Linebacker Zamano Has Knee Surgery

UCLA’s Rosco Zamano, a freshman linebacker from Bishop Amat High, was operated on Saturday night at University of Michigan Hospital after suffering a dislocated knee in the second quarter when he was hit while blocking on a Wolverine kickoff.

Bruin team physician Gerald Finerman stayed in Ann Arbor instead of accompanying the team back to Southern California.

The injury, Finerman said, involved a blocked artery.

“I went on the field and reduced the knee,” he said, “and then I felt for a pulse [in the lower leg]. There wasn’t one.”

Zamano had been outstanding on special teams in the early going, and had gotten playing time at linebacker in the Bruins’ victory over Northeast Louisiana.

Finerman said he expected Zamano to be hospitalized in Ann Arbor for about a week.

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Michigan led, 21-3, at halftime, and UCLA Coach Bob Toledo called on a little history to try to rally the Bruins.

“We told our team in 1982 they were up by 21 points, and we came back and won the football game,” he said. “We tried to emphasize that at halftime and said to hang in there and keep fighting and keep battling.”

Actually, UCLA beat Michigan twice in the 1982 season, 31-27, in the regular season and 24-14 in the Rose Bowl game.

They have been the only Bruin victories in the 10-game series.

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Where was Chris Howard before Saturday, when he scored four touchdowns and rushed for 109 yards? The sophomore was academically ineligible for Michigan’s opener against Illinois because of a term-paper snafu. He was sidelined for last week’s game against Boston College because of a rib injury.

“I was going to play this week, no matter what,” said Howard, a junior from River Ridge, La., who had been stuck for two seasons behind Tim Biakabutuka.

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Michigan officials will tell you it’s not a race between the school and Tennessee to have the biggest stadium in college football. But when Tennessee passed Michigan’s 101,501 seats by 43 with its new expansion, Michigan decided to expand its press box for next season.

The NCAA counts fans in the seats, officials, vendors and the press in its attendance figures, and Tennessee passed Michigan’s NCAA record (106,867) last Saturday for its game against Florida with 107,608. “We’ll get it back,” said Bo Schembechler, former Michigan coach and athletic director, who has his own booth in retirement at Michigan Stadium.

Saturday’s Michigan crowd, 106,011, was the 132nd in a row greater than 100,000.

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While Saturday’s game was considered an important test for UCLA, it was nothing more than a preliminary event for Michigan.

Their big early-season fight is next week at Northwestern.

“Cinderella, here comes the Wolverines,” Howard said.

The Wildcats defeated Michigan last year, 19-13, eventually costing the Wolverines a Rose Bowl bid.

“For a year, we’ve had to live with that,” Howard said. “Now we get to go to Evanston and erase that memory.”

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Ever wonder why there are wings on Michigan’s football helmets? It sure has nothing to do with a wolverine.

When Coach Fritz Crisler came to the university from Princeton in 1938, the Wolverines wore black helmets, so he added color--maize and blue--and put Princeton’s wings on the headgear for show and did away with Michigan receivers wearing different-colored helmet so quarterbacks could spot them downfield.