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A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASKETBALL—In the NBA first-round playoffs SYRACUSE beat Philadelphia three straight (115-107, 115-114, 106-103), then lost to Boston in the first game of the Eastern Division championships (best four of seven games). In the West, Los Angeles beat Detroit in the first two games (120-102, 127-118), dropped the second two (113-124, 114-123) but came back in the fifth game to win 137-120, will now meet St. Louis in the final playoffs of the Western Division.
Pueblo (Colo.) beat Tyler (Texas) 79-66 to win its first national junior college championship, in Hutchinson, Kans.
BILLIARDS—JOE CHAMACO of Mexico won one version of the world three-cushion championship in Olavarria, Argentina, when Art Rubin of New York was forced to default because of stomach pains. Rubin also lost the first playoff match to Chamaco 95-100 in 136 innings, after winning nine straight games to make the finals. In Grand Rapids, meanwhile, in what was also billed as the world three-cushion championship, HAROLD WORST defeated Masako Katsura of San Francisco six out of seven matches (350-276). In her one victory Masako defeated Worst 55-53 in 76 innings. Worst and Chamaco both continued to claim the world championship.
CURLING—The DR. FRANK CREALOCK rink of Seattle defeated the H. Douglas McNabb rink of San Francisco 10-4 to win the U.S. championship in Grand Forks. N.D. In the four-day meet the Crealock rink compiled a 6-2 record, is eligible for the world tournament in Scotland this week.
DOG SHOW—CH. PAGE MILL TUMBLEWEED a beagle owned by Dr. and Mrs. Aaron M. Leavitt of Longmeadow, Mass., won the best-in-show at the Harrisburg (Pa.) Kennel Club show. Anne Rogers was the handler.
FENCING—NEW YORK UNIVERSITY won the Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships in New York. The Violets took both the épée and foil team titles and tied Columbia in the sabre event to win the three-weapon title 71-58 over Columbia.
GOLF—In an 18-hole best-ball tournament in Lantana, Fla. Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright, Patty Berg and Betsy Rawls whipped Sam Snead, Bob Toski, Lew Worsham and Bing Crosby 66-67. Snead, however, took medal honors with a 3-under-par 69.
HOCKEY—MONTREAL won its fourth straight NHL championship, as Toronto closed two points behind (see page 62). The Canadiens' Bernie (Boom Boom) Geoffrion scored his 50th goal to tie Maurice Richard's season record set in 1944-45. To start the Stanley Cup playoffs, Chicago and Montreal will play one semifinal series, Toronto and Detroit will play the other. Toronto's Johnny Bower won the Vezina Trophy for his goal tending. The Leafs had 176 goals scored against them. DENVER UNIVERSITY slashed St. Lawrence 12-2 to win its third NCAA championship in four years, in Denver. Denver qualified for the championship with a 6-1 win over Minnesota, while St. Lawrence thumped RPI 6-3. In a consolation game Minnesota beat RPI 4-3. Denver Winger Jerry Walker of Calgary scored two goals and four assists during Denver's two victories to finish the season with 85 points—a new Western College scoring record. He tallied 56 goals (also a record) and 29 assists. The NCAA title gave the Pioneers a season record of 30-1-1 and their 25th game in a row without a defeat.
HORSE RACING—TUDOR WAY ($2.70), carrying top weight of 124 pounds, scored an easy two-length victory in the $114,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap. Derrick came on in the final strides to beat Don Poggio for second. Under Bill Hartack the 5-year-old Argentine-bred Tudor Way ran the 1-mile in 2:01 3/5.
Bal Musette ($6.20), in a four-horse photo finish, won the $35,300 Governor's Gold Cup at Bowie by a head over Nashua Blue. King Ranch's 3-year-old, eligible for the Triple Crown, covered the seven furlongs in 1:25 2/5. Jack Leonard up.
MOTOR SPORTS—JODY NICHOLAS, 19-year-old Peabody College freshman from Nashville, Tenn., won the 100-mile national amateur motorcycle race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Nicholas, driving a British-built B.S.A., averaged 69.76 mph, led all the way over the two-mile course.
SKIING—GORDON EATON, Middlebury College sophomore, handily won the national giant slalom championship at Pinkham Notch, N.H. over Marvin Moriarty of Stowe, Vt. Eaton's winning margin in the two-day, two-race event was 3.7 seconds. Jean Gay Brunet of Ste. Agathe, Que., was third. In the women's division NANCY HOLLAND, 19-year-old blue-eyed Canadian, defeated her fellow countrywomen Nancy Greene and Faye Pitt (all three are mainstays of Canada's national squad) for the women's title. Fourth was Nancy Sise of Wellesley, Mass. Miss Holland's winning margin was 2.2 seconds. NI ORSI, 16, of Stockton, Calif., took both the downhill and giant slalom in the National Junior Alpine championship in Kingsfield, Me. INGRID SIMONSON, 14-year-old high school student from Yakima, Wash., won the girls' downhill and giant slalom. Ingrid just missed making a clean sweep, lost the slalom to Sandra Shellworth, 16, of Boise, Idaho, by .3 second.
Skip Bryan, 16, of Stowe, Vt., won the boys' slalom in 1:29.4 for the half-mile, 50-gate course. Youngest competitor, 12-year-old Cathy Nagel of Skykomish, Wash., placed seventh in the field of 39 girls.
Sam Bartow of Lancaster, N.H. captured the National Junior Combined Nordic championship at Lake Placid, N.Y. Bartow finished 13th in the cross-country (5.5 miles in 37.8 minutes) and sixth in the jumping (two leaps of 111 feet) for a total of 434.9 points.
TRACK AND FIELD—At the Knights of Columbus in Cleveland, the final indoor meet of the season, Mrs. Grace Butcher of Chardon, Ohio, 27-year-old housewife and mother of two, set an American half-mile record with a time of 2:21.6, clipped .5 second off Helen Shipley's record set the week before at the AAU meet in Columbus, Ohio. Hayes Jones completed his sweep of all indoor hurdle races this season, taking the 50-yard high hurdles in 6.1. It was Jones's 11th straight victory. Tom O'Hara, an 18-year-old freshman at Loyola of Chicago, won the mile in 4:08.8. Another freshman, Nate Adams of Purdue, captured the 50-yard dash in 05.3. In the 600-yard run George Kerr of Jamaica, who broke the world record earlier this month with a 1:09.3, set a meet record of 1:10.1. Jim Beatty of Santa Clara Youth Club beat indoor world record holder Ernie Cunliffe of Stanford to take the 1,000-yard run in meet record time of 2:09.5. Manhattan (N.Y.) College's two-mile relay team missed by only .2 second tying the 7:32.8 record it set last month in New York, but their 7:33 was the fastest ever run on a 12-lap oval. Henry Wadsworth of Florida took the pole vault at 15 feet 1 inch, Bob Gardner of the Marines the high jump with a leap of 6 feet 8 inches.
MILEPOSTS—REINSTATED: HUTOHERSON FLYING QUEENS of Wayland Baptist College, Plain view, Texas, five times national AAU women's basketball champions, when local businessmen agreed to underwrite scholarship and team expenses, after college had disbanded team in January for financial reasons.
SIGNED: JACK MITCHELL, football coach at the University of Kansas, to a lifetime academic tenure similar to those held by professors. Mitchell's new contract calls for automatic three year renewals after an initial 10-year term.
SIGNED: GEORGE WEISS, 66, former general manager of the New York Yankees for 13 years, to a five-year contract as president of the new National League team in New York (see page 11).
DIED: T. CRAIG JOYNER, 22, of La Jolla, Calif., captain of the Yale tennis team, in auto accident near Fayetteville, N.C. Seriously injured in crash was Sidney B. Wood III, of New York, No. 1 player on the Yale tennis team and son of Sidney B. Wood Jr., former international tennis star. Also injured: Teammate Stewart B. Ludlum Jr., of Bronxville, N.Y.
DIED: BUD LINDERMAN, 39, one of rodeo's greatest performers, of pneumonia, in Phoenix. Linderman was a rugged cowpoke known for his hard drinking and hard fighting (he liked to take on two or three critters at the same time), was bareback champion in 1945, all-round champion in 1947.
DIED: MILTON A. REACH, 83, former vice-president and general manager of A. G. Spalding and Brothers, Inc., in Springfield, Mass. Reach developed the cork center baseball used by both major leagues. His name still is stamped-on all American League baseballs.
