Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 53

Unger says Former Red Wing Garry Unger (right) denies that he has agreed to return to Detroit. Page 3 HIT raaSces its pairings Ohio State and Indiana drew tourney byes and will play each other, and Purdue coach Lee Rose said: "I'm contused." Page 3 Wednesday, March 14, 1079 SPORTS PEOPLE STANDINGS HORSE RACING DETROIT FREE PRESS COMICS 9-11 LJ ii 1 ichigan's Super Bowl army marched out a winner By VITO STELLINO Silverdome gels '82 Super Boui I A I Ik The NFL had already been unhappy with the way Miami had handled the 1 979 Super Bowl because it had reneged on some of its promises of hotel rooms. The owners were especially reluctant to put the game in a city in which the host owner wasn't supporting it. That broke up the southern rotation. Instead of pushing Miami back a year and inserting Pontiac, they simply bypassed that city and put in Los Angeles after the Silverdome.

The Detroit presentation was so impressive that the Motor City representatives might have won the game under any circumstances. But the problem in Miami made it that much easier. Robbie outlined a whole host of complaints against the Orange Bowl. He is unhappy with the way the stadium is being maintained and he wants to build another one. That was quite a contrast to the way Lions' owner William Clay Ford was solidly' behind Detroit's bid.

Another factor in Detroit's success was the support of the auto companies. In his speech, Jones said: "I believe you'll have a fine time and, I can say that with the backing of the other members of the committee like Tom Murphy, chairman of GM, Henry Ford, John Riccardo of Chrysler, and Jerry Meyers, chairman of American Motors, who have been strong supporters of NFL football through television advertising from the early days. I think you know anything they are Involved with goes See ARMY; Page 8F Free Press Special Writer HONOLULU It was handled with the precision of a military campaign. That's why the Michigan Super Bowl Committee deserves the credit for convincing the National Football League owners to bring the Super Bowl to a northern site in 1982. Ernie Jones, the head of the committee, and Henry Hogan, the head of the steering committee, played major roles.

They left nothing to chance. Every word spoken during their presentation was written in advance. All kinds of little changes were made during the rehearsals. They were originally going to say the Sllverdome was the largest domed stadium in the "nation." They changed It to the "world." They were precise. They showed that much attention to detail and it all worked out.

They convinced the skeptics they could pull it off. But Detroit's chances of breaking the so-called Miami, New Orleans, Los Angeles rotation got help from an unexpected direction a feud between Miami owner Joe Robbie and the Orange Bowl. Robbie got up at the meeting at the end of the Miami presentation and told the owners that they could bring the Super Bowl back to Miami, but he would not support it. He swung his weight behind the Joe Robbie His feud helped Show 'em Harry! Hvq Oeeifp II Fosses At 5-foot-3 or less, shortstop fights to play ball in the majors ES5Q3C CHICAGO spimg tQlIf WHITE SOX i 4 1 surely must have grown a couple of inches since then. According to the Sox' official statistics, he weighs 150 pounds.

However, in reality, Chappas is lucky if the scale hits 140, even though he confesses he eats five meals a day during the season. When he climbs into his uniform, he looks 4l Knuckle sandwich made Goodwin change his diet Growing up in Melvindale, that delightful downriver spa where the sun rises spectacularly between smokestacks, Mickey Goodwin recalls vividly the moment of his great inspiration. "I was in the yard boxing with my friend," he says, "and he hit me a real shot right on top of my head. He broke his hand, but it didn't hurt me a bit." Anybody with a head like that, he figured, was wasting his time in baseball and football. So Mickey became a boxer.

He is 20, a husky 5-foot-9 kid with flowing brown hair who is struggling mightily to cut himself down 15 pounds to middleweight size. While doing it, he has run up a 14-0 record, just a few notches behind his poundin', stompin' pal, Thomas Hearns. They are the hot prospects on the reviving Detroit fight scene. Hearns, a welterweight, has emerged in just a year to earn national recognition, but Mickey, though still unbeaten, has progressed little beyond the club level. It's his own fault, actually.

When the Olympia moneybags decided in early 1978 to invest in a boxing program, Mickey was designated the headliner. He had earned a reputation in amateur fights as a hell-for-leather slugger, the kind who would appeal to crowds. "For a half-dozen programs," says Olympia's Bruce Lahti, "Mickey headed the show. But then, I don't know what got into his head. He decided to go to Florida for a few weeks.

So we started to promote Hearns." Not a jealous bone in his body Explaining why he abdicated, Mickey says he simply didn't want to carry the load. He doesn't regret it now, not really. Nor is he envious of Hearns' success and budding wealth. "Next to Tommy's family, I probably know him better than anybody else," he says. "We work in the gym and we stick together a lot.

Sometimes he'll take me into East Side night spots and I'll be the only white guy there and everybody'll be looking and wondering." Few realize who he is. Nor do many outside regular fight crowds recognize his name. "That doesn't bother me," he says, "because I've never 1'i 1 1 4v' 1 By JIM HAWKINS Free Press Sports Wriler SARASOTA, Fla. Twenty eight years ago, Mr. Bill Veeck, the P.T.

Barnum of big league baseball, made history of a sort by sending a midget named Eddie Gaedel up to bat for the already comical St. Louis Browns. Now, believe it or not, Veeck is threatening to do it again. Only this time, it's no joke. Veeck is dead serious.

And so Is Harry Chappas, the baby-faced, 21 -year-old tyke who is determined to be the Chicago White Sox everyday shortstop this season, even though he looks like he belongs on a Little League team. If Chappas achieves his goal, he will be the smallest man ever to play major league baseball, on the up-and-up. Gaedel, after all, was nothing more than a clown, a sad-eyed, 43-inch-high human being with a squeaky little voice, who was paid to wake up the crowd by walking up to the plate one Sunday afternoon. Compared to Chicago's Chappas, Kansas City's Freddie Patek, at 5-foot-4 currently baseball's reigning No. 1 little man, is a veritable giant, towering over Harry by at least a couple of inches.

Alongside Chappas, old-timer Albie Pearson, at 5-foot 5, would have resembled the Incredible Hulk. OFFICIALLY, THE WHITE SOX claim Chappas stands 5-foot-3. But even they admit that's merely wishful thinking. When Chisox radio announcer Harry Caray measured Chappas last September, he only reached 5-f eet, 2 li inches and everyone knows how Caray exaggerates. Chappas politely Insists he hasn't measured himself since he was in high school implying that he expects you to believe he more like a batboy than an aspiring big leaguer except for the fact that a lot of the batboys around the American League are at least a full head taller.

As Chappas sets himself at shortstop and blows a bubble to relax, he looks like a refugee from the Bad News Bears. ALTHOUGH LEGALLY OLD enough to buy a drink, he is treated like a mascot at the bars in which he imbibes. During the offseason he worked in a Chicago supermarket and everyone immediately assumed he was a stock boy. Teammates and opponents alike tower over him. For that matter, so do the members of the press who have surrounded him each day this spring while ignoring the other 46 players in the Chicago camp.

Chappas is the fans' favorite, too. In fact. he is just about the only member of this nondescript White Sox team who receives more than a smattering of applause when he steps up to bat. See CHAPPAS, Page 6F Photo by MARY STERLING Harry Chappas is no dummy. He knows why the reporters flock to him, but "ninety-two chances without an error is no publicity stunt," he pointed out.

"I can compete." -'ST-teSWfv. 'j 4 il been totally committed to boxing. I'm just not sure what I really want to do. I'm giving it a shot now, but if it doesn't work out, hell, I can always be a truck driver like my father." He is afraid of nothing and nobody that much is obvious because he amazes himself at times how tough he is. He had such a revelation the first time he entered a boxing ring, down at the Kronk Community Center, home of area prize fighters.

"My grandmother told me about it," he says. "I went there and just sat along the wall for a couple days, Rookie's hit wins for Tigers By BRIAN BRAGG Free Press Sports Writer LAKELAND Rookie outfielder Lynn Jones isn't a sure bet to be wearing a Tiger uniform next month, but his Mickey Goodwin i i tJ I "III i -1 l' 1 l'- it' 1 IJ chances are looking better with each passing day of spring training. Itfs hard to find a loser boxing out of Kronk gym By CHARLIE VINCENT Free Press Sports Writer Taped to the cinderblock walls of Kronk Recreation Center's basement gymnasium are dozens of clippings from newspapers around the country, reporting the exploits of young Detroit boxers. Some of the clippings are dried and yellowed with age, recalling the amateur exploits of Hedgeman Lewis and Thomas Hearns. But right beside those reports are newer, fresher stories, bearing datelines from Shreveport, Pittsburgh, Columbus and even London, relating the victories of Milton McCrory and Jimmie Paul and Rodney Trusel.

Those are three of the fighters who will represent Kronk in the Free Press-sponsored Detroit area Golden Gloves finals Thursday night at Cobo Arena. AND THEY ARE THREE of the reasons Kronk is expected to have little trouble winning the team title for the sixth straight year. "Once you get a couple of good kids, you develop a good foundation and everybody wants to come here," points out Emanuel Steward, who coaches the Kronk team with some assistance from Hearns. Some want to come so Jones, a 25-year-old speedster who came to the Tigers from the Cincinnati organization this winter, slammed a double off the left-field wall Tuesday to score Milt May from first base in the just watching. Emanuel Steward (now manager of both Hearns and Goodwin) saw me and talked me into the ring.

"The first guy he sent in, a big white guy, I knocked him out. Then he put in a black guy who had 13, 14 fights. He was acting like Muhammad Ali, dancing around and dropping his hands all the time. I hit him a left hook and broke his jaw." Knowing he could take a punch, Mickey had discovered he could deliver one. "I hit awful hard with my right hand, but my left hook Is a paralyzer," he says.

"I don't know why; I never worked on it." All that was happening three years ago, while Mickey was an all-area football quarterback-linebacker in high school. He liked the game, but the by-play angered him, and eventually drove him away. "I was having a little trouble with the coaches," he says. "Melvindale's just a little community, you know, so if your father doesn't go out drinking with the coach, you don't 11th inning for a 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros. Jones' hit was his fourth in nine exhibition at-bats.

It was his second two-bagger. The articulate Pennsyl-vanlan, whom the Tigers -Tf WrTilitiiiiifhiiwiiirfiiiiifiiaiiiitttrtMnTfiMniitfftWitfiitrrtif-T r- Free Press Photo by TARO yamasaki drafted from Indianapolis of If the Golden Gloves finals run true to form, the Kronk gym brother duo of Lionel (left) and Joe Johnson stand a good chance to grab the 119- and 1 12-pound championships. the American Association, has See TIGERS, Page 8F play. It didn't affect me, but it did my brothers. "Then my mother was on the schoolboard.

The coaches wanted more money, the teachers wanted more money. So we were getting manipulated in football, you know?" Tigers 3, Astros 2 DETROIT Houston ibrhN ab HU Ali took him for a ride LeFloredh 2 0 10 Sextons Parrlsh dh 3 0 0 0 Bergman lb 5 0 I 1 2 0 11 Puhlrf 3 0 0 0 Mchmer2b3 0 1 0 Augstnerf 2 0 0 0 Ttimpsn lb 2 Alondn Corcran lb 2 0 10 Howard dh 4 0 2 0 10 0 0 3 0 0 0 2 110 Wcknfus 2 0 0 Cabell 3b Mayc 3 10 0 Gonzals3b 4 0 7 0 Kemp It 2 0 0 0 Walling If Gibson If 2 0 0 0 Woods ef Jones cf 5 12 1 Baldwin 4 0 0 0 10 0 0 9 0 14 Stegmanrf 4 0 10 Pulolsc Rodrguz3b4 0 I 1 Drmwrgt2b4 III Dliiardss 4 12 0 Totals 40 310 3 Tetats 40 211 1 DETROIT 001 100 000 01- Houston 000 000 Oil 00- 1 badly they ride two or three different buses to arrive at the gym on the corner of McGraw and Junction. They come from all corners of the city and from downriver as well to study under Steward and Hearns, who now has his sights set on the world welterweight championship. "They can learn here just by watching," says Steward. "We have about 32 guys, from the age of five to about 40, who come In regularly, some just to keep in shape and some because they really want to box.

Steward, who won a national Golden Gloves championship in 1963 but chose never to fight professionally, has been coaching at Kronk since 1969 and his success has been the envy of amateur boxing clubs around the country. "In 1971," he recalls, "we won every (Golden Gloves) championship in the city. That's when everybody de-See BOXING, Page 8F Flu giving Hearns his toughest battle By JOE LAPOINTE Free Press Sports Wriler Thomas Hearns will see a doctor Wednesday for a decision on his week-long bout with the flu. If Detroit's welterweight contender isn't feeling much better by then, he may have to postpone next Tuesday's locally televised bout against Alfonso Hayman at the Philadelphia Spectrum. "He's starting to get his strength back, but if he doesn't feel up to par, I won't let him fight," Emanuel Steward, Hearns' manager-trainer, said Tuesday afternoon at the Kronk gym.

Hearns agreed. He said he's beginning to worry about missing training. Tuesday afternoon was the first time he'd left his bed since last Thursday night, he said. At the gym, he didn't put on boxing gloves and even light shadow-boxing left him with sniffles and coughs. Under normal circumstances, Steward would have Hearns sparring 10 days before a bout.

"I'd be taking a big chance fighting without my strength," said Hearns, a 20-year-old East Sider with 17 knockouts in 17 professional fights. "I've had headaches and stomach pains. I didn't eat anything for two days. If this was just a cold, I could deal with it. Flu is different" See HEARNS, Page 8F LOB Detroit 7, Houston 7 28 Whltaker, Dillard, Sexton, Jones.

SB LtFtort, Jones, Slegman. ft J. I-f True or imagined, the politicking caused football to lose its charm. "I started reading about boxing and fooling around with It. Once the school needed money for something and they put on a boxing show with me to get it.

I was 192 pounds then. I can't believe I was that big. "Remember when Ali came here to put on a benefit for Shaw College? I was one of the guys who fought him. "I was still in high school The coaches said I couldn't do It. Hell, they didn't believe I was going to anyway, not even after I showed 'em the stories in the newspapers.

But I did it anyway. "Ali came in just clowning around. He was quicker, a lot bigger, than I thought He was just flicking that jab, not trying to hurt me. You could see his magic." As tough as he is, Mickey knows he has only must sacrifice now as he has now before, to make it in the ring. He needs discipline, he needs to shed weight.

He never has been 100 percent devoted, not like a Thomas Hearns, who from adolescence has wanted only to become a world boxing champion. No such fire ever burned in Mickey Goodwin. "I give myself three, four years if I can get down to middleweight size," he says. "It wouldn't work If I had to fight all big guys punching down on me." He'd bust their hands on his head, and then where would the fight game be? SO Detroit Wilcox Burnslde Hiller Tobik(W) 3 3 2' 3 3 3 3 Vi Houston iccelli McLaughlin Sambito Migglns(L) T-2 49. The Tigers trade Free Press Photo by TARO YAMASAKI Detroit welterweight contender Thomas Hearns, weakened by the flu, leaves Kronk gym Tuesday after a brief workout for next week's bout in Philadelphia.

Ditcher Ed Glynn to the A Mets. Story is on Page or..