Wolverine Teams Win Four Conference Titles By BILL MULLENDORE Daily Sports Editor The year 1943-44 saw Michigan ath- letic teams win eight of a possible nine Western Conference champion- ships, and a tenth squad, competing outside the Conference, also finished with a winning record. Wolverine teams did not quite du- plicate that performance in 1944-45, but no one had any real reason to ex- pect them to do so. Never before 1943 had any Big Ten school so completely blanketed the sports scene, and it just wasn't in the books for it to happen again. But 1944-45 was still a pretty fair year for Michigan athletics. Four Conference championships came home to roost in Ann Arbor for an- other year, and without exception Wolverine representatives in other sports were in there making it tough for the opposition all the way, Four Titles Won Swimming, indoor track, baseball c and tennis were the championship- producing sports last season, while football, outdoor track and golf bare- ly missed. The basketball and wrest- ling teams did not fare so well in title play, but managed to be thorns in the sides of the leaders. The hockey team did not play a Conference schedule, but did well enough against strong amateur outfits. Football started things off with a bang in the fall of 1944, as Michigan began its eighth year under Coach H-. 0. (Fritz) Crisler. The Wolverines did not win a championship but came about as close as it is possible to come without winning one, losing out in the final game to Ohio State by a mere four points. The team finished the season with a record of eight wins and two losses, after being doped as a .500 ball club in pre-season prog- nostication. Winter Sports Take Over Winter sports then took over the spotlight with basketball, indoor track, swimming, wrestling and hock- ey on the docket. All five gave Michi- gan fans plenty of thrills before the curtain rang down on the winter sports scene. Coach Bennie Oosterbaan's basket- ballers started out like a house afire, winning eight straight non-Confer- ence tilts, but faded slightly as the Big Ten teams moved in. Early sea- son victories over Indiana and Illi- nois boded well for the Wolverines, but the going got progressively tough- er as the team finished with a Con- ference record of five wins and seven losses, good for fifth place. Track Team Wins The indoor track team had a Big Ten championship to defend, and Coach Ken Doherty's charges re-. sponded nobly to the task. After los- ing out to a strong Illinois team in a dual meet, the Wolverines edged out the Illini at the Conference finale in a garrison finish, winning 55 1-10 to 54 1-10. Strength in the distance events proved Michigan's main forte, as the thinclads piled up 37 out of a possible 45 points in the mile, half- mile and two-mile in taking the title. Coach Matt Mann's swimmers also assumed the role of title defenders and swept through the season with only a dual meet loss to Great Lakes to mar their record. The Great Lakes defeat was later avenged, and the Wolverine natators topped a fine per- formance by out-shining the rest of the field in the Conference meet to win going away, giving Michigan its second championship. New Coaches Stymied The wrestling and hockey teams both entered the season with new coaches as Wallie Weber took over the groaners and Vic Heyliger was brought in from the University of Il- linois as ice mentor. Neither tutor fared too well in his first year. The wrestlers, after amassing a commen- dable dual meet record, were snowed under at the Conference title meet but did place Jim Galles as 165-pound individual champ. The hockey team won only four of ten games, most of them with strong Canadian amateur outfits. Attention was focussed on the base- ball team as the spring sports cam- paign got underway. Coach Ray Fish- er, in his 25th year as Wolverine dia- mond mentor, put together another of his traditionally fine teams, a team that lost only one of 21 games. That loss was sustained in the first game of the season, after which the squad beat everybody in sight, including eight Big Ten institutions. Such a fine record, of course, produced a championship. Thinclads Lose This Time The outdoor track team tried to repeat its indoor performance at the Conference meet, but Illinois was not to be denied this time, taking the meet by 10 points. Prior to that loss, the Wolverines had been defeated only by a combination of Great Lakes, Illinois and Ohio State in a quad- rangular meet won by Great Lakes. It remained for the undefeated tennis team, coached by LeRoy Weir, to bring home Michigan's fourth title. The netters were never headed in their title-bound career, being ser- iously challenged only by Ohio State. In winning, the Wolverines compiled one of the finest records ever put to- gether by a Michigan tennis squad. Golfers Out-Dueled Coach Bill Baclay saw a cham- pionship elude him in his first season as golf coach, but his charges made it plenty hot for Ohio State, the ulti- mate winner. In fact, the Wolverines and the Bucks were at each other's figurative throats all season. Each school copped one dual meet, but OSU had the last laugh in the Conference meet. And so the record stands. Michigan has now won at least three Confer- ence championships every year since 1923. What will the year 1945-46 bring? At this stage, it is hard to say. The Wolverines have depended to a large extent on Navy and Marine talent for athletic teams and will pre- sumably do so again. The draft and the course of the war will also have a great effect on the eventual per- sonnel of the ten Michigan teams. But Michigan athletic tradition is a winning tradition. Michigan teams start out with the idea of being win- ners. And, while it is probable that mostly new faces will greet Michi- gan's capable coaching staff as the time for next year's campaigns rolls around, no one will be very much sur- prised if 1945-46 is another banner year for Wolverine athletics. SPORTS p4Sn6zgrn SUPPLEMENT ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, AUG. 24, 1945 Football Squad aces ruelling Sche SPORTS SUPPLEMENT dule Baseball Team Takes 20 of 21, Coach Fisher Has Big 25th Season By MARY LU HEATH Celebrating his 25th year as W verine baseball mentor, Ray Fish received almost every blessing coach could ask for as his 1945 ni won its second straight Big Ten ti with a perfect record and dropp only one game in the 21 contestsc its schedule. A single loss to Western Michiga in the first game of the season ma red the Wolverine record, which cor tinued the tradition of Michiga domination of the Big Ten diamo. crown. - In the 25 years Fisher Ni been at Michigan, his charges hai brought home 10 championships. Six Lettermen Return. Building his team around a ni cleus of six lettermen, Fisher al; uncovered infield talent which wi Wins Title. probably be available for the '46 season. Capt..Don Lund returned to his old center field post for the third year, while Bill Gregor and Bill Nel- son completed a veteran outfield. Last ol- year's starting battery of southpaw ier Bo Bowman and catcher Bob Stev- a enson was also available for this ne spring's squad, while Walt Kell at tle third was the only veteran infielder. ed Kell led the team in batting this sea- on son with a .348 average. Fisher solved his remaining infield an problems by sending football and r- - ........ NEWS + VIEWS + COMMENT By BILL MULLENDORE, Sports Editor IT IS TO BE PRESUMED that the average ireshman entering a univer- sity is interested primarily in its academic aspects more than its athletic offerings. And it is probably just as well that such is the case, for we have not yet heard of anyone who passed a single college course by religiously attending every home football game. On the other hand, it is impossible for those who plan to enter. this particular university to forget that Michigan's athletic tradition rates only slightly below her academic reputation. For Michigan, ever since the dim days of yore, has consistently ranked at or near the top in practically every phase of major collegiate athletic activity. Many factors go into this thing we have chosen to call "Michigan's athletic tradition." Inter-mingled in the whole is a succession of great coaches, great teams, great athletes, great contests-and great supporters 'of those teams that have given Michigan such a prominent position on the sports map. It is in this latter regard that you, as freshmen coming onto the campus for the first time, will find your chief role. A few Qf you, a very few in fact, will find places on the various Wolverine squads, but the great ma- jority must make your contribution from the sidelines. -THEREIS no over-estimating the importance of that role. The best temin the world is hindered by a lack of support from the people it represents. And Michigan teams represent no one if they do not represent the student body of the University at large. In past years other schools, most of them rivals of Michigan, have hurled charges of student apathy toward University athletics. Some of these charges, unfortunately, have a foundation in fact. .Far be it from us to reason why the Michigan student body, give, every year teams that consistently, rank with the nation's best, fails to support those teams. But the fact remains that a tendency to do just that does exist. It is up to you, as freshmen, to help halt that tendency. The sports enthusiast on the Michigan campus does not lack for opportunities to display his enthusiasm. Beginning with football in the fall, running through basketball, swimming, indoor track, wrestling, and hockey in the winter, and finishing off with baseball, golf, tennis, and out- door track in the spring, the Wolverine sports schedule offers a continual eight-month round of hotly-contested athletic action, action which brings together the stars of Michigan and of other great schools under the very finest of conditions. Your job is to support those teams. In supporting them, you will help to continue this great tradition that is Michigan athletics.. MEN BEHIND THE GUN: Michigan Football Squads Get Best of Tutoring from Experts Cinder Squad Wins, Loses in Big Ten Meets Takes Indoor Crown But Misses Outside By BILL MULLENDORE Daily Sports Editor Michigan's 1944-45 track squad had both an indoor and an outdoor title to defend and succeeded in accom- plishing just half the objective, win- ning the indoor crown in spectacu- lar fashion by a single point but los- ing to Illinois outdoors three months later. At the beginning of the year, Coach Ken Doherty found himself with a remarkable corps of distance run- ners, but season results showed weak- nesses in the sprints, hurdles and field events, depriving the 1944-45 outfit of the traditional team balance asso- ciated with Doherty-coached teams. It was the lack of balance that cost the outdoor title. Pacing the squad all season were Ross and Bob Hume, Michigan's famed dead-heat twins, who per- formed remarkably well despite se- vere pressure of Medical School work. Supporting the Humes in the distance events were Charlie Birdsall, Archie Parsons, Bob Thomason, Ross Willard, Dick Barnard and Walt Fairservis. Sprinters Named Leading Wolverine sprinters in- cluded quarter-milers Dick Forrestal, Bill McConnell, Bob Mann and George Shepherd; dashmen Julian Witherspoon, Val Johnson and Hen- ry Fondd; and hurdlers Ted Balogh, Bill Marcoux, Russ Reader and John Larson. Heading the list of Michigan field event entrants were pole vaulters Chuck Lauritsen, Warren Bentz and Larry Sheer; John McNab in the high jump, discus and shot put; and John Weyers and Horace Campbell in the broad jump. Win TndonrT ile '44 Gridders Barely Miss Big Ten Title Lose to Ohio State, 18-14, in Last Game BY BILL MULLENDORE Daily Sports Editor If Michigan's 1945 football team does as well over the season as its immediate predecessor, then no one will have much kick coming when the final game has been played this fall. For, although the -Wolverines of 1944 did not win a Western Confer- ence championship, they failed to do so by the narrowest of margins, los- ing to Ohio State in the final three minutes, 18-14. The season's total record showed eight wins and only two losses over a very rugged sched- ule which did not have a "breather" any place along the line. Predict Dire Things All sorts of dire rumors filled the Michigan camp as practice got un- derway in the fall of '44. The sports writers hinted that "this was going to be Crisler's bad year," that the Wolverines, after tying for the cham- pionship with Purdue the year before, had run out of talent and would be lucky to break even. And the outlook wasn't exactly rosy at the time. Only a sprinkling of veterans, most of them backfield men, showed up for practice, and the balance of the squad presented a motley mixture of green freshmen and unproven Navy and Marine trainees. From this agglomeration, Head Coach H. O. (Fritz) Crisler and his aides were to mold what was in some respects the finest team Mich- igan has had during Crisler's regime, including the era of Tom Harmon and Co. Never did a Michigan team fight harder, or accomplish more with less. Lineup Named Michigan's starting lineup for the opening game against Great Lakes showed Art Renner and Bruce Hil- kene at ends; Clem Bauman and Art LeRoux at tackles; George Burg and Quentin Sickels, guards; and John Lintol, center, in the line. Operating in the backfield were quarterback Joe Ponsetto, halfbacks Gene Derri- cotte and Bob Nussbaumer, and full- back Bob Wiese. That lineup, with a few changes, played through to the end of the sea- son. Milan Lazetich, who gained all- (See '44 GRIDDERS, Page 5) Wrestlers Fail In defense of Big T'en Title Although Michigan's 1944-45 wrestling squad depended largely on Navy personnel, as did most other teams, for its talent, the Wolverines ended the season with a fair record of three wins, two ties, and one de- feat. Coach Wally Weber began the sea- son with only two returning letter- men: Jim Galles, star in the 65- pound class, and Bob Gittins, 135- By MARY LU HEATH Michigan's football squad faces one of thestoughest schedules in Wolverine history this season as it prepares to tangle with the nation's strongest elevens, including.Army, Navy, Great Lakes and Michigan State, besides the perpetually strong Conference teams. From the season opener with Great Lakes here, Sept. 15, to the eleven which may have the services of ex-Illinois star Claude (Buddy) Young, and. ex-Michigan. end Dick Rifenburg, the Wolverines will en- tertain Indiana here Sept., 22. The Hoosiers were one of the two teams which beat Michigan last year, and will be no "soft touch" in the com- ing Conference opener. - The traditional Michigan State game will take place here Sept. 29 while the following week~end will ,se the Wolverines invade Northwestern in their first excursion into enemy territory Oct. 6, at Evanston. Begin Army Rivalry The Wolverines go far afield Oct. 13 when they travel to New York's Yankee Stadium for the Army game, the first football contest ever played between Michigan and the West Pointers. The Army eleven, evep by See FOOTBALL, Page 5 Ca gers Finish Big.Ten Race In Fifth Place Army, Navy Head Slate; Six Big Ten Tilts Carded Coach Crisler Builds Squad Around Eight Lettermen, Large Collection of New Talent Win For Five, .417 Lose Seven Percentage RAY (RED) LOUTHEN basketball letterman Jack Weisen- burger to shortstop and utilizing freshman Dom Tomasi s talents at second base. The first base berth was held down by Tom Rosema, who was also used as a pitcher. Louthen Outstanding Big news of the year from the per- sonnel standpoint was the appear- ance of Ray (Red) Louthen in a Michigan uniform. Louthen, a for- mer Western Michigan hurler, regis- (See BASEBALL, Page 3) Golfers Third In Big Ten Play Ohio State Is Nemesis For Wolverine Squad BY SY LICHTER Michigan's golf team opened the 1945 season successfully April 23 when it met and defeated the Uni- versity of Detroit's Titans, 151/2-21/2. There were six starters on the 1945 team, all of whom received major letters. They were Capt. Paul O'Hara, Phil Marcellus, John Jenswold, John Tews, Bob Ernst, and Ken Morey., Although the team only used five men in most competition, players were alternated, giving six letters. Only Loss to C. S. U. After beating the U. of D. linksters, the Maize and Blue golf squad lost its first match of the season to Ohio State nn Anril 28 The Buckeyes CAPT. JOE PONSETTO By HANK KEISER Faced with one of the roughest schedules in its history, Michigan's 1945 football squad is counting on Herbert O. (Fritz) Crisler and his aides to shape a team of the calibre Wolverine Athletic Director and Head Football Coach "Fritz" Cris- ler, who has been with Michigan since 1939. Crisler is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he played end under Alonzo Stagg and became one of the only two Maroon nine-letter men. Crisler's Record Excellent In his eight years as the directing genius of Maize and Blue grid crews Crisler has built up an enviable rec- ord of 48 victories as against only 11 defeats and two ties. In addi- tion, his 1943 team shared the Big Ten football crown with Purdue. Clarence L. (Biggie) Munn han- dles the training of the powerful Wolverine forward walls. He was an All-American guard at Minnesota in 1931 and 1932 under Crisler, and joined the Maize and Blue coaching staff in 1938. Earl T. Martineau is charged with whipping Maize and Blue backfields into working units. Martineau earned' closing game with its traditional ri- val, Ohio State, the Michigan team will have only one breather on Oct. 20, a mid-season open date. Great Lakes First After taking on a Great Lakes 1itle Won Again By Swimmers Only Loss to Great Lakes Is Avenged By HANK KEISER Michigan's 1945 swimming squad again dominated Big Ten swimming circles, topping off an - undefeated Conference season by running away with their 16th championship crown in 19 years. Plowing through Northwestern, Purdue, Minnesota and Ohio State in the four Big Ten dual meets in which they engaged, Coach Matt Mann's men compiled a total of 198 points to their opponents' 137. Although the Maize and Blue natators got off to a slow start, drop- ping a pre-season meet to Great Lakes by a heartbreaking 44-40 score, they avenged this defeat later in the year by swamping the power- ful Bluejackets, 50-34. Wildcats First Victim Northwestern's crew was the first to fall under the fury of the Wolver- By MARY LU HEATH After sweeping seven non-Confer- ence games early in the season,' the 1944-45 Wolverine cagers found the going a mite tougher in the Big Ten and bogged down toward the end of what looked to be a promising Con- ference campaign, winning five and losing seven to come in fifth in the loop, one notch higher than the pre- ceding season. Coach Bennie Oosterbaan's quin- tet, built around Capt. Don Lund, the only major letterwinner from last year, compiled an over-all record of 12 wins against seven losses, although its final percentage in the Western Conference was .417. Lund Heads Lineup Leading scorer for the Wolverines was Bob Geahan, who was among the top three scorers in the Confer- ence until mid-season, and finished twelfth in the final standings. Shar- ing the forward spots with Geahan were Don Mullaney and Keith Hard- er, the only returning letterman for this year's squad. Lund switched from his old guard post to center, al- though an ankle injury kept him out of several games. Don Lindquist, captain-elect, and Walt Kell shared the guard berths. The Big Ten season opened with a terrific overtime game between the Wolverines and last year's champion Ohio quintet. The Buckeyes were overtaken in the closing minutes of the game after leading during most of the second half, but finally nosed Michigan, 44-41. The loss, although disappointing to the Wolverines, was in reality a moral victory. Two Close Wins The next two games resulted in close victories for the Wolverines as It .: 'f I_