DETROIT FREE PRESS WOLVERINES FULL

Case had a veteran team that had won the Ohio Conference basketball championship the prior year, and the Wolverines lost the game, 27–25. Michigan opened its season on December 15, 1917, with a road game in Cleveland against Case Scientific School. In the days leading up to the season opener, Mitchell culled the team to 12 players and put them through strenuous conditioning workouts each night as well as passing and shooting drills. So, too, did Ralph Rychener who had played forward on the championship team of the fraternity-boarding house league. James McClintock, who had played center on the sophomore class team, stood out in the early practices. Searching for players with some level of experience, Mitchell looked to the class and fraternity teams. During late November and early December, Mitchell held scrimmages to identify the best players. Boyd became the team captain, and Cohn was a reserve on Mitchell's team. With his ties to the football team, Mitchell recruited several football players to try out for the basketball team, including Alan Boyd, Abe Cohn, Tad Wieman, Richard Weske, Oscar Cartright, William Cruse, and Angus Goetz.

DETROIT FREE PRESS WOLVERINES FULL

As a result, the paper opined that Mitchell 'will have his hands full putting any sort of a team on the floor.' Ĭoach Mitchell was also the coach of Michigan's freshman football team and was unable to turn his attention to the basketball team until football season had ended. In early December 1917, the Detroit Free Press wrote that basketball 'receives its inception as a major league sport at Michigan this year.' The Free Press noted that the game had never been played 'on a big scale' in Ann Arbor, and Coach Mitchell had been unable to find experienced players for the team. Michigan State University Armory, East Lansing, MI University of Minnesota Armory, Minneapolis, MN 4 Critical assessment of the first season.Timothy Hewlett led in scoring average with 7.0 points per game (22 field goals and 12 free throws in eight games). James McClintock was the team's leading scorer with 108 points on 43 field goals and 22 free throws in 16 games.

In 1919, Mitchell established the intramural sports program at Michigan and served as its director. After a difficult start in the 1917–18 season, Mitchell led the team to a 12-game turnaround with a 16–8 record in the 1918–19 season. He returned to Michigan in 1917 after having held positions as the athletic director at Grand Rapids Union High School from 1912 to 1915 and at Michigan State Normal College (now known as Eastern Michigan University) from 1915 to 1917. Įlmer Mitchell, a 28-year-old graduate of the University of Michigan, served as the coach. They finished last in the Big Ten Conference with a record of 0–10 against conference opponents, the only winless conference season in Michigan history. With no experienced collegiate players to draw from, the squad started from scratch and compiled a record of 6–12. The team was Michigan's second varsity basketball team and the first after an eight-year hiatus following the 1908–09 season. The 1917–18 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team represented the University of Michigan in intercollegiate basketball during the 1917–18 season.

Detroit free press wolverines