Wildcats’ Hartl Has Hodgkin’s Disease

Junior fullback Matt Hartl, a starter on Northwestern’s Rose Bowl team last season and a key blocker for Darnell Autry, has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease.

“The doctors are very optimistic that he will have a complete recovery but it will mean he will miss this season,” Wildcat Coach Gary Barnett said Friday. “We’re very optimistic we’ll have him back for spring football.”

Barnett also announced that sophomore offensive lineman Tony Dodge has been diagnosed with Graves’ disease, but could return by the end of the season, that senior defensive back Larry Guess, who played mostly on special teams, has degenerative arthritis in his left knee and will no longer play football, and that junior linebacker Don Holmes, who started two games, including the Rose Bowl, after Pat Fitzgerald broke his leg last season, has been suspended for the season for breaking team rules.

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Michigan senior strong safety Clarence Thompson, an all-Big Ten selection last season, is academically ineligible this season, Coach Lloyd Carr said. . . . Louisville Coach Ron Cooper stopped a radio interview Friday night complaining of chest pain and was taken to a hospital, but an initial diagnosis showed only that Cooper was suffering from exhaustion. He walked out of the station but was taken by ambulance to a hospital.