Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 33

r- 1 1 NrfVv Watching the wild, wild AL Vcst: Today's television highlights: Sunday, Sept. 23, 1C34 vMMMm IT I The Kansas City Royals remained in first by NBC 1 p.m. Football: Pittsburgh at Cleveland LIONS PREVIEW 3 QVJ VJl1 UJl I SfOJ beating the Oakland A's, 4-2, Saturday. CBC 1:30 p.m. Football: Calgary at Hamilton HORSE RACING 12 JTROtfrefpSfss-' ABC 3 p.m.

Baseball: Texas at California OUTDOORS 13 I Sports Phone, 1-976-1313 CBS 4 p.m. Football: Chicago at Seattle can with new 222-6660 I U-M wins: Bac mem ilic Downey Badgers' butter ingers C7 Wisconsin fumbles help Wolverines let a big one slip away ANN ARBOR In preparing for the big game at Michigan, the Wisconsin football coaches took their team to a dairy farm on the outskirts of Madison, where each and every player was asked to wash his hands in a vat of pure creamery butter. At. least that's how it looked. The Badgers handled the ball in Saturday's 20-14 loss to Michigan as if they were playing rugby and were obliged to get rid of the thing whenever possible.

They fumbled five times once on the opening kickoff and must be wondering, as the boys from Miami still are, whether Bo Schembechler sneaks a different ball into the game when the visitors own it. A ball covered with Brylcreem. During the second half of Michigan's Big Ten season opener, the public-address announcer, Howard King, tucked his tongue into his cheek and reported to the crowd that Indiana State Teachers College of Pennsylvania was beating poor little Slippery Rock, 21-0. At that very moment, Michigan was getting the best of Dave McClain's unbeaten team, Slippery Grip. "We use the term 'errorless football' where we come from," the Wisconsin coach said.

"That wasn't what we played today." Bungling Badgers By TOMMY GEORGE Free Press Sports Writer ANN ARBOR Grab the ball. Follow the blocks. A sidestep. A quick juke. Shake a couple of tackles.

Boom! Fifteen-, 20-, 30-yard gains. Fumble. Thank you kindly, Wisconsin. They did it over and over Saturday at Michigan Stadium, these Wisconsin Badgers. They kicked Michigan up and down the field, but afterward felt like kicking themselves for committing six turnovers one at the Michigan 1 and another at the 9.

The Wolverines gladly played opportunist and took a 20-14 victory. The yardage count late in the first quarter was so lopsided (Wisconsin, 162-9) that the 104,239 fans would have thought Wisconsin was winning in a runaway if the place hadn't had a scoreboard. But Michigan took the early lead, 3-0, after Wisconsin fumbled the opening kickoff, and never was headed. Wisconsin labored in trying just to hold on to the football. "I'M PLEASED with the way we won," Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler said.

"The team is nicked, but it doesn't mean we can't win. We played a pretty good team. I told you they were a contender, and they are." Said Wisconsin coach Dave McClain: "You just can't have five fumbles and one interception against Michigan. It's frustrating." It was the Big Ten opener for each team; both are 2-1 overall. Michigan led, 10-0, at the half, and Wisconsin's best run of the day came three minutes into the second half.

Larry Emery raced 52 yards down the right sideline, making it 10-7, but the Wolverines took some starch out the Badgers on the next series with nifty running of their own. Freshman tailback Jamie Morris ran for 12, 11 and 11 yards in a 16-play drive all but one play a run that regained Michigan's 10-point lead. Fullback Bob Perryman bolted over from the two late in the third quarter. Wisconsin fought back when Richard Johnson blocked a Michigan punt at U-M's 14, and four plays later Emery scored on a pitch left early in the final period. Bob See MICHIGAN, Page 9D 0 If) yr'lfii I tch iwi Vl Wisconsin played errorless football the way Dick Stuart played errorless baseball.

It began on the game's first play, when Michael Jones gobbled up the kickoff, returned it all of 10 yards and fumbled it about half that far. The game was five seconds old. Within minutes, Thad McFadden, a kid from Flint, went back to field a punt and decided he'd better not, which was one way Wisconsin kept from fumbling. Unfortunately for McFadden, the punt touched down around the Wisconsin 40 and bounced to the 17. Somewhere on the sidelines, Bucky Badger was crying.

Quickly, the butterfin-gers from dairyland were back in action. Bret Pearson caught a pass and fumbled at the Michigan 9. Joe Armentrout took a handoff at the Michigan 1 and fumbled at the 4. At that point, Wisconsin's offense had racked up 162 yards, Michigan 9. But the only upset in the making was in McClain's stomach.

"I haven't much to Free Press Photo by MARY SCHROEDER On the play that might have been the game-winner, Michigan's Brad Cochran (30), with help from Garland Rivers (13), stops Al Toon of Wisconsin after a 1 6-yard pass play to the U-M 1 On the next play, the Wolverines recovered a Wisconsin fumble and kept their 3-0 first-quarter lead. Dave McClain sflv the much mnmhlpri afterward in a little alcove off the locker room. "We'll just have to fight back from this kind of adversity and see where it takes us." CMU picks the right option, rips WMU He hung his head during the interview and rarely looked up. Whenever asked about what caused all the the fumbles, he just said, "Gee, I don't know." Nobody checked out the butter rumor. Later, McClain was asked if this was his most frustrating game as Wisconsin's coach.

"Gee, I (DeMarco), but he took advantage running through the holes we gave them." DeMarco rushed for 52 yards and passed for 222 on 12-of-19 completions. But it was his ability to run the option that caught WMU's defense off-guard. "It is a matter of starting two years and sitting out a year," DeMarco said. "I had a poor attitude about running the option. I just didn't want to run it.

But you sit there and you think about the mistakes you made. You say: 'Hey, if by some miracle I get another chance See CENTRAL MICHIGAN, Page 10D out last season. DeMarco almost didn't come back to CMU this fall. But Fillmore was injured in last week's victory over East Carolina, and DeMarco played well after coming off the bench. DeMarco and redshirt freshman Marcelle Carruthers competed for the starting job last week in practice, and at least one concerned person thought Carruthers had the edge because of his ability to run the option.

"I expected them to start Carruthers," said WMU coach Jack Harbaugh. "I have a lot of respect for the job DeMarco did. We didn't think they would run the option with him By MICK McCABE Free Press Sports Writer MT. PLEASANT Bob DeMarco is back in the Central Michigan offense and, surprise, so is the option. DeMarco ran every play in the CMU offense Saturday as the Chippewas swamped Western Michigan, 38-19, before 28,463 fans crammed into Kelly Shorts Stadium.

The victory was CMU's third straight and made the Chippewas 1-0 in the Mid-American Conference. WMU fell to 2-1 and 1-1 in the MAC. DeMarco had trouble running the option when he started at quarterback in 1981 and '82, and Ron Fillmore beat him don't know," he said. "I've had a lot of frustrating games." That's the thing about being in the Big Ten. Except for Ohio State, teams tend to do dumb things against Michigan that they wouldn't do against anybody else.

"I've been waiting for the Michigan game every year since I was a freshman," said Armentrout, the junior fullback, "and every year it turns out like this. We play pretty good, but mess it up somehow." He wasn't there for 198 l's mad, mad, mad, mad Petryis on track upset in Madison. He doesn't know what it feels Tigers should win, but 1st game is key like to beat Michigan, or why an otherwise capable team would fumble away the big ones. "I have no idea why this happened," Armentrout said. "The ball wasn't wet.

It wasn't slippery. In my case, Mike Mallory just met me in the crease, put his helmet into my left shoulder and knocked the ball loose. I would have bet a million dollars I 6-0 win wouldn't fumble on that play." Nor thrup writes about the Tigers In the seventh inning of the seventh game of the World Series in 1968, the Tigers' Jim Northrup hit a two-out triple to drive in the What happened? Larrv Emerv. who rushed for 185 yards, said, "I don't want to knock them, but Michigan's defensive backs don't tackle all that well. I don't think it was their hitting that made us fumble.

I winning runs. The day before, In the sixth game, Northrup hit a grand slam. The pre don't know what happened to us out there. We wanted it. We just didn't get it." There was a woman waiting for the Wisconsin By JIM NORTHRUP Free Press Special Writer When it comes to the playoffs, the Tigers have a strong enough team to beat anybody from the West.

They have the best team, and they've had a great year. But that doesn't guarantee they'll win, though I hope they do and I think they will. Their toughest opponent would be Kansas City. Because of artificial and because of the Royals' experience, if they get hot with the bats, they can beat anybody. In a short series, if you score a lot of runs in three games, four games, it's all over.

It can happen to you so quick. The key game in the playoffs is the first one. You lose the first one on the road and the Tigers are opening on the road you've got to win the second one. Your neck is in the noose. We lost the first two playoff games against Oakland in 1972, and ended up losing in the fifth game.

The Oakland A's were a good team. But there were a few mistakes made in the management area on our side. We put a catcher in left field (Duke Sims) and put Bill Freehan behind the plate with a broken thumb. And that was done by our dandy little manager, Billy Martin. Those two positions cost us a run eacfi, and you can't blame the players.

That's the kind of thing that can happen in a short series. vious year, I Northrup Lr playersoutside their clubhouse. She wore a T-shirt featuring Garfield the cat as a cheerleader, yelling "Go, Team, Go!" In smaller type, in a thought bubble. Garfield was saying, "Or, at the very least, was the Tigers' hottest hitter in tha frantif By BILL McGRAW Free Press Sports Writer After a summer of special memories and wild times, the Tigers can leave behind a superb souvenir as they finish their regular home season today. They can win their 100th game.

They took No. 99 Saturday afternoon from the Yankees in a 6-0 gem pitched by Dan Petry, who struck out eight and held New York to four hits. Reaching the 100-victory level is about as rare in Detroit as a total eclipse of the sun. Only four other Tigers teams have reached the lOOmark in the 20th Century. The Tigers did it in 1968 and 1961 as well as 1934 and 1915, when teams played a 154-game schedule.

Mayo Smith, Bob Sheffing, Mickey Cochrane and Hughie Jennings served as managers during those milestone seasons, but Sparky Anderson will do them one better when and if his Tigers do it. Anderson, described by some of the players as a "genius" after Tuesday's clinch, would become the only manager in baseball history to win 100 with with two different clubs. His Cincin-Sea TIGFRS. Para 120 don't let them humiliate us." Michigan did not humiliate Wisconsin. Wiscon sin humiliated Wisconsin.

And since the Badgers must learn to live with this adversitv. Richard Johnson, a senior corner- back, said, "What we have to do now is forget this game and start thinking about the next one. as ne was sneaking, honest to God. he was treating his Your favorite Tincis Earlier this baseball season, we asked you to name your all-time favorite Tigers, and the winner is on page 11D, along with sketches that will bring back fond memories. The class of 68 The Sixty-Eight Tigers the phrase rolls so easily off the tongues of Michiganians.

Joe Lapointe's story in today Detroit magazine examines why they're still heroes. 11 id 11 ui mis 1 last month Northrup of the season, when the team came within one game Of getting into the Series. Given this kind of expertise, we thought you would like to read what Northrup has to say about this year's Tigers and high-pressure baseball. So he's agreed to be a guest columnist for the Free Press whilethe Tigers are in postseason play I Northrup played outfield for the Tigers in 1964-73. chapped hands from a large jar of Vaseline.

LCclIcga foOtbsll repsrt: TheToplfflandBigTen roundups are on Pages 8D and 9D. The state games are 'on Page 10D. Cos KIODTUOIID.