Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 12

Sunday, Nov. 12, 1978 soorts SPORTS PEOPLE 2 FOOTBALL SCORES 8 Where the deei are Looking for the prime spots to bag your deer? Tom Opre gives you his best bets. Page 11 Today's television highlights; ABC 12:30 p.m. College Football 78 NBC 1:00 p.m. Football: Denver at Cleve.

CBS 4:00 p.m. Football: Dallas-Green Bay ABC 9:00 p.m. Football: Pittsburgh at LA. 10 HORSE RACING DETROIT FREE PRESS 11 OUTDOORS prep football playoffs Rice dumps Groves, 21-7 By MICK McCABE Free Press Sports Writer Defending Class A Brother Rice got a tre from its defense and i hampion Birmingham us second-half effort irmances from quart- erback Jon English and ide receiver Marty Marti Class A SATURDAY'S RESULTS Birmingham Brother Rice 21, Birmingham Groves 7. North Farmington 14, Livonia Churchill 3.

Class SATURDAY'S RESULTS Saginaw MacArthur 35, Essexville Garber 20. Warren Woods 27, Melvindale 6. Class SATURDAY'S RESULTS Ishpeming 22, Roscommon 0. Class SATURDAY'S RESULTS Battle Creek St. Philip 21, Mendon 19.

Detroit DePorres 26, Saranac 24. Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart 17, Baldwin 16. Crystal Falls Forest Park 56, Lake Linden 0. Game stories on Pages 6m7 Groves (9-1 and ranked No.

4) had to play without injured starting quarterback Chris Vogt. His absence, however, was missed more in the defensive secondary, where Rice did most of its damage. Linebacker Buddy Puscas set up Groves' only score with a crushing tackle that enabled Geoff Hill to recover at the Rice 34 late in the first quarter. Two carries by Puscas gained 28 yards before Don Olsen dove over right tackle from the one with 26 seconds left in the opening quarter. Eric Naslund gave Groves a 7-0 lead with the conversion.

It was only the second time this season that Rice had trailed in a game. RICE CAME BACK to tie the score with 1:28 left in the first half, with English completing five passes in a 77-yard drive. One of the passes was a 30-yarder to Martinez on a play where he was the secondary receiver. On the next play, English called an audible at the line and passed nine yards to Martinez to set up Jim Browne's one-yard run. "The coaches tell me if the man is covered to look somewhere else," said English.

"I just rolled after the first receiver was covered and Marty had the defender flat-footed and made a great catch. On the audible, I saw their guys were up and Marty was beating his man and I thought it would work. I guess I'm lucky it worked." In the second half, the Warriors permitted Groves only two first downs as Rice took control of the game and it was only a matter of time before the Warriors scored. "AT HALFTIME, we knew were were going to do something on offense so we weren't going to panic," said Rice coach Al Fracassa. "On defense, we were doing things right but not with too much enthusiasm.

Our defensive coaches Ron Kal-czynski and Mike Cieslak told the kids, 'Look, just play it a little bit tougher, everything is Everything was there for Rice defensively, as the Warriors held All-Suburban running back Billy Eberhart to only 41 yards for the game. See RICE, Page 7E nez on Saturday to defeat Birmingham Groves, 21-7, in a Class A quarterfinal game. It was the 25th straight victory for No. 1 -rated Brother Rice (10-0) before an overflow crowd estimated at more than 8,000 at Groves. The stands were jammed an hour before the game began and fans climbed trees and sat on fences to get a look.

English completed 1 1 of 21 passes for 128 yards and Martinez caught nine passes for 1 1 2 yards. Rice totaled 282 yards offensively while Groves could manage only 1 20 yards on the ground and not a yard through the air. THE RICE VICTORY set up next week's semifinal showdown with No. 2-rated North Farming-ton. That game will be played at Birmingham Groves.

Seattle Slew goes out a winner Page WE 2 IB 1 1 Huskers tip Sooners, 17-14 4 George 12 I Puscas We had two drives right down the field without any points scored. "I'd rather they stopped us for a field goal. Two field goals and we win. Nebraska is as good as any team in the country." Sims' fumble at the Nebraska 20 with 8:10 remaining negated what would have been one of the most controversial calls in college football history. Following Todd's go-ahead field goal, Oklahoma freshman Kelly Phelps was clobbered on a kickoff return by John Ruud 3:27 remaining.

Nebraska then ran out the clock. Sims, who was averaging 155.2 yards per game, carried 25 times for 153 yards and scored Oklahoma's touchdowns on runs of 44 yards in the first period and 30 yards in the third quarter. But he saw his national record-tying streak of three consecutive 200-yard games ended by a gang-tackling, hardhitting Nebraska defense. "The big key was our defense," Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said after the Cornhuskers held Oklahoma to 339 yards, all on the ground. The Sooners, the nation's top rushing team, had been averaging 414.7 yards per game.

"Those big guys up front did a good job," Osborne said. "Oklahoma popped a few plays but they didn't four-, five- and six-yard us. That's what we felt we needed to do to beat them." OKLAHOMA COACH Barry Switzer said the Sooners gave the game away by fumbling nine times and losing six of them. "Fumbles beat us," he said. "You don't fumble here in the fourth quarter and win.

If we hold the ball, we win the game. LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) Fourth-ranked Nebraska ended six years of frustration at the hands of Oklahoma Saturday, defeating the top-rated and previously unbeaten Sooners, 17-14. The victory, Nebraska's ninth in a row following an opening-game loss to Alabama, came on short touchdown runs by Rick Berns and I.M. Hipp, and Billy Todd's tie-breaking 24-yard field goal with 11:51 to play.

The Cornhuskers clinched at least a tie for the Big Eight title, taking a one-game lead over Oklahoma with one game to go, and put themselves in the driver's seat for an Orange Bowl bid. Todd's field goal marked the first time Nebraska had scored against Oklahoma in the fourth quarter since the Cornhuskers' classic 35-31 triumph in 1971 en route to a second consecutive national championship. Fumble-plagued Oklahoma, which bobbled the ball away six times, blew two scoring opportunities in the final 82 minutes. Billy Sims, the nation's leading rusher, fumbled at the Nebraska 20 and again at the three-yard line, the latter with and the ball squirted loose, Nebraska John Lindstrom recovering near the Oklahoma 10. The officials, however, ruled no fumble and gave the ball to Oklahoma at its 19 although television replays clearly showed that Phelps had fumbled before he hit the ground.

Nebraska's touchdowns came on a five-yard run by Berns at 4:54 of the second period and an eight-yard dash by Hipp at 5:35 of the third quarter. Both tallies followed lost Oklahoma See SOONERS, Page2E Leach leads Wolverines' The '53 Lions still know how to have a good time The time had come to reassemble and commemorate the anniversary of one of the finest teams in pro football history. But now, as the players gathered, you had to wonder what happened to the past. Where were all the moments of excitement and glory, the great plays and triumphs that are supposed to live on, forever, in the minds of men who share moments of greatness. A movie projector was flashing pictures of the Lions 1953 World Championship victory over the Cleveland Browns.

The players, middle-aged now, mostly prosperous in varied pursuits, gathered around the bar at the Northfield Hilton Hotel. This is the silver anniversary and reunion of that team. In its time, Bud Wilkinson had called it the greatest team in the history of professional football. Commissioner Bert Bell had said the same. Few disputed it.

This team had another reputation then it was known as the hell-raisingest football team ever. That is what they all remember, and the memories they cherish. "What I remember," says Sonny Gandee, "were all the good times, the parties and the fun. It never ended." "They were almost says Charley Ane, the giant Hawaiian center, "because there were parties and fun all the time." Layne could milk the clock On the field and off, the maestro was Bobby Layne, but he does not talk of parties. "All I know about that," he says, "is these were the best collection of men I've known in my entire life.

That's what I will always remember and keep with me." "They were a different bunch," says Friday Macklem, who has been the Lions' locker room manager since the team was brought here in 1933. "They flaunted all the training rules anybody ever created. They had their fun and plenty of it but they really could play football." In their reassembly, the aging group Layne, Joe Schmidt, Cloyce Box, Bob Smith, Jug Girard, Jimmy David, Doak Walker, Lou Creekmur and a dozen others spent little time trying to recapture the football moments. It was disappointing, for it was that season and in that championship game that Bobby Layne created the two-minute offense. He had moved the Lions 80 yards to the title in the final 128 seconds, heaving a 33-yard pass to end Jim Doran for a 17-16 edge over the Browns.

Part of the Layne legend is that he always carried a play like that in his head, saving it for the moment it was most 59-14 romp By JOE LAPOINTE Free Press Sports Writer EVANSTON, 111. Quarterback Rick Leach ran for three touchdowns Saturday afternoon and passed for two others as Michigan crushed Northwestern, 59-14, on a chilly, windy and gray day at uyche stadium. A homecoming crowd of 27,013 saw Northwestern's record fall to 0-9-1 as Michigan fashioned its highest point total of the Wisconsin ties Purdue, 24-24 Page 8E season. The Wolverines, scoring almost every time they had the ball, raised their overall record to 8-1 in what should be their last easy game of the year. Things probably won't be as one-sided next Saturday when they are to host Purdue, the first place team in the Big Ten.

After that comes the seasonal showdown in Columbus against the Ohio State Buckeyes, who share second place with Michigan. If the Wolverines survive those two, they hope to get an desperately needed. "He had Jim Doran running a turn pattern in front of invitation to a Bowl game. Purdue leads the Big Ten with a 5-0- 1 mark. Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State are tied for second at 5-1.

Warren Lahr, the Browns' safety, all afternoon," recalled Russ Thomas, an assistant coach then and now general manager of the Lions. Then, when the moment came, Doran did a turn in front of Lahr, but turned again and took LEACH, THE SHIFTY LEFTHANDER who some consider a off for the end zone. Layne was a genius at that sort of thing." "Now that you mention it, says Gandee, I remember TD bomb that real well. Bobby said in the huddle 'You ready for it now, Doran? Get He made it seem so simple." There was far more to the Lions than frivolity or the AP Photo Layne legend. For in areas of the National Football League, they were despised as perhaps the most villainous of teams.

MSU's Eugene Byrd hauls in the first of his two TD passes Saturday from quarterback Ed Smith. jars WMU bid, 20-14 By BRIAN BRAGG Free Press Sports Writer A real 'Hatchet9 job MUNCIE, Ind. Ball State broke Western Michi MSU air raid grounds Golden Gophers, 33-9 gan's heart on a 73-yard touchdown pass with l2 minutes to play Saturday and snuttea out the Broncos' final flicker of hope for a Mid American Conference championship with a hard-won, 20- Heisman trophy candidate, set numerous individual records in the game. He has now passed or thrown for 75 regular-season touchdowns, the most in the history of NCAA play. He broke Tom Harmon's school mark of 33 rushing touchdowns.

Leach now has 34. Leach also surpassed former Purdue quarterback Mike Phipps as the all-time Big Ten leader in total offense. Michigan scored its first touchdown a little more than five minutes into the game and the gcontest was never in doubt. It was played with temperatures dropping into the 40s and a stiff breeze blowing across the field from the shore of Lake Michigan, just north of the city of Chicago. Michigan had the ball six times in the first half and scored touchdowns five of those times to hold a 35-14 lead as the halftime gun ended their sixth possession.

Such success was expected against the injury-weakened defense of the winless Wildcats. Leach ran for two of the scores, passed for two others, and handed the ball to Harlan Huckleby to get the next one on a two-yard run. WHAT MIGHT HAVE surprised the Wolverines, however, was the way the Wildcats' offense moved the ball. Northwestern scored on two 14 victory. Western had the conference-leading Cardinals hang ing on at the end, but it was Ball State's defense ranked No.

1 in the nation that finally sealed a 10th straight Top 20 teams How the Top 20 teams In the Associated Press major college football poll fared: 1 OKLAHOMA (9-1) lost to Nebraska, 17-14 2 PENN STATE (10-0) beat N.C. State, 19-10 3 ALABAMA (8-1) vs. LSI! 4 NEBRASKA (9-1) beat Oklahoma, 17-14 5 SOUTHERN CAL (7-1) vs. Washington 6 TEXAS (6-2) lost to Houston, 10-7 7 MICHIGAN (8-1) beat Northwestern, 59-14 HOUSTON (8-1) beat Texas, 10-7 9 UCLA (8-1) vs. Oregon State 10 LOUISIANA STATE (6-1) vs.

Alabama 11 GEORGIA (8-1) beat Florida, 24-22 12 PURDUE (7-1-1) tied Wisconsin, 24-24 13 MARYLAND (9-1) beat Virginia, 17-7 14 NOTRE DAME (7-2) beat Tennessee, 31-14 15 CLEMSON (8-1) teat North Carolina, 13-9 16 ARKANSAS (6-2) beat Baylor. 27-14 17 MICHIGAN STATE (6-3) beat Minnesota, 33-9 18 NAVY (7-2) lost to Syracuse, 20-17 19 WASHINGTON (6-3) vs. Southern Cal 20 PITTSBURGH (7-2) best West Virginia. 52-7 It was how Jimmy David, a mere 170 pounds, got the nickname of Hatchet, and reputation as one of the toughest players in the game. He was especially hated in California.

David had cracked the jaw of 49ers' quarterback Y.A. Tittle and broken the back of Rams' receiver Tom Fears. He might have been the most villified player of his time; certainly he was in California. "I never played dirty football," the Hatchet was saying. "The films showed my hits on those guys were clean.

But football is a rough game and if you're looking for sympathy, a football field is not the place to find it. "Nobody wants to hurt anybody, but if it happens, it happens like when I had my face busted and four teeth kicked out by the Bears." As Aldo Forte remembers it, "when we went to Los Angeles, there were 97,000 people in the Colisseum, eager to get at David. It was the largest crowd ever for a pro game. We were so concerned about Jimmy we had him warm up in a phoney number so the crowd wouldn't recognize him." Joe Schmidt was a rookie linebacker that year. It wasn't a happy time for him for much of the season.

"The Lions had let go Dick Flanagan, who was a very popular guy, to keep a rookie like me. I was left alone, an outsider, and had to keep my mouth shut about everything for much of the season. But finally I was accepted." Legend has it that Schmidt created the middle lineback-ing position that year. That wasn't the year. "In 1953 we had Les Bingaman playing middle guard," says Schmidt.

"He was a massive man who could sweep everything clear from end to end. If he had lasted longer, I don't know when or why we would have gone to a new alignment with me as a middle linebacker. "When it came I think it was 1955 it came because of a situation and circumstance. We just weren't getting enough pass rush. That's how it all began." It was a style-setting innovation.

Soon, everybody was doing it. nome victory and an 11th MAC triumph in a row. The Cards held Western's AU-American tailback, Jer-ome Persell, to just 47 yards in By CHARLIE VINCENT Free Press Soorts Writer EAST LANSING Michigan State, rolling relentlessly toward what it hopes will be its first Big Ten title of this decade, did the predictable Saturday afternoon. The Spartans filled the grey autumn afternoon sky with passes and, when the blitz was over, walked away with a 33-9 victory over the University of Minnesota. The Golden Gophers had known exactly what to expect: dozens and dozens of passes.

And MSU quarterback Eddie Smith didn't disappoint them, throwing 42 times 30 in the first half alone as the Spartans moved out to a 17-3 advantage. It was simply a matter of Minnesota knowing what was coming, but not having the manpower to cope with it. Senior flanker Kirk Gibson, a genuine AI1-American candidate, caught eight passes for 122 yards as frustrated Minnesota corner-back Ken Foxworth fearing Gibson's speed played so far off his man that Gibson was unmolested through most of the afternoon and Smith found him wide open time after time. THOUGH GIBSON'S eight catches gave him a school career record of 107 he didn't latch on to a TD reception all afternoon, leaving that to split end Eugene Byrd, who Smith found with scoring tosses of 18 and two yards. Fullback Lonnie Middleton scored from the one and tailback Bruce Reeves from the five, and, just to add a bit of diversity to their attack, Morten Anderson kicked a 37-yard field goal and the Spartans picked up a safety when Melvin Land blocked a punt and Larry Savage batted it out of the Minnesota end zone.

While Michigan State's offense played exactly as it was expected to, the most pleasant surprise of the day for Spartan coach Darryl Rogers and the crowd of 72,122 was the performance of the MSU defense. "They hit," Rogers said emphatically, after it was all over and the Spartans had won their fifth straight game to run their season record to 6-3. "We've been through some games where they didn't touch anybody. We hit some at Michigan and we didn't hit again until today. "But I would have to say the defense was the key today." THE MICHIGAN State defense, led by Land, Savage, Mike Decker.

Mark Anderson See MSU, Page 9E rusmng attempts his lowest-ever output and throttled WMU's entire f. fense, allowing just 145 yards overall. The tenacious Birds rose up on Western's only serious touchdown threats and forced the Michiganders to settle for field goals. WESTERN'S ONLY TD came with 2:44 to play when See WESTERN, Page 8E of its first four possessions, See U-M, Page 9E.