Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa • Page 11

tart le rot Title; 5 Play ournamen onight 1 7m i at halftime. After intermission the Regals built an eight-point margin that they maintained until the closing minutes of the ball game. In the preliminary game, Regina's sophs nailed down their second win in a row as they upended Beckman's sophomores 66-63. The little Regals were tied with Beckman at halftime and down points (46-43) at the end of three quarters before battling back for the victory. Regina's Hank Murray paced the sophs with 21 points, while Roger Wombacher tallied 13 and Dan Hanrahan had 10.

And little Regal Pat McLaughlin came off the bench to sink two key baskets at the end of the game for the little Regals. Tom Koelker was high for Beckman's sophomores with 16 and Gary Boenigh had 12. Regina's varsity now moves into Class A sectional play. The Ragals take on Highland in the first round tonight at Regina. The Rcgals did it! Regina's LaiTy Milder scored with six seconds remaining to lift the Regals to a 74-72 victory at, Dycrsville-Beckman Saturday night and give Regina the basketball co champions i with Cedar Rapids Prairie in the East Central Iowa Conference.

After their 0-3 start in the league, the Regals came back like the Pirates in the World Series to win their last seven conference games and grab a share of the title. It is the fifth ECIC championship in six years for Regina and, according to Regal head coach Bob Norton, who has seen them all, "probably the best." "It's been a very satisfying year," continued Norton. "We had to come back a long way to win the championship. And we kept our poise and did it." But Regina didn't win the title without a battle from Beckman. After the Rcgals had maintained a 6-8 point advantage throughout most of the ball game, Beckman rallied to take a 70-69 lead with two minutes left to play.

Beckman scored again but defense. He had, as coach Norton said, "a heck of a ball game." Milder, meanwhile, leads the Regal front line, usually against much taller opposition. Milder finished with 17 points against Beckman, including the game winning bucket at the But it was also a team effort that won the game for Regina. Jim Halsch, subbing for Tom Dickens who was on the bench in foul trouble, came on to play a steady game and score nine points. And Tom Hein netted 11 points, including a perfect nine of nine at the free throw line.

Early in the Beckman game it appeared Regina might be tired from the previous night's game as Beckman jumped to a 10-4 lead in the first three minutes. But the Regals stormed back to take a 22-15 advantage at the end of the first period. Regina's margin jumped to 11 points (31-20) midway in the second quarter before Beckman found the range and narrowed the score to 33-30 with a minute left in the half. Regina eventually enjoyed a four-point lead single free throws by Regals Don Frantz, Bill Volk, and Milder knotted the score at 72-72 with just over one minute remaining. Then Beckman took the ball and stalled for the final shot before Volk finally fouled Beckman's Mike Koelker with 16 seconds to go.

Koelker missed the first end of his 1-1 foul situation and Regina's Milder grabbed the rebound. Milder passed to Frantz who brought the ball up the floor. The ball went to Volk, who found Milder under the bucket with a pass and Milder put the ball through the hoop with just six seconds to go. Beckman's final desperation shot failed and Regina walked off the court with the game and a share of the championship. It was the second win in two nights (over conference leaders Beckman and Prairie) for Regina.

And again it was strong performances by Frantz and Milder that led the way for the Regals. Frantz, whose forte is driving from his guard position, had his second 20-point game in succession while playing inspired The varsity box REGINA 74 FG PF TP 11 FT 9-9 6-8 00 0-4 3-5 5 8 20 0 8 7 17 2 9 74 2-3 5-8 30-45 20 PF TP I 7 0 4 2 6 0 2 22 FG 7 5 3 6 3 3 1 0 28 22 IS Hein, Frontz, Terry Dickens, Lehmon, Tom Dickens, AAilder Volk Halsch TOTALS 72 Koolkor, Hess, Jenk, Hlttenmlller, Burkle, Enqlish Griffin Kruse TOTALS Score by quarters: Regina Dyersvllle-Eeckman 19 FT 5-7 2-2 02 1- 2 57 2- 3 04 12 6 13 11 8 2 1 72 72 Hawklets Nip State's BLOCKED Minnesota's Jim Brewer looks for someone to pass to as he is blocked by Wisconsin's Lee Oler (23) In the first half of their Big Ten game in Minneapolis Saturday night. The Gophers won 76-73 to take over the Big Ten lead from Ohio State, which lost to Illinois. (AP WIrephoto) 1-2 16-24 28 61 53 Ixth-ttdnked Team From His Bo' 5 Sad Tale: Connie Hawkins' Days at Iowa PRESS-CITIZEN Monday, February 21, 1972 Iowa City Press-Citizen By J. R.

WILLIAMS Ircss-Citlzen Sports Writer City High's inspired Hawklets scrapped for 32 minutes in their inimitable style and came up with a rousing 75-69 win over undefeated South Tama before a large crowd here Saturday night. The Trojans, sixth ranked in the state, Central Iowa Conference champs, and 16-0 coming into the game, matched the Hawklets until late in the third period. Then a burst triggered by two Greg Cilek buckets and an incredible shot by Jim Sang-ster from behind the backboard made it 59-52 and put City High on top for keeps. As usual, Little Hawk coach Ron Schnack moved players in and out like a revolving door. Without great individual stars, the Little Hawks rely on depth and Saturday got 28 points from the bench.

Super-sub Cilek. who also had a splendid game defensively as City High forced 23 turnovers, had 14 of the 28. South Tama was led by the brilliant play of Mark Fetter, who netted 23 points and set up another dozen. Fetter, a blond lefty better known for his football prowess, attract more than one member of Ul's athletic department who would dearly love to see him leave his mark, and a few tacklers, on the new Hawkeye Astro-Turf. "Fetter's a real good ball It is now 11 years since Connie Hawkins did those incredible tricks with a basketball for Iowa's freshman team.

The mouths of Iowa fans watered as they thought of the next three years with the incomparable Hawkins in a Hawkeye varsity suit back in February of 1961. Stuffing the ball through the net backwards from over his head, taking a giant leap from beyond the free throw line and stuffing two balls through the net in rapid succession, dribbling between his legs, going high abovo the rim to snatch a rebound with one immense hand, Connie was nothing less than awesome. He was, as I have often said, "The best player never to play basketball at Iowa." There was only one trouble and it was a big "only" Connie was dumb. Terribly dumb. Or maybe ignorant is a better word.

Dumb suggests inability to learn. Ignorance means a lack of knowledge. Either way, the going joke at the time was that Connie could do everything with a basketball but autograph it. Sick as the joke was, it probably was closer to the truth than any of us knew at the time. fi I MENTION ALL THIS AT THIS TIME because the Connie Hawkins biography, written by David Wolf, and published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston of New York, will be published March 2.

A review copy arrived at my desk last week. It is a long book, 400 pages, the type seems relatively small, and I have not read it all yet. Naturally, I read first the parts about his days at Iowa with interest and with a compassion for Hawkins I certainly did not feel at that time, because of ignorance on my part. The author, David Wolf, wrote a Life magazine article in 1969 which cleared Hawkins of guilt in a basketball "fixing" scandal in which he had wrongfully been implicated at the time he quit school at Iowa in May of 1961. Subsequently, Hawkins was allowed to join the National Basketball Association, which had previously "blacklisted" him, and he now is one of the league's top stars with the Phoenix Suns.

The chapters on Hawkins' days at Iowa do not make pretty reading. They are not kind to the people who brought him here, the people who kept him here, the people who sent him away. At this time, I would not care to revive a dead horse. The Iowa incident ended long ago. If you wish to read it, you may judge for yourself.

I have no reason to think the book is not accurate. I did find it extremely interesting. The parts I shall quote deal chiefly with the academic side of the Hawkins' story, because Iowa's real guilt was in bringing to campus a young man who in no way had any chance of survival in the college academic orld. CONNIE WENT TO BOYS HIGH IN NEW YORK, and Wolf writes that a Nathan Mazer, the head of the English Department, volunteered to help Hawkins with his studies when the latter was a senior. The first day they worked together, Mazer gave a reading test and an I.Q.

test to the young man 250 colleges wanted as a student. Connie's reading level was seventh grade. His I.Q. was 65: low-grade moron. "But Hawk worked with more dedication than he had devoted to anything away from the basketball court.

They read together, practiced spelling and grammar, and went over I. Q. and reading tests. By graduation Hawk's I.Q. score had been raised to a very respectable 113 an increase of 48 points.

His reading level was graded at the second month of the 11th grade. '1 was so Connie recalls. 'The best part was that Mr. Mazer was happy with what I'd done. I felt I was ready for college then.

I felt real "The tragedy was that Hawk was now ready for high school "IN SEPTEMBER OF I960, Connie Hawkins packed his sneakers and his comic books and went off to be Joe College. An apprehensive 18-year-old, alone for the first time, he arrived in Iowa City to find an alien world, more indifferent than hostile. "He was another in the needless succession of black athletes pulled from the urban core, plopped into a midwestern campus, and told to make themselves at home. But Iowa wasn't anything like home. Hawkins had nothing In common with the flaxen-haired farm boys who populated his dorm.

Once they finished discussing the basketball team and the football team, there was nothing to talk about. "Connie's classes which the recruiters had told him he could handle were more overwhelming and humiliating than his worst experiences at Boys High. Unfamiliar words buzzed about his ears like angry mosquitoes, and reading assignments for a month totaled more pages than he had read in his life. People were not unfriendly; they smiled and said how happy they were he had come to Iowa. But Hawkins soon found life on the college campus dull, lonely, and sexually frustrating.

THE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT SURROUNDED Hawkins with tutors and hoped for the best. Two sophomores were assigned to work with him fulltime. But, as Nathan Mazer at Boys High had warned, the tutoring of Moses couldn't have made up for Connie's lack of preparation. "Hawk didn't know how to take lecture notes or outline a book or use the library. The tutors came to his room every night for at least an hour.

They read aloud to him, tried to show him how to follow an assignment, helped him write papers, and finally wrote the papers for him. "The Athletic Derailment's academic counselor, who selected courses for freshman athletes, hadn't exactly given Hawk pre-med. In fact, six of Connie's 14 class hours were in Physical Education, where instructors knew what kind of grades to give 'prosnective AU-Americans. Hawkins got one hour of A and five hours of B. But Connie passed no courses outside the Phys Ed Department.

He finished the first semester with six hours of (four in Freshman English) and two hours of Incomplete. The tutors had tried. Before exams they even accompanied Connie to basketball practice and went over material with him during breaks in the orkouts. Hawk remembers, 'it didn't do no good. I couldn't keep up with the readin.

That was the worst part. And I didn't understand a lot of the words the teachers were sayin. I guess I kind of felt like idiot again. Everything was flustratin. I hadn't expected college to be like that.

So I gave MANY PAGES LATER, THE AUTHOR CONCLUDES his "Iowa Postscript" with these observations: "A semiliterate 18-year-old had been brought to college where he had. no chance of legitimate academic survival. He had been paid to perform his basketball skills until he found himself in trouble (because of his acquaintance with gambler Jack Molinas). Then the school's athletic officials suddenly had expressed dissatisfaction with his scholastic inability, about which they had always known. They had abandoned him until they needed him again, this time to lie to save their necks.

"The record isn't very pretty. It makes Coaches Dick Schultz and Sharm Scheuerman seem repngnant. That is one of the many sad ironies of big-time college athletics, for both men are decent, compassionate human beings. A strongly worded letter from Scheuerman, who is no longer coaching, opened the way for Hawkins' first job in pro basketball. Schultz now Iowa's head coach and Scheuerman went out of their way to help Connie's lawyers during his case against the NBA.

They are not the sort of men who set out to exploit teenagers. 'I don't think Connie had the slightest idea what was going on with those Schultz has said. 'Here was a young fella, not worldly wise, and whatever his involvement may have been it was strictly unintentional. This was a very naive 18-year-old, I'm positive he didn't know what point-shaving was. He is a really fine young man.

I feel sincerely that he has been the victim of circumstances if not the circumstance of the ghetto, then the circumstance of people who are looking for someone like him to take advantage The Iowa coaches were not evil men. Hundreds of other coaches were also after Hawkins. The Iowa people were simply acting in the only manner it is possible to act and still survive in the big-time, profit-oriented college sports system. They had to win basketball games to keep their jobs, and to win they needed kids like Connie Hawkins. To get kids like Hawkins, they had to cheat." fourth period on a jumper by Jim Maplethorp to move within an eyelash, 60-59.

Then Knoedel and Jim Blank scored clutch baskets to run it to 64-59 at 4:30. The teams traded a pair of baskets, but Cilek and Warner combined on a three-point play at the two minute mark to sew up the game. Cilek notched the first of a one and one, missed the second, and Warner, who was not blocked out, tipped in the rebound for a safe 71-63 lead. Even in the final stages of the game, the Hawklets played veiy little conservative stall-ball. They kept the pressure on the desperate Trojans with aggressive defense, and passed up no opportunities to tack on more points.

Said one fan leaving the game: "They're just not programmed to slow down!" The Little Hawks now stand at 10-7 with one game to play before opening distinct tournament action against another group of Trojans, West High. In sophomore play, City High overpowered South Tama, 76-47, behind the 20 points of Fred Riggenbach. The Hawklets and Trojans were knotted at 19-19 at the end of the first quarter, but City High pulled ahead as several Trojan starters got into foul trouble early in the second half. Doug Miller with 11 points also finished in double figures for the Hawklets. Dave Hansen's 14 points and 12 by Elmer Roberts led the visitors.

The varsity box score: CITY HIGH 75 FG FT PF TP Fransen, 4 1-2 3 9 Warner, 8 5-7 3 21 Knoedel, 6 2-6 2 14 Mottet, 0 0-0 2 0 Stier, 11-2 3 3 Cilek 5 4-6 4 14 Blank 4 0-11 8 Hobart 0 0-0 0 0 Sanjster 3 0-10 6 TOTALS 31 13-25 18 75 SOUTH TAMA-6 FG FT PF TP M. Fetter, 9 5-6 3 23 Dumbauld, 4 2-5 1 10 Guthrie, 5 1-2 2 11 Maplethorp, 3 2-4 4 8 Zmolek, 4 1-6 3 9 Zeutenhorst 10-14 2 McCoy 0 0-0 0 0 G. Fetter 2 0-0 14 McCreay 0 2-2 0 2 TOTALS 28 13-26 18 69 Score by quarters: City High 16 36 59 75 South Tama 21 33 52 69 player, but I was pleased with the job Jim Fransen did on Coach Schnack commented in the noisy Hawklet dress-ins: room after the game. "There was a long stretch in the third period where they just couldn't get the ball to Fetter because Jim was on him like a rug." Not coincidentally, that was the stretch where the Hawklets began to open up a lead. With Fransen concentrating on defense, Doug Warner, one of five seniors starting for City High, took up the scoring slack.

Warner, who had 31 points last week, had 21 against the Trojans. Several of Warner's markers came on slick feeds from Fransen. Bill Knoedel was a veritable bull on the boards for the Hawklets. Knoedel collected 19 rebounds, half the City High total, as the Little Hawks outrebound-ed the visitors 38-31. The rebound story actually explains why South Tama will probably have trouble in the state tournament.

The Trojans are not big. Their center, Tony Guthrie, who trailed Fetter in the point parade with 11, stands only 6-2. But," oh how they come to play basketball! Featuring a line up that reads like the United Nations (i.e. Ma-plethorp, Zmolek, Zeutenhorst, McCreay), Coach Channing Hall's Trojans have confidence, great spirit, and never stop running. With Fetter exploding free for short jumpers and Guthrie stuffing back in errant attempts.

South Tama zipped to a 21 16 first period lead. But aided by some poor tree-throw shooting. City High turned the tables in the second period and put together baskets by Stier, Sangster and Fransen for a 32-24 lead. By halftime, the Trojans had sliced the 'gap to three and, with pencil-thin Mike Dumbauld showing the way, managed to briefly hold the lead midway in the third period. They came back again in the Dan Gable May Join Iowa Staff Dan Gable of Waterloo, considered by many wrestling followers to be America's greatest wrestler ever, has been offered a job working with the University of Iowa wrestling team next season as an assistant coach.

Gable would fill a vacancy created by naming Gary Kur-delmeier head wrestling coach last week, following the announced retirement of head coach Dave McCuskey. McCus-key's retirement will be effective Sept. 30. Currently, Kurdelmeier is Mc-Cuskey's assistant, a position he has held for five years. Iowa Athletic Director Bump Elliott said he was sure Gable would be an excellent choice.

Gable is expected to be a member of the 1972 Olympic freestyle wrestling team. He returned from a triumphant tour of Russia a week ago Sunday. Gable competed in the Russian national tournament, won the 149 5 title, defeated all 10 Russians he met, including seven pins and was named the outstanding wrestler in the tournament. Ml Gable, a two-ttme NCAA champion for Iowa State University who has a total of six national titles to his credit, instating two AAU titles, is also tr defending Pan American Games and World Games cfcanrpion. At one time, he had a streak of 181 consecutive victories, Including three high adiool state championships for West Waterloo.

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