A roundup of the sports information of the week

AUTO RACING—World Champion JACK BRABHAM fought off a late challenge by Bruce McLaren to win the bumpy, 150-mile New Zealand Grand Prix, for the third time.

BASEBALL—Moving from team to team almost as rapidly as the players he trades, FRANK LANE barreled into Kansas City to take over as general manager of the Athletics, quickly announced that his usual "anybody's for sale" policy would apply there just as it had in his operations in Chicago, St. Louis and Cleveland. Lane added, however, that, "The good players we'll keep in Kansas City," marking an apparent end to the A's role as a "farm club" for the New York Yankees.

BASKETBALL—When DETROIT'S George Lee socked NEW YORK's Kenny Sears, Lee was charged with a personal foul and Sears was hospitalized with a fractured jaw. It seemed the final blow for the Knicks, who had lost live in a row. Instead, the New Yorkers gave some scoring help to Willie Naulls, beat Detroit, won three straight and pulled to within 2½ games of Syracuse, which lost four of six. The winning half of the East, BOSTON and PHILADELPHIA, continued the taffy pull which saw Boston stretch its lead from a game to a game and a half. ST. LOUIS split four games to maintain its easy domination of the West. In the NIBL, the CLEVELAND PIPERS scored their 10th victory in 11 games by beating Denver, 123-99, and maintain a 4½-game lead over New York in the Eastern Division. Denver's disastrous eastern swing resulted in a third straight loss when AKRON rallied for a 96-90 victory that dropped Denver into a first-place tie with Seattle in the Western Division.

BOXING—RODOLFO DIAZ, Argentine light heavyweight champion, solved the weird, weaving tactics of kittenish Clarence (Tiger) Floyd, bored straight in at the Tiger until he curled up in a corner in the eighth round, in New York.

Sugar Ray Robinson will have another chance to regain his world middleweight championship from Gene Fullmer when the two meet, for the fourth time, on February 25. Betting on the fight could reach record heights since the big gamblers need save nothing for plane fare; the fight will be in Las Vegas.

Carmen Basilio, fighting again after a six-month layoff, scored a unanimous decision over Gaspar Ortega in New York (see page 18).

CHESS—BOBBY FISCHER, William Lombardy and Raymond Weinstein, aged 17, 20 and 19, respectively, finished 1-2-3 in the U.S. championships in New York and earned the right to compete in 1961 world title play, the youngest American team ever.

FIELD TRIALS—CARSWELL CONTESSA, 6-year-old black-and-white bitch handled by Mrs. Philip Armour Jr., beat 40 rivals to win the National English Springer Spaniel championship, Weldon Springs, Mo.

FOOTBALL—NORMAN SNEAD, fresh from signing a pro contract with the Washington Redskins, threw four touchdown passes as he directed the South All-Stars to a wild 33-26 victory over the North in the Senior Bowl at Mobile, Ala. The PHILADELPHIA EAGLES, wasting no time in filling the quarterback vacancy created by the retirement of all-pro Norm Van Brocklin, traded a high future draft choice to the St. Louis Cardinals for King Hill, former Rice All-America.

HANDBALL—1960's outstanding U.S. players, named in the final AAU rankings, were JIM JACOBS of Los Angeles in four-wall singles, and OSCAR OBERT of New York in one-wall singles.

HOCKEY—Two long losing streaks ended Sunday night when DETROIT (seven in a row at home) beat BOSTON while NEW YORK (five in a row) upset MONTREAL. Detroit managed its win without Gordie Howe, who was out for 10 days with a head injury.

HORSE RACING—At Santa Anita FIRST BALCONY ($31.20) left the pack as the field rounded the stretch turn, fought off a closing challenge by favored T.V. Lark and ran off with the $58,600 San Carlos Handicap by a length. The 4-year-old colt covered seven furlongs in 1:22⅕ Manuel Ycaza up. GEECHEE LOU ($63) lay back during the first half of the $29,300 San Gabriel Handicap, then hurtled through on the inside to give Johnny Longden the fastest ride any jockey in America has ever had over a mile and a furlong on grass: 1:46[3/5].

At Tropical Park DERRICK ($47.70) began moving up from 13th place midway down the back-stretch of the $24,100 Orange Bowl Handicap, caught Noholme II just 70 yards from the wire and won the mile-and-a-sixteenth race by a nose in 1:43 under a fine ride from John Rotz.

RODEO—After 10 wild go-rounds in the finals of the world championships at Dallas, five of the six available titles were held by new champions. Biggest winner was HARRY TOMPKINS, a 32-year-old Texan, who dethroned Oklahoman Jim Shoulders to become, officially, the best all-round cowboy in the world. Besides bumps, bruises and the title, Tompkins picked up the bull-riding championship and, since last year's championship, $32,522. Only repeat winner was JACK BUSCHBOM, 32, Cassville, Wis., who for the third straight year took the bareback bronc-riding crown. Other new champions: BOB ROBINSON, 26, steer wrestling; ENOCH WALKER, 27, saddle bronc riding; and DEAN OLIVER, 30, calf roping.

SKIING—MONTANA STATE COLLEGE defeated NCAA champion Colorado and three other teams for a surprising victory in the sixth annual Wyoming Intercollegiate championships. The winner's edge over Colorado was 1,131.56 to 1,115.06. U.S. Olympian CHUCK FERRIES of Denver University spoiled the return to competition of ex-Denverite BUDDY WERNER, currently of the U. of Colorado, by flashing down a fast 37-gate course in 1:26 4/5 to win the annual Giant Snow Cup Slalom at Alta, Utah. For Werner, who finished second, it was his first major race since he broke his log just before the 1960 Winter Olympics.

SQUASH—Defending champion ROSHAN KHAN, 35-year-old professional instructor with the Pakistan navy, whipped cousin Azam Khan 15-6, 15-4, 15-8 to retain his U.S. Open Squash Racquets title at Indianapolis.

SWIMMING—INDIANA UNIVERSITY'S powerful swimmers broke six meet records and won six events to capture the Big Ten relays at East Lansing.

TRACK & FIELD-West Germany's Olympic 100-meter champion ARMIN HARY began a year of involuntary contemplation of his many-sided career, which has been moving just as fast off the cinders as on. Citing some outsized expense accounts and a magazine article in which Hary belittled German amateur athletics, officials thought it wiser that he not compete again until 1962.

In an all-comers' meet at Palo Alto, Stanford's ERNIE CUNLIFFE broke the world record for the 1,000-yard run with a time of 2:07.3, while New Zealand's Olympic 5,000-meter champion, MURRAY HALBERG, broke the U.S. record for the two miles, winning in 8:40.8.

MILEPOSTS—APPOINTED: CHUCK STUDLEY, 31, as head football coach at the University of Cincinnati. Studley resigned after one season at the University of Massachusetts, where his 7-2 record was the best in the school's history.

Johnny Griffith, as head football coach at the University of Georgia, succeeding Wally Butts, who will continue as athletic director.

ENGAGED: WALLACE (Buddy) WERNER, 24, ski champion, to Vanda Norgren, 24-year-old Denverite.

MARRIED: RAY NORTON, 23, U.S. Olympic sprinter, to Martha McGuire, 21-year-old senior at the University of California.

HONORED: NORM VAN BROCKLIN, quarterback of the NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles, and Joe Schmidt, Detroit Lions linebacker, as the NFL's most valuable players for 1960, by a vote of their fellow athletes.

Abner Haynes, Dallas Texans halfback, as player of the year in the American Football League, by a poll of coaches and writers.

DIED: LYNWOOD THOMAS (Schoolboy) ROWE, 48, right-hander who won 158 games in a 19-year pitching career with the Detroit Tigers, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies, of a heart attack, at his home in El Dorado, Ark.

Fred Luders, 75, captain of the Philadelphia Phillies' first N.L. championship team, and a major league baseball player from 1906 to 1920, of a heart attack, at his home near Three Lakes, Wisconsin.

Clayton Heafner, 46, pro golfer who reached the finals of the National Open in 1949 and 1951, of a heart ailment, in Charlotte, N.C.