THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SPORT

PANTS DOWN AND GOAL TO GO

Britons witnessing American football games for the first time pridefully point out that players in the equally rough-and-tumble game of rugby eschew such protective items as helmets, shoulder pads, hip pads and other sissified equipage. Just how little the rugby player wears was graphically demonstrated last week at the Los Angeles Coliseum (above) when a combined team from Oxford and Cambridge took on UCLA. Aside from the impromptu nudity show, the 2,000 spectators, scattered throughout the cavernous 101,528-seat coliseum, watched a hard-fought and exciting game between the scientific ruggers from Britain and the inexperienced but "rock-'em sock-'em" Americans, most of whom played on last year's crack UCLA football team. Although the hard-hitting hosts literally beat the pants off their opponents, Cambridge-Oxford, thanks to their superior technical knowledge of the game, won 12-5.

UNDETERRED BY THE TUMULT AND THE TEARING OF A SEAT-OF-THE PANTS TACKLE, RUGBY PLAYER WALLY BUTCHER OF OXFORD-CAMBRIDGE (6) STARTS TO GET RID OF BALL DURING GAME AT LOS ANGELES. RUGBY RULES PERMIT NO TIME OUTS EVEN FOR ANY EMERGENCIES SUCH AS THIS

DURING A SCRUM, WHICH RESEMBLES A SCRIMMAGE IN FOOTBALL, BRITONS PASS BALL. AT RIGHT IS UCLA FOOTBALL STAR SAM BOGHOSIAN

RUSHING TO BLOCK OXFORD-CAMBRIDGE KICK AFTER SCRUM IS JERRY GARDNER OF UCLA. RUGBY BALL RESEMBLES OVER-INFLATED FOOTBALL

MARCHING MIDSHIPMAN AT ANNAPOLIS, TORN BETWEEN THE CONFLICTING COMMANDMENTS OF "EYES FRONT!" AND "KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL!", ABANDONS DUTY FOR SPORT, STEALS A PEEK AT THE LACROSSE GAME BETWEEN NAVY AND HARVARD

SEASONAL POINTS OF VIEW: SIDELINE SIGHT, HINDSIGHTS AND FORESIGHTS

Heavy hitter Roan Lang, 360 pounds, addresses the ball during a Fatman's Golf Tournament which was held at Baton Rouge, La. Lang came out of golf retirement for the nine-hole tournament and finished second to a 301-pounder.

Grinning winner in Boston Marathon is Hideo Hamamura of Japan who breaks the tape while Mayor John Hynes trails behind carrying the traditional bay leaf crown. The mayor entered the 26-mile 365-yard race 10 yards from the finish but could not keep up with Hamamura.

Pompon Pants and rabbit-ears headgear give two coeds the latest snow-bunny look as they head for the slopes at Stowe, Vt. to do some skiing before spring thaws end this season's sport at New England resort.

Diving Jockey hurtles a fence at the Maryland hunt course without benefit of a horse. Riders in the hunt walk the course before the race to test the ground, familiarize themselves with the route. Some jockeys try out the fences on the basis that anything they cannot dive over will also stymie their horses.

VOYAGE OF THE GOOD SHIP 'YANKEE'

When the 96-foot brigantine Yankee drops its anchor at Gloucester, Mass. this week it will mark the end of a cruise all sailors, most landlubbers, dream about: an 18-month round-the-world voyage that included whaling in the Galapagos, visiting Fletcher Christian's descendants at Pitcairn Island, a safari through Africa's Mau Mau country to the slopes of Kilimanjaro, stops in Siam, Java, Singapore and other exotic spots. Skippers Irving and Electa Johnson, who crewed their sixth globe-girdling expedition with 19 young men and women ("kids we would like as members of our family"), use nonprofit cruises as sources for books, lectures and specimens for museums interested in the South Seas.

Brigantine "Yankee" under full sail glides through bay at Murea Island in French Oceania. Ship's leisurely global course was from east to west, mainly within the southern hemisphere.

Helmswoman Johnson steers the Yankee while wearing a large Balinese hat to protect her from the sun. All hands worked at regular sailing tasks but a cook and physician were aboard for special duties.

THREE PHOTOS

BOB LANDRY

SEVEN PHOTOS