SPOR Ts
SUPPLEMENT
YI e
Lit a
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SPORTS
SUPPLEMENT
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN. FRIDAY, AUG. 25, 1944
MAKINGTH
r Fresh Start?
When the Wolverine football team resumes play here Sept.
16, they will not only be renewing a series with the Iowa Sea-
hawks, but they will be out to start another cycle of Conference
championship wins. For it was the grid men's first place tie
with Purdue last fall that got Michigan started, and they wound
up winning six individual titles and tying for another.
These records of 1943-44 ended the most successful athletic
Year ever enjoyed by the University of Michigan, as they won
individual crowns in baseball, wrestling, swimming, tennis,
indoor and outdoor track and golf. The football team's dead-
lock with the Boilermakers for first place was the other cham-
pionship.r
The past year also marked the first time in Wolverine
athletic history that any man has captured four letters. Elroy
Hirsch, the versatile Marine from Wausau, Wis., performed this
feat. Hirsch played on three championship squads," football,
baseball and track. His other sport was basketball.
Meanwhile, the Wolverines put the finishing touches to their
summer practice this year and are now taking a brief respite
before fall workouts get underway.
Though Michigan has nothing to resemble the wealth of
ROUNDS
... . ...By Hank Mantho
great material which crowded the campus last summer, Coach
"Fritz" Crisler is more than sure that he can muster up a
better than average team for the coming campaign.
The Wolverines will again have a strong backfield, if sum-
mer drills are any indication, but their line will be weaker than
usual.
In the backfield will be veterans Bob Nussbaumer, Bob
Wiese, Don Lund, Joe Ponsetto and Jim Aliber. Nussbaumer,
a scat back, has been showing up well in running and passing,
while Captain Wiese, a three year veteran, will operate at full-
back, with Joe Ponsetto at quarter. The other backfield posi-
tion is wide open with Bill Culligan, Warren Bentz, Gene Derri-
cotte and Bill Wenzlau competing for the starting assignment.
Ralph Chubb, a first year man, has been also showing up well
at the fullback slot, and he was designated by the coaches
as the most improved player on the squad. Hence, if the
situation warrants, Wiese may be shifted to another position
to utilize the material on hand to better advantage.
With this starting backfield and the wealth of reserves on
hand, Coach Crisler has no worry on that angle, but his main
frustration is being caused with the lack of experienced person-
nel on the line.
Art Renner, Bruce Hilkene and Dick Rifenberg are the out-
standing flankmen, with Clem Bauman, Quent Sickles and Roger
Chiaverini operating at tackle. George Burg is most prominent
at the guard post while Chuck Wahl and John Lintolarf fight-
ing it out for the pivot position.
Although the Maize and Blue squad was blessed with some
outstanding freshmen material, several of their brightest stars
have given notice that they will soon be in some branch of the
service, with chances that many more will follow the same path
before the end of the year.
Rifenberg and Derricotte are both scheduled to leave be-
fore long. Rifenberg, an All-Stater from Saginaw Arthur
Hill, who was voted the outstanding prep athlete in Michigan
last year, will soon be in the Merchant Marine, while Derricotte,
an All-Stater from Defiance, 0., passed his pre-inductiqn physi-
cal for the army a short time ago. Both boys are far down
the list in the respective service calls and they may not be called
up for ninety days, which means that they can still be available
for at least part of the season.
Crisler will be working plays off his spin series and will add
punch to this attack with his modified T formation. Along
with Michigan, four other schools, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and
Minnesota have also incorporated the T formation as their
offense. This sudden popularity of the T formation has been
due to the fact that coaches have younger and brighter backs.
In ordler to utilize the talents of these green hands, they are
going to the T to capitalize on its quick opening plays and
its greater opportunities for passing.
As reports from various football camps poured in this year,
I realized that numerically summer football squads in the
Midwest were well back to prewar levels. The 125 men who
reported for opening drills at Notre Dame were tops for the
Midwest. Ohio State, Northwestern, Michigan and Wisconsin
all had turnouts which topped 100, while Minnesota, Purdue
and other schools have more than doubled their quotas of last
summer.
This begins to indicate that after several years of unequal
competition, the caliber of play will be more even than last
season when a few teams, loaded with prewar stars furnished
by the Navy and Marines, dominated this district.
It should be interesting to watch this year's games, for the
close competition which will be afforded to the public will more
than make up for the lack of stars and experienced gridmen.
1943-44
Marks
Wolverines'
Greatest Sport
ear
i
Track Squad Captures
Indoor, Outdoor Titles
Thinclads Also Win Purdue Relays with
Coach Ken Doherty Stressing Team Balance
Michigan Takes Eight
Of Nine Big Ten Crowns
Cagers Break Perfect Conference Record
For Maize and Blue's Athletic Season
By BOB CLINTON
Team balance, the same factor
which Coach Ken Doherty has stres-
sed during his reign as track mentor
at Michigan, again proved successful
as the Wolverine thinclads swept to
Victories in both the indoor and out-
door Big Ten track meets.
Besides winning the Conference
crowns, the tracksters won the Pur-
due Relays as*well as carrying the
Maize and Blue fame at the Penn
Relays and many promoter events
both indoor and outdoor.
Even though the team as a whole
made its name because of its versa-
tility, many individual runners were
Cagers Finish
Season on Red
Side of Ledger
Oosterbaan's Charges
Complete Year in Sixth
Spot in Conference
By JERRY LEWIS
1943-44 was just another year as
far as Michigan basketball was con-
cerned as Coach Bennie Oosterbaan's
charges finished the season with an
over-all record of eight wins and
nine losses and a Western Confer-
ence total of five victories in 12
starts, good for sixth place in the
standings.
Thus, the cagers became the only
winter sports aggregation which fail-
ed to bring home a Big Ten title and
became the only team during the '43-
44 season to fail in Conference play.
Michigan Gets Off to Bad Start
Michigan opened the campaign
with the brightest prospects in years
as a Navy-laden squad was estab-
lished as one of the Big Ten favorites
in pre-season dope. However, the
Wolverines got off to a bad start and
by the time they straightened out,
any chance for a championship was
lost.
The hopes of the Maize and Blue
fans for a winning team after several
years of wandering around in the
waste landsof defeat were buoyed
considerably as Oosterbaan's squad
defeated its first two opponents, Cen-
tral Michigan and Romulus Air Base,
by overwhelming scores,
The third contest of the season
provided a few more thrills as a
fighting Fort Custer quintet gave
Michigan a fright before succumbing,
46-44. With a perfect record of three
wins in as many outings, the Wolver-
ines went confidently into a two-
game series with a powerful Western
Michigan quintet and were humbled
in both tilts, 48-38 and 57-50.
The second game of this series
brought out the fighting qualities
which distinguished the Maize and
Blue five all season as it came from
behind in the final seconds to knot
the count and force the game into
overtime. It also saw the birth of
diminutive Tommy King as Michi-
gan's leading scorer as he pumped in
1 Rnnints.
in the limelight. Two of Coach Doh-
erty's most prominent stars were the
Hume twins, Bob and Ross. Their
fame as the dead-heat twins is
known from coast to coast, and their
victories on the Wolverine cinder
paths helped bring about team
championships.
Hume Twins Star
The twins shattered the University
of Michigan mile record when they
won the Central Collegiate Confer-
ence mile run in the excellent time
of 4:14.6. Previously, they had tied
H. L. Carroll's record of 4:16.4 set
back in 1916. At the indoor meet in
Chicago, the Humes tied for first in
the mile while Bob also won the two-
mile. On May 27 at Champaign, they
again dead-heated the conference
mile and Ross won the two-mile.
Bob captained the team all year, and
Ross was elected captain of the
coming season.
"Bullet" Bob Ufer, who was com-
peting in his fourth year due to a
.r.}...,"'"Ao~
BOB HUME
change in the eligibility rules, ran
his usual strong races. He success-
fully defended his Big Ten 440 cham-
pionship and spaxked the mile relay
team to victory. "Hose" ran" into
tough luckvoneweek before the out-
door conference meet. While run-
ning the 100-yard dash he pulled a
muscle and was deprived of running
in what would have been the last
meet of his college career.
Swamp Broncos
Elmer Swanson captured both the
high and low hurdle championships
at the indoor Big Ten carnival and
then was lost to the track squad
during the outdoor season when he
played varsity baseball. Bill Dale was
another Wolverine champion. He tied
for first in the highjump at both the
indoor and outdoor Conference'
meets.
Michigan's thinclads started their
long string of victories on Feb. 11,
when they swamped Western Michi-
gan 93-11 in the Yost Field House.
The next week Notre Dame fell be-
fore the Wolverine powerhouse, and
it appeared that the Wolverines
wunlda hve nne of the strongst cnl-
(
By BILL MULLENDORE
The year 1926 has always been
remembered by Michigan sports' fans
as the greatest in Wolverine athletic
history, but the 1943-44 season so
far eclipsed it both in individual per-
formance and team championships
that it will inevitably supplant the
1926 campaign.
No less than eight Big Ten titles
were brought to Ann Arbor by men
carrying the Maize and Blue banner,
two more than were garnered in 1926.
Only in basketball was Michigan
unsuccessful in its quest for titular
laurels in the Big Ten, and while the
hockey team did not win a crown it
was only because there was no om-
petition available.
Gridders Start It Off
Football started things off in the
fall of 1943 as the Maize and Blue
gridders swept through six Confer-
ence foes to finish unbeaten in the
Big Ten. The only sour note of the
season was a 35-12 loss at the hands
of Notre Dame in a game played
before the largest crowd ever to see
a Michigan football game.
Here's the Record
I-M BUILDING-This building contains almost every facility for indoor sport and recreation. It forms
the north side of the quadrangle of sports buildings, which consist of the Administration Building, Yost
Field House and a concrete stand for track and field events.
GRAND OLD MAN OF FOOTBALL:
Fielding Yost Still Stands as a Symbol of
Past Great Wolverine Gridiron Campaigns
Whenever the subject of Michigan
football is 'discussed, the name of
Fielding H. Yost is inevitably drawn
in for Yost is to Michigan football as
"x" is to "y" in any- arithmetical
equation.
Known throughout the land as
"Hurry Up" and "Michigan's Grand
Old Man," the genial Yost has blazed
a trail in athletics which few have
equalled and none have excelled,J
ranking with such great names as
Amos Alonzo Stagg, Bob Zuppke,
Knute Rockne and the rest of the
gridiron greats who made their chief
contributions from the sidelines
rather than on the field.
'Point-a-Minute'
As a coach he turned out some of
the mightiest elevens ever assembled,
including his famed "Point-a-Min-
ute" squads of 1901-'05, possibly the
greatest succession of teams ever to
don cleats. Thus, he opened his ca-
reer in a blaze of glory and closed it
in the same manner 25 years later
with four more great teams in 1922-
'26.
Yost's story cannot be told in the
records of great football teams, how-
ever, nor can it be told in his other
accomplishments as an athletic dir-
ector, among them the building of
the present $3,000,000 athletic plant
which now stands as a living tribute
to his name.
Builds Up Youth
These were all great feats, typical
of his boundless energy and enthusi-
asm, but the thing that he has left
behind which will be remembered
long after these others have faded is
his insurmountable spirit and his
faith in youth. Perhaps no man has
been so universally acclaimed for his
contributions to the elevation of
got his first introduction to the game
of football distinguishing himself as
a player and also as a student of the
game.
No doubt inspired by his experi-
coaching game to devote all his time
to his duties as athletic director.
When he resigned in 1940, Yost
could look back with pride on 39
years of service to the University of
Michigan, to his career as a coach,
to his physical education teaching
program, to an outstanding intra-
mural athletic program, to the mam-
moth athletic plant which bears his
name, and to the fine traditions
which have since become institutions
under his guidance.
Won Lost
Football............8 1
Basketball .......... 8 9
*Indoor Track ...... 4 0
*Wrestling .......... 4 0
*Swimming ........ 4 3
Hockey .............5 3
Baseball .............15 4
*Outdoor Track .... 3 0
* Tennis............9 1
*Golf ....,........ 7 3
Tied
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
Fi've winter sports next occupied
the athletic spotlight, and the Wol-
verines capitalized on the opportun-
ity to win three more championships
besides hanging up the best recoid
made by a Michigan hockey team 'in
several years. For a time it appeared
as if Bennie Oosterbaan's cagers
might join the parade, but hard luck.
dogged their footsteps all the. way,
and they finally wound up in sixth
place.
The indoor track team primed
itself for the Conference meet at
Chicago by taking three straight dual
meets and then racking tip a record
number of points to take the cham-
pionship going away. Illinois, paced
by the brilliant Buddy Young, was a
distant second.
Swimmers Come Through
Coach Matt Mann's swimmers'
season was marred somewhat by the
presence of one of the finest swim-
ming teams ever assembled, the
Great Lakes aggregation, but in spite
of two dual meet losses to the Sailors
had enough over-all power, to with-
stand Northwestern's challenge in
the Big Ten meet. The tankers tried
to make it a double victory by adding
the NCAA crown but dropped a
thrilling one-point decision to Alan
Ford-and Yale,
The wrestlers opened the season in
convincing fashion by winning three
straight dual meets to serve notice
on the rest of the Conference that
they were gunning for their second
championship in Wolverine history.
The title meet was made close when
ace Jim Galles, a sure individual
champ, was disqualified, but Coach
Ray Courtright's charges came
through without Galles' aid to
squeeze out a narrow one-point vic-
tory.
No Competition
Coach Eddie Lowrey's hockey team
could find no collegiate competition
available and so did the next best
thing by taking on Canadian and
American amateur sextets. Against
such stiff opposition the pucksters
turned in a very creditable record of
five wins against three defeats.
The coming of spring found four
more squads in quest of Big Ten
laurels, and all of them came thro-
ugh with flying colors to round out
Michigan's domination of the Con-
ference. Thus, baseball, indoor track,
golf and tennis were added to the list.
Baseball Team Wins
Coach Ray Fisher's baseball squad
got back on the title road after losing
out to the weatherman last year by
winning ten straight Conference
games to leave no doubt as to their
mastery. The only blot on the record
was a 3-3 seven-inning tie with Illi-
nois in a game called off by rain. It
was Michigan's ninth crown in 24
years.
The track team took up right
where it left off in the winter and,
although pressed a little more closely
by Illinois this time went undefeated
in two triangular meets and the Con-
ference meet. It was the same old
story of Michigan's team balance
against a galaxy of individual stars,
and again team balance paid off.
Coach Courtright was given an- op-
rnrs-i 4- n - ho _- A s .e
*-Includes Western,
meet.
Conference
Won Big Ten championships in
all sports except basketball and
hockey. No Big Ten competition
in hockey.
Wolverine Hockey TeainTakes
Five of Season's Eight Contests-
1945 Squad Has Plenty of Potent Manpower;
Faces Problem of Finding College Opposition
i
FIELDING H. YOST
ence, he turned to coaching as a pro-
fession, receiving his first appoint-
ment in 1897. Most of his early jobs
lasted but a year or two, and when in
1901 Stanford gave him his release
after he had won the Pacific Confer-
ence championship in his first year
because he was not an alumnus of
the University, Yost accepted an
offer to come to Michigan. This was
in 1901, a year to be remembered by
all Wolverine sports fans;:
Success Instant
His success was meteoric. Led by
the immortal Willie Heston and
By ROGER GOELZ
The University of Michigan's 1944
hockey team playing what might
have been its last regularly scheduled
season for the duration turned in an
enviable record of five victories as
against three defeats, amassing a
total of 39 points to the opposition's
31.
Although this year's competition
was against Canadian amateur
teams, since all Big Ten schools ex-
cepting Minnesota have dropped
hockey from their list of competitive
sports, the Wolverines of Coach Ed-
ward Lowrey defeated such strong
hockey outfits as the Detroit Vickers
Club, the Brantford, Ont. sextet, the
Paris, Ont. team, and a strong team
from the Fingal Canadian Royal
Air Force. The Michigan team lost
nnI n the ntrnit VirrrC lu.h a
Vince Abbey deserves special mention
for his outstanding defense' work.
breaking up many an opposition play
before it reached the Michigan ice.
If the 1945 Michigan hockey squad
becomes a reality it will be one of the
strongest sextets ever to take the ice
for Michigan. The team will be com-
posed almost entirely of returning
veterans. The new Wolverine hockey
mentor replacing Coach Lowrey, who
recently received his release from
Athletic Director Herbert "Fritz"
Crisler, can be certain of the services
of veteran Dick Mixer in holding
down the Wolverine goal net. Other
returning veterans include Ted
Greer, John Jenswold and Herb Up-
ton, two crack Wolverine wingmen,
Bob Henderson and Tom Messenger,
outstanding on defense for the Wol-
verines in the last season.
Mannower Plus