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A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASEBALL—ROGER MARIS, hefty 26-year-old right fielder who moved up to the New York Yankees last winter after two years in the lower majors with Kansas City, then hit .283, slammed 39 home runs, drove in 112 runs, kept base runners cautious with a cannonlike right arm to lead the Yanks to the American League pennant this summer, was named the Most Valuable Player in his league by the Baseball Writers Association. Said usually laconic, but now jubilant Maris: "This is a happy feeling." Runner-up with 222 votes to his teammate's 225, fellow-outfielder Mickey Mantle (.278, 40 home runs, 94 RBIs).
San Francisco Giants closed out their exhibition tour of Japan with 11 wins, four losses, one tie. In the final game at Shizuoka, Felipe Alou put the Giants ahead with a ninth-inning home run, but the Japanese All-Stars pushed across two runs in the last half of the inning, won 3-2. WILLIE MAYS, with seven home runs and a .404 batting average, was named the tour's Most Valuable Player, received a new Japanese automobile.
BASKETBALL—The ST. LOUIS HAWKS dealt the Philadelphia Warriors their first defeat of the season after nine wins, 107-105, despite a 42-point splurge by Wilt Chamberlain. Two points behind with three seconds to play, Philadelphia missed its chance to tie when a pass from out-of-bounds was batted away from Chamberlain by the Hawks' alert Dave Piontek. The BOSTON CELTICS were struggling to stay with fast-moving Philadelphia, closed some ground with a 131-124 victory over Los Angeles, but only after the Celtics' Bill Russell, his temper riled in a fourth-period rebound hassle, had floored the Lakers' Jim Krebs with a crushing left hook. Russell was expelled from the game for the first time in his career. PHILADELPHIA, leader in NBA Eastern Division standings; ST. LOUIS, leader in Western Division.
BOXING—SAN JOSE STATE COLLEGE, NCAA champion for the past three years, announced that it will drop intercollegiate competition this season because so many schools have given up the sport that San Jose can no longer make up a schedule. "But we want to make it perfectly clear," said Athletic Director Walter McPherson, "that we are not dropping boxing as such, that we will continue to teach it and that we hope to see the other schools return to the sport on a major basis."
Florentino Fernandez, eighth-ranked welterweight from Havana pumped left hooks into the body of Phil Moyer, Portland, Ore. middleweight, for the first three rounds, then shifted the attack to his head, knocked his opponent down twice in the fourth round, once in the fifth before Referee Harry Kessler stopped the nationally televised Madison Square Garden fight.
CHESS—As expected, Russia's team of champions and ex-world champions cleaned up on 40 nations at the chess Olympics at Leipzig. Close behind in second place was an amazing U.S. team of youthful contenders: Bobby Fischer, Robert Byrne, William Lombardy, Arthur Bisguier, with 19-year-old former Junior Champion Raymond Weinstein and veteran Nicholas Rossolimo pinch hitting capably as alternates.
CROSS-COUNTRY—MICHIGAN STATE warmed up for defense of its IC4A and NCAA championships, placed three finishers among the top five, captured its sixth straight Big Ten team title in Chicago with 33 points to runner-up Iowa's 61.
Gerald Young, MSU junior, won individual honors with a record-breaking time of 19:35.3 for the four-mile course.
Western Michigan jammed five of its runners among the first seven finishers, handily won the Central Collegiate team championship with 21 points as WMU senior Jerry Ashmore took the individual title in a fast 19:41.8 over the four-mile course, also in Chicago.
Bobby Lowe, slender, hard-training Brown University senior, still fresh after his recent Heptagonal victory, stood as East's strongest entry in IC4A and NCAA meets by trotting off with the New England Intercollegiate race by 300 yards in 21:08 for 4½ miles, at Boston. Team champion: Brown, with 90 points.
GOLF—HOWIE JOHNSON, a touring pro from Cog Hill, Ill., shot a nine-under-par course-record 63 in the second round, held on with a 69 on the final day, won the Mexican Open and $2,000 with a 72-hole total of 273, at Mexico City. Runner-up: Billy Maxwell, Oceanside, Calif., with 275. Tied for third with Ramon Sota of Spain and Jack Sellman of Houston was 37-year-old Roberto de Vicenzo of Argentina and Mexico City, who shot the first hole-in-one of his long career in the third round, finished with 276.
Gene Littler, San Diego, the $21,000 Coronado pro-amateur, with 272 for 72 holes, Coronado, Calif. Runner-up: Bill Casper, San Diego, with 275.
HARNESS RACING—BYE BYE BYRD ($3.30), richest harness horse of all time, matched a strong late challenge by Culver Pick then, with Driver Clint Hodgins sailing along behind, flitted away in the stretch to win the $58,700 Good Time Pace at Yonkers Raceway by two lengths in 3:07[2/5] for 1½ miles. The victory pushed the 5-year-old stallion's record winnings to $492,346.
HOCKEY—The sluggish MONTREAL CANADIENS finally began to move, beat the New York Rangers in a frantic, wild-scoring game 9-7, beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2, then beat the Rangers again 2-1, took a three-point lead in the NHL over second-place Chicago Black Hawks.
HORSE RACING—CARRY BACK ($4.70), who won last month's rich Garden State, captured the 47th running of the $35,650 Remson Stakes at Aqueduct. Under Jockey Johnny Sellers, the brown 2-year-old colt made up a four-length deficit over the final furlong with his long strides to nip Vapor Whirl, Willie Shoemaker up, by half a length in 1:36[2/5] for the mile.
Bowl of Flowers ($3.40), with Eddie Arcaro up, came out of the starting gate next to last, weaved her way through the field of 2-year-old fillies and broke clear in the stretch to win the $106,325 Frizette Stakes by three lengths over Counter Call in 1:35[3/5] for the mile.
Bald Eagle ($5.40), the $100,000 Laurel International for the second straight year, 1½ m., 2:33, by two lengths over Harmonizing, Laurel, Md., Manuel Ycaza up (see page 12).
Manassa Mauler ($19), the $85,900 Trenton Handicap, 1¼ m. by 3½ lengths over Rienzi in 2:02⅕ Garden State, Joe Culmone up.
Royal Native ($5.40), the $58,200 Vineland Handicap, 1‚⅛ m. by a half-length over Make Sale in 1:50⅘ Garden State, Bill Hartack up.
HORSE SHOWS—TOM GAYFORD, 31-year-old Toronto stock exchange floor trader, took two firsts and two seconds at the National Horse Show in New York, amassed 38 points and the individual championship for the second straight year Team champion: the U.S., with 123 points.
SOCCER—SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY stopped Tottenham Hotspur of London's 16-game winning streak, 2-1, when inside left John Fantham scored the winning goal midway in the second half. Tottenham still leads Division I by five points over Sheffield.
TENNIS—LEW HOAD won Japan's first professional singles championship by defeating Ken Rosewall 6-2, 0-6, 3-6, 6-1, 13-11 before an enthusiastic, applauding crowd of 12,000 in Tokyo.
VOLLEYBALL—RUSSIA swept both men's and women's titles in Iron-Curtain-dominated World Championships in Riode Janeiro. U.S.S.R. defeated the defending champions from Czechoslovakia in two close, tough games, then routed them 15-4 to clinch men's title. U.S.S.R. women edged Poland 3 games to 2, clinched their half of the honors early in the tournament. Ill-prepared U.S. men's and women's units fared badly from the beginning, were eliminated from contention in the early rounds (see page 11).
MILEPOSTS—HONORED: J. EDGAR HOOVER, 65, recently reappointed FBI director, with presentation of a special gold bowling ball and pin in recognition of his work in combating juvenile delinquency, by the American Junior Bowling Congress, at Washington, D.C.
BORN: To BOB FRIEND, 30-year-old pitching star of the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, and Mrs. Friend, six-pound-11-ounce Mary Ellen, their first child, in Pittsburgh.
SAVED: The SUN BOWL FOOTBALL GAME in El Paso, by the voters of El Paso who approved a bond issue for the construction of a new 30,000-seat stadium that sponsors had insisted was imperative if the nation's fourth-oldest postseason game was to be continued.
DIED: E. C. "IRISH" KRIEGER, 64, nationally known as Mr. Football Rule Book, a Big Ten football and basketball official until his retirement in 1953, author of several books on football rules; of a heart attack, in Columbus, Ohio.
