Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 61

Plinneapolis Sports, 1C Sunday December 5 1971 (Business no 4 ''I Giel New football dirt man By Dwayne Netland Staff Writer JiUlifGielbCame athIetic director Saturday at the with firm convictions that his new football coach would not have to be an man rebuilt footba11 Program at the university could be "It would be ideal if there were another Bud Grant around to take over the football team," he said. "But am not going to confine the search to a university enough about the Gophers to watch them. "We cannot allow our football program to continue to dwindle. The interest must be there. Nothing would help more to revive it, of course, than a winning team.

But the program itself at Minnesota is an excellent one, and we are going to have to get out and sell it." Giel said he did not oppose recruiting on a national scale, although he claimed the basic makeup of the team could still be supplied from the Upper Midwest. graduate. Look at what Bill Fitch and Bill Musselman have done for the basketball program at the university. Neither is an 'M' man." Despite the inroads of professional sports in Minnesota, Giei said emphatically that college football in this area is not dead. "If I thought that," he added, "I wouldn'J be here.

College football is bigger and better than ever over the country. I looked around Memorial Stadium last fall and couldn't believe that only 35,000 people cared "We'd all like to get another Bobby Bell or Carl Eller," he said. "On the other hand, there is football talent in this area, too. We won't get every blue chip student-athlete, because there is always the boy whose father went to Dartmouth or Princeton. We'll have to supplement the loss of them with outside boys.

But I feel very strongly that if we get the best available talent from our natural recruiting area we'll do very well." Although Giel graduated from Minnesota the same year Giel continued on page 3C Vikings defeats 0' rmmmmsmmmvm State iiWWMM'tMk I v-1 I By Merrill Swanson Staff Writer San Diego, Calif. Wide receiver Al Denson was suspended by the Minnesota Vikings Saturday when he refused to practice after finding out that he had been dropped from the active roster. strength. The 6-8 Brewer, who finished with 14 points, latched on to 15 rebounds, nine in the second half. And Behagen, who grabbed 18 rebounds for the night, hit six of nine shots in the second half to close the game with 25 points.

Turner hit four of eight in the second half and finished with 16. And then there was Nix. The 6-3 junior college transfer from Owenton, directed the Gopher offense expertly and hit four of five shots for 12 points, 10 in the second half. The biggest lead either 'U' five Continued on page 14C finished with a 48-29 rebound edge. But the frigid shooting hand warmed in the second half as the Gophers wore down the Cyclones, hitting 14 of 23 shots, 61 percent.

The Gophers grabbed control especially in those game-turning minutes. "I don't think it was so much that the defense bothered us," said John. "We were getting pretty much the same shots in the second half but we started to force our shots once we got about seven or eight points behind." The Gophers were paced during that critical seven minutes by Behagen, Bob Nix and Clyde Turner with By Jon Roe Staff Writer Ames, Iowa Two ingredients, Bill Mus-selmann has shouted for seven weeks, rebounding and defense, paid huge dividends Saturday night at Hilton Coliseum. The Gophers employed both to the utmost to pound out a 72-58 victory over Iowa State before 13,500 viewers. "That's as strong a rebounding team as you'll see," observed Maury John, the new Iowa State coach.

"They're awesome on the boards. All you can expect to get is one shot." For 30 minutes that was enough for the Cyclones. But the Gopher defense cooled off the Cyclones and Minnesota broke open what had been a tightly contested game. Denson, who was acquired in a trade with Denver prior to the season, indicated that he thought he should have been starting and intimated that there were racial overtones in the move by the Vikings. "To put a star with my talent on the move list at this time of the year is ridiculous," Denson said before leaving San Diego, where the Vi- fi iM game against the Chargers.

Denson was tied for second in receptions the American Football Conference when he played with Denver last but has been used sparing Denson ly by the Vikings and has season, Larry Batson caught only 10 passes. With 8:03 to go the Goph-' ers led only 55-53 as Iowa State used a 53 percent shooting eye to offset the Gophers rebounding dominance. But in the next seven minutes, Iowa State was able to score just one point and the Gophers 5 zoomed to a 69-54 advan- tage. "You know that if you just keep working," said Jim Brewer, "things are going to turn out all right. Last year, I don't know if we would have won this game but this year you know that defense and rebounding will do the job." The Gophers had hit only 36 percent from the field in the first half, yet trailed just 33-31.

That was because they controlled the backboards to the tune of 29-12, Ron Behagen alone grabbing 15. The Gophers Coach Bud Grant told Denson yesterday morning that he had been put on the inactive list to make room on the roster for receiver John Henderson who had missed seven games with a shoulder injury. Denson, who would have missed at least two games, asked to be cut and Grant refused. "I've been all-pro the last six years," Denson said. "''They don't have anyone here better.

But they try to make 'em better. I had a starting job. I caught 10 passes in three games. We won. What else can I do? Maybe this happened because I haven't signed a contract.

Do you know? They really have done a job on me. If I was washed up, fine but you've seen me in practice. You've seen me in games. It can't be my attitude on the field. I've practiced as hard as anyone.

"The bad thing is that John (Henderson) isn't well. Gene (Washington) is not well. Gene hasn't done a thing. None of them is better than I am period." Denson said he wanted to talk earlier about his problems with the team, but decided against it. "I would have opened my mouth earlier except I didn't want to hurt the players," he said.

"I didn't want to hurt their thing. The players here are beautiful. It's nothing with them. Denson continued on page 5C Aviation had Lindbergh, baseball had Babe Ruth and now skydiving has D. B.

Cooper, a tos. hero -who combines characteristics of Lindy and the Babe. When Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Airlines plane 10 nights ago, cradling 21 pounds of $20 bills in his arms, he captured the hearts and fired the imagination of millions of Americans. Not since Lindy took off for France has one man had so many people cheering him on. There are other similarities.

Both Cooper and Lindbergh planned and prepared in obscurity, each stepped into the public gaze only to accomplish what had to be done, then each swiftly returned to his cherished privacy. In fact, Cooper's goal appears to be utter anonymity at least until he reaches a country with no extradition treaty. We call him Cooper only because that is the name he used while hijacking the airliner. When one assesses the effect of his feat, Cooper can be likened to Ruth. The Babe was a titanic figure who changed the entire complexion of the game of baseball.

With one swing of the bat, Ruth could wipe out an opposing manager's entire game strategy and perhaps destroy his whole career. Now ponder for a moment what Cooper has done for skydivers. Staff Photo by John Croft Goalie Gump Worsley of the North Stars defended his cage against the advance of Philadelphia's Bobby Clarke Saturday night at Metropolitan Sports Center. Gump won this round, saving on the puck with his left skate. ous driving conditions to watch the Stars extend their unbeaten streak to a club record of nine.

The result opened a five-point margin for the first-place Stars over Chicago in the West Division. Goalie Gump Worsley played his usual superb game against the Flyers. In three starts against Philadelphia this season, Gump has won two and tied one, giving up a tota lof two goals. In 11 games over the season, the 42-year-old Worsley, having one of his best years, has given up only 15 goals. He had a shutout last night until Bill Lesuk put a screened shot past him on a Philadelphia power play at 14:50 of the third period.

Minnesota's offensive punch last night was supplied by Jude Drouin, breaking out of a long scoring slump, and Murray Oliver. Oliver scored in the first pertod, Drouin broke through in the second and then, after Lesuk pulled the Flyers within 2-1 range, Drouin hit an empty net on a weird pass from Ted Harris at 19:50 of the third. Philadelphia goalie Bruce Gamble had been lifted at 19:37 to give the Flyers an extra skater." As the Flyers poured into the Minnesota zone, Harris grabbed the puck and hoisted it high into the air, on line with the North Stars continued on page 14C By Dwayne Netland Staff Writer The old formula worked again. Strong checking, great goaltending and an ability to capitalize on enough scoring opportunities lifted the North Stars past Philadelphia 3-1 Saturday night at Metropolitan Sports Center. The North Stars, with more points than any club in the National Hockey League at 39, have now given up only one goa lin each of the last seven games.

A crowd of 15,436, third-largest ever to see an NHL regular season game at the Met, braved snow and" hazard- Up until 10 days ago, sky-divers were commonly regarded as a slightly dippy but relatively harmless group who spent their weekends dinking around pastures and occasionally competing for a silver-plated cup. With one smashing performance, Cooper raised skydiving from the level of mild weekend lunacy to that of a rewarding professional sport with enormous potential for an alert entrepreneur. Other athletes have, on occasion, drawn more for a night's work than the $200,000 Cooper carried when he jumped from that airplane, but none has ever attracted a larger crowd. Dallas wallops Jets derails Broadway Joe IS "1 Flnlcy A 1 jOV 1 5 Nicklaus Sports news inside Michigan Tech broke open a close game with two early goals In the third period to defeat the University of Minnesota hockey team 5-3, The victory was Tech's third in 6ix games and left them with 12 points; the Gophers are 1-7 with two points in the WCHA. Page 4C California Seals owner Charles O.

Finley crying 'foul" after being duped in two National Hockey League trades. Page 6C Jack Nicklau3 shot a 4-undor-par 68 and charged Into a tie with Terry Dill in the second round of the Walt Disney World Golf Tournament. Bert Yancey, at 136, trailed the leaders by a stroke. Page 8C Tennessee handed Penn State Its first loss of tho season 31-11, ending the Nittany Lions' 15-game winning streak. Page 12C.

Quarterback Jack Mildren scored two touchdowns and passed for a third to load Oklahoma to a 58-14 victory over Oklahoma State. Tho Sooners broke a number of records In the process. Page 12C Pittsburgh upsot Now York 4-2 and moved into third place In the National Hockey Leaguo West Division. Page 14C catch up from that far behind you have to put the ball up a lot and that means the passer is vulnerable." Coach Tom Landry of the Cowboys said "We were ready and it was difficult for the Jets to get as high for the game as we were. Joe gave them a little something to work on but he was off.

We respect him." The i return by Thomas repeated an 89-yard touchdown return on the opening kickoff Thanksgiving Day against Los Angeles. "I just couldn't believe I Dallas Continued page 4C down pass, the Cowboys held a 14-0 lead before Namath ever cocked his arm. Namath served up an interception that contributed to a quick 28-0 Dallas first quarter lead and completed only one of five passes for 20 yards. He played only the first quarter and returned briefly in the fourth period when sub Bob Davis reinsured an ankle. "I didn't throw well all week and my arm wasn't feeling right," said Namath.

"I know I must have thrown the same pass to Don Maynard five or six times and didn't hit him at all. The coach took me out because they were ahead 28-0 und if you try to Associated Press Dallas, Texas Not even Broadway Joe Namath could muster enough magic Saturday to derail another Super Bowl stretch drive by the Dallas Cowboys. Namath making his first regular season start since October, 1970 for the New York Jets, was just another quarterback named Joe lo Dallas defenders in the Cowboys 52-10 National Football League victory. The triumph left Dallas at 9-3, a fuil game ahead of Washington in the East. Thanks to a 101 -yard return of tho opening kick-off by Isaac Thomas and a Roger Staubach touch "He jumped somewhere between Portland and Reno," the FBI said at midnight and at dawn half of the able-bodied population of the Pacific Northwest was out scouring the woods.

Each mind held a single thought: to congratulate Cooper and split the loot. Cooper has vanished, perhaps forever. He was described as middle-aged and $200,000 is enough to insure a comfortable and well earned retirement. But the nation is well stocked with other proficient skydivers and, I am sure, country airports are ciogged with applicants. Now the world awaits the promotional genius (Bill Veeck, where are who can resolve the problems of franchises and iron out any difficulties with the Internal Revenue Service.

He won't need a stadium nor will he have to hire a staff to handle advance publicity. His only limitation will be a jet airliner's fuel capacity. Imagine being able to sell tickets for 20 miles on either side of a flight pattern from here toTicrra deiFucgo. 1.