A worldwide roundup of the sports information of the week
RECORD BREAKERS—EDDIE SOUTHERN, U. of Texas powerboy regarded by some as nation's finest runner (see page 45), buzzed around two turns in rabbit-quick tempo, sprinted 440 in 46.1 to break 12-year-old college record (46.2 by Illinois' Herb McKenley) in triangular meet with Rice and Texas A&M at Austin (May 1). Complained Eddie: "This is the worst I've felt in a long time. I didn't get this tired when I ran hard for four straight days."
Gary Heinrich, Hayward H.S. teen-ager who is busy rewriting interscholastic record book these days, churned water foamy white in 20-yard pool at Hayward, Calif., freestyling 200 yards in 1:54.5 and 440 yards in 4:30.2 (April 29).
BASEBALL—NEW YORK YANKEES, getting airtight pitching from Bobby Shantz and Bob Turley, home run blasts from Moose Skowron, held grip on American League lead but found Washington Senators, who took three out of four from Cleveland, Chicago, Kansas City, breathing hard on their necks as Indians and Baltimore moved up to challenge Athletics for third.
Chicago, Milwaukee and San Francisco dipped in and out of first place in National League like elevator in rush hour, were being pushed by Pittsburgh Pirates, who found Los Angeles' left-field screen easy pickings, won four out of five from Dodgers, and by Cincinnati Redlegs, who swept three from St. Louis, split pair with Cubs. At week's end, Cubs were in lead, with Pirates, Braves, Giants half-game behind and Red-legs only one game out.
TENNIS—PANCHO GONZALES, leading Aussie Lew Hoad 37-32 in world tour, lugged his big serve into Cleveland for national pro championships, turned it loose to sweep past weary Hoad 3-6, 4-6, 14-12, 6-1, 6-4 in final for his sixth straight title.
BASKETBALL—U.S. basketballers moved into Russian hinterland, gave Reds sample of how game should be played. Before 25,000 cheering Georgians (see below), who jammed Tiflis' outdoor Dynamo Stadium (once named for discredited Soviet secret police chief, Lavrenti Beria) and jiggled happily to barrage of American rock 'n' roll tunes (favorite: Too Pooped To Pop), AAU men trounced Azerbaijan champions 95-46 after female counterparts outscored Georgian All-Stars 42-37 for first victory on Soviet soil. Next day, 25,000 braved drenching downpour, watched U.S. men outskid Georgian All-Stars 59-41, women beat Estonia 43-34. Teams moved on to Leningrad's Winter Stadium, where Americans were pressed before defeating Leningrad All-Stars 76-72 for fifth straight; girls downed Russian Federation 54-44, Leningrad 58-42 to conclude tour with four straight.
Alex Hannum, who survived midseason dispute with dedicated Owner Ben Kerner to lead St. Louis Hawks to NBA title, last week took long, hard look at his basketball future, decided, "It is unprofitable to go back under the contract we have," confirmed his resignation after 16 months of sometimes turbulent big league coaching.
HORSE RACING—TIM TAM, Stepping neatly and boldly through Churchill Downs mud under gentle but firm urging of Ismael Valenzuela, swirled out of pack at head of stretch to bear down on front-running Lincoln Road—while Jewel's Reward was unable to get to third-place Noureddin and Silky Sullivan trailed badly in 12th place—pounded home first by half-length in $116,400 Kentucky Derby (see page 16).
Queen Elizabeth's pall mall, off at 20 to 1, swept into lead in last 50 yards, pranced uphill on Newmarket's Rowley mile straightaway to win 2,000 Guineas Stake, first of British season's major tests for 3-year-olds, add $38,967 to royal till.
TRACK & FIELD—CALIFORNIA'S DON BOWDEN, only U.S. miler to break four minutes, warmed up for major meets ahead, ran distance in 4:03.5, but suffered his first dual-meet defeat in two years when he was upset by Stanford's Ernie Cunliffe in 1:50.2 half-mile at Palo Alto.
USC parlayed winning efforts by Rink Babka in discus (184 feet 1½ inches), Davey Davis in shotput (58 feet 1½ inches), Charley Dumas in high jump (6 feet 8¾ inches), Max Truex in 2-mile (9:01.1) into 78-53 triumph over UCLA at Los Angeles, packed away 79th straight dual-meet victory.
BOXING—ARCHIE MOORE, fat, flabby and 41 going on 45, called in at last minute for $10,000 TV shot, stopped only long enough to preen his goatee and flex his bulging muscles, huffed and puffed his way to 10-round split decision over willing Willi Besmanoff in Derby Eve nontitle fight at Louisville. From 196½-pound Archie came his latest blueprint for future: "I'm taking off weight so I can fight either Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight championship or Ray Robinson for my title. Ray has lots of walking-around money now. When he gets down to that last $300,000, maybe he'll listen. We'll fight for the old man's championship of the world."
Willie Pep, another wily old (35) pro, called on his past for every trick in trade, bewildered young Lightweight Jimmy Kelly (James K. Kalogaropoulos) with cunning assortment of jabs, uppercuts, hooks and right crosses while stepping carefully out of range, walked off with decision in 10-rounder at Boston. Victory earned Willie No. 7 spot in NBA featherweight rankings but failed to impress New York State Boxing Commission, which refused to grant him license.
GOLF—TOMMY BOLT, once-tempestuous Oklahoman, shot cautious 74 on final round, barely held off onrushing Ken Venturi, who finished with 69, by single stroke 282-283 to pocket $5,000 in Colonial Invitation at Fort Worth. Bragged Bolt: "I didn't even get mad the whole tournament."
MOTOR SPORTS—JUAN MANUEL FANGIO, world's top sports car driver, tooling along at 115 mph in Dayton Steel Foundry Special while taking driver's test at Indianapolis, came near-cropper when Ray Crawford's car, booming around turn at 135 mph, went into spin, narrowly missed hitting him. Cracked Crawford: "I was just showing Fangio what not to do here."
Walt Hansgen, Westfield, N.J. Jaguar dealer, got early jump on field, roared around 3.2-mile circuit at 77.6 mph average in Briggs Cunningham's new Lister Jag, stayed ahead of Ed Crawford, in another Cunningham Jag, and Lance Reventlow, in Corvette-powered Scarab, to win one-hour feature of SCCA National Point Meeting before 18,000 at Virginia International Raceway in Danville. Earlier, Crawford beat Hansgen in 30-minute jaunt.
BOATING—YALE, sweeping powerfully and formfully with four Olympians aboard, pulled together in perfect cadence to shake off Penn and Columbia, left opponents wallowing on New York's murky, rain-flattened Harlem River (see below) to win Blackwell Cup by 2½ lengths in 9:30.5 for two miles.
Harvard's inexperienced combination of five sophomores, two juniors, one senior found strength to fight off two thrusts by disappointing Princeton, chugged along at even beat to set course record of 8:40.6 for 1¾-mile Compton Cup on Princeton's becalmed Carnegie Lake. But all was not black for wounded Tigers, who found reason to rejoice when 150-pounders stroked back from streak-breaking loss to Cornell week earlier, overpowered Penn by four lengths to capture sixth straight Wood-Hammond Cup.
Long Island Sound's Bus Mosbacher, Warner Willcox, Don Mckenzie and SAM BARTON left host skippers in their wake during annual Bermuda Race Week, expertly maneuvered International One-Design hulls to victory in seven-race Amorita Cup. Willcox completed American sweep, outsailing Bert Darrell for King Edward VII Cup.
MILEPOST—HONORED—The late HERMAN HICKMAN, one of U. of Tennessee's most distinguished alumni: by his alma mater, which announced establishment of Herman Hickman Memorial Scholarship, at Knoxville.
