors, will be sorely missed come next fall. Zatkoff has been such a consist-j ently fine performer over the past three years that fans tend to take' him for granted. LeClaire joined Zatkoff at linebacker two seasons ago. His heads-up play contrib- uted greatly to Michigan's top de- fensive record. There's always a curious satis- faction that one can get after a football season by sitting back and figuring "what would have hap- pened if . . Perhaps one of the most popular speculative departments has to do with injuries. But figuring just how important a hurt suffered by one of the members of the squad is quite difficult. * * * OF COURSE, during the past season the Michigan grid squad received more than its share of physical blows, but the job turned in by reserves who were fired up after finally getting their collec- tive chances may have outweighed the loss of top operatives. Rough blows to consider came rather regularly during the sea- son. First Ralph Stribe was tak- en out of action in the Stan- ford game with a hip injury and stayed sidelined for the rest of the year. Bob Hurley, who got a chance to show his wares at Palo Alto and proved a potent runner, had some Northwestern Wildcats pounce on his vertebrae and he ended the season as a spectator.; Jim Balog, the constantly improv- ing junior tackle hurt his ankle in the Purdue game and couldn't play against Ohio State. ENDS JOHN Veselenak and Jim Bates twisted knees and became hospital cases in mid-season, and as a clinical coup de grace, Don Oldham broke his leg in the first half of the Ohio State game. Just when Oldham had come into his own as a pass defender in the waning minutes of his collegiate career, he was hurt and the Buck- eye pass combo of Johnny Borton and Bob Joslin took their cue with great dispatch. Despite all of their hurts, it might be said that the Wolver- ines came off quite well, with new faces replacing the old and achieving excellent results. Tackle Herb Geyer, halfback Tony Branoff, fullback Dick Bal- shizer, safety man Dan Cline and defensive halfback Stan Knicker- bocker were a few of the.perform- ers who stepped in and turned up with top-flight performances. They did such a good job in fact, that it is dubious if any of the operatives they replaced would have done better. As far as injuries go, Michigan fans don't have much to speculate about, so it looks like the "what would have happened if" club might just as well ponder on something else. How about "what would-have happened if we had used a foot- ball with handles on it?" What then huh? Southern California is probably, the strongest team to represent the Pacific Coast conference in the seven years of the current Rose Bowl agreement with the Big Ten. The Trojans will rank as solid favorites to defeat Wisconsin. The Badgers fell before U.C.L.A. by two touchdowns, while Southern Cal edged the Bruins 14-12. * * * THE FAVORED position accord- ed the men of Troy is a direct re- sult of the comparative showings the two squads made against the common opponent U.C.L.A. Several years back, someone tried the same system while pre- dicting a California victory over Michigan. The Bears of Pappy Waldorf had crushed Minnesota, a team which held the Big Ten champion Michigan squad to a 7-7 tie. Cal was unbeaten, Michigan had lost three, it was in tlo bag thought the fans on the coast. But there was something that escaped the good followers of Western foot- ball: namely that although a Big Ten champ may not go West with as good a record as the coast en- try, the fact that a team has man- aged to weather the storm of six Big Ten opponents stamps it as worthy competition. * * S JUST IN CASE any memories need refreshing, Michigan spoiled California's clean slate with a 14-6 defeat. Many asked "How come Minnesota had been able to tie Michigan after being slaughtered by California?" The Gophers knew the answer. To them, the Cal game was just another Saturday afternoon scrimmage, but the battle with their ancient enemies the Wol- verines with the Little Brown jug* at stake was the big game. So far the script has been the same for six straight Rose Bowl games. The experts have it figured that 1953 will be the first devia- tion, but the very same experts said the very same thing when the Wolverines went West. I rSEE SAM FIRST" WARMLY RECOMMENDED -FOR - CHRISTMAS GIVING B-15 Air Force DICK O'SHAUGHNESSY .. . forgotten man turned in regularly outstanding performances this fall. Playing in all nine games,' the powerful defender was hard to trap. * * * BIG DICK Strozewski, junior Jim Balog and Ben Pederson rounded out the Wolverine start- ing tackle corps. Pederson and Strozewski opened up the holes JACKETS K 95 'h- .a: v: : " - mm -M0 I- Vil AUII few 217rend in clinner Ct iei . Lightweight, Year1Around Tuxedo Two seasons ago we introduced the lightweight tuxedo for year-around wear. Today the future of this tuxedo is assured for it provides men with evening wear comfort and luxury. 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