A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASKETBALL—BOSTON captured its fourth straight NBA championship, a record for the league, by beating Los Angeles in the last two playoff games, 119-105 and 110-107 (see page 16). Center Bill Russell's defense led the way and durable Sam Jones boosted the injury-slowed Celtic team in both games, scoring five baskets in six crucial minutes to help Boston even the series and making five of the 10 points in the overtime of the last game.
BOATING—ESCAPADE, Baldwin M. Baldwin's yawl from Newport Harbor, Calif. won Class A and fleet honors in the 65-mile Ship Rock ocean race from Newport Harbor, coming in ahead of Don Haskell's Chubasco on corrected time.
BOXING—CARLOS ORTIZ climbed into the ring an 8-to-5 underdog against Lightweight Champion Joe Brown in Las Vegas and came out the new champion by unanimous decision. Ortiz, a 25-year-old Puerto Rican-born New Yorker who had wailed two years for a chance at the title, scored with fast hooks and jabs to Brown's face throughout the 15 rounds and benefited from a lackluster performance by the loser. It was the 12th time Brown had defended the title since winning it in 1956.
HANDBALL—MINNESOTA won the National Intercollegiate Handball Association tournament in Cincinnati with Bill Yambrick successfully defending his singles title against Steve August of Michigan 21-5,21-7, and the doubles team of Paul Schulz and Gary Rohrer defeating Terry Brenner and Don Brown of Michigan State 21-14, 21-10.
HOCKEY—TORONTO scored twice in the third period to beat Chicago 2-1 and win its first Stanley Cup championship in 11 years, four games to two (see page 58). Despite superb goaltending by Chicago's Glenn Hall, who had 35 saves, Toronto controlled the play throughout the game. Dick Duff scored the winning goal with less than six minutes remaining. The Toronto victory, its first away from home in the cup playoffs, was worth $2,000 to each Maple Leaf player.
HORSE RACING—ADMIRAL'S VOYAGE ($15.30) and Sunrise County ran the one and one-eighth miles of the $91,850 Wood Memorial for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct in exactly the same time, 1:49 4/5, to finish in a dead heat. But Braulio Baeza, who had ridden I-red Hooper's Admiral's Voyage, lodged a successful foul claim against Jockey Willie Shoemaker and favored Sunrise County, who crowded Baeza's mount in the first turn and the stretch. Donut King, with Manuel Ycaza up, was third (see page 18).
Doc Jocoy ($7.80), ridden by Willie Harmatz, took the California Derby at Tanforan, a mile-and-one-eighth test for 3-year-olds. Blue Serenade was second, and the favorite. Royal Attack, winner of the Santa Anita Derby, finished sixth.
Mountain Dew jumped and ran lo a two-length victory in the Grand National Point to Point Steeplechase in Butler, Md., when leader Basic Caps stumbled at the next to the last fence, fading to third place behind Eastcor. Mountain Dew, ridden by owner's son, Janon Fisher III, completed the three-mile timber course in 6:21.6.
Chambourg, owned by Richard K. Mellon of Pittsburgh and ridden by Jimmy Murphy, won his third Mary Mellon trophy in four years at the Middleburg (Va.) Hunt races by one and a half lengths over Kandy Sugar, covering the two-mile course in 3:54.
LACROSSE—NAVY's unbeaten team defeated the University of Virginia 11-8 in Annapolis, thanks to four goals on eight shots in the final quarter.
Johns Hopkins, also undefeated, easily ran through Washington and Lee for a 15¼ triumph in Baltimore, with All-America Attackman Jerry Schmidt scoring six goals during the three quarters he played.
ROWING—MIT made a clean sweep of the Harlem River regatta, with the varsity heavies a half length ahead of Columbia at the finish of the two-mile course. Four other Tech crews won, for MIT's second straight week of success. Yale pulled to a 10-foot victory over Rutgers, finishing in 9:59.4 over a two-mile course on the Housatonic. while on the Connecticut River the 150-pound Eli crew took the Durand Cup for the third straight year by beating Dartmouth by two lengths. Princeton defeated Navy by three-quarters of a length over a mile-and-three-quarter course on the Severn.
SWIMMING—DONNA DE VARONA of Lafayette, Calif. and Robyn Johnson of Arlington, Va. each took a title a day in the three-day AAU women's indoor championships at Sacramento, Calif. where five new American records were set and two tied (see page 60). Miss de Varona churned through the 200-yard individual medley in 2:18.9 for a new American mark, won the 200-yard backstroke in 2:17.9 and the 100-yard in 1:04. Robyn Johnson set two American freestyle records: 5:27.2 for the 500-yard and 2:34.6 for the 250-yard, and won the 100-yard freestyle in a record-tying 55.5. Sharon Finneran of Los Angeles broke the 400-yard individual medley mark with a time of 4:52.9 and tied the 200-yard butterfly with 2:16.8. Mary Stewart of Vancouver, B.C. set the fifth American record with 59.2 in the 100-yard butterfly. Other winners were Roby Whipple of Santa Clara, Calif. in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.3); Andrea Hopkins of Bethel Park, Pa. in the 250-yard breaststroke (3:15.2); Patsy Willard of Phoenix, Ariz. in the one-meter diving with 357.5 points, and Joel Lenzi O'Connell of Santa Clara, Calif. in the three-meter diving, with 416.1. The top team was the Santa Clara Swim Club, with 46 points to Cleveland's 38.
TRACK & FIELD—TEXAS SOUTHERN continued to dominate spring competition by sweeping all college relay events in the Kansas Relays in Lawrence—the sprint medley, distance medley, the 440, 880, mile and two-mile relays. The mile time of 3:11 was a meet record. Freshman middle-distance runner Ray Saddler, who ran in the mile, two-mile and sprint medley, was selected most valuable athlete, beating out Australian-born Pat Clohessy of Houston, who won the three-mile in 14:14.8 and a special mile event in 4:10.5. Other meet records: Bill Miller of McMurry College, whose 25-foot 6-inch broad jump was the best of the college season to date; Fred Hansen of Rice, who topped John Uelses in the pole vault by clearing 15 feet 6¼ inches; Denis Moore, an Australian from Abilene Christian, who won the 10.000 meters in 30:46.5, and Phil Mulkey of Birmingham, who took his sixth decathlon title with 7,480 points.
Oregon ended Southern California's string of 104 dual meets without a loss by winning 75-56 in Los Angeles (see page 8). Dyrol Burleson won the 880 in 1:49.5 and almost trotted the mile to win in 4:14.2. Harry Jerome won the 100-yard dash in 9.6, and the 220 in 20.8, and Jerry Tarr took the 120-yard high hurdles in 13.9 and 220-yard low hurdles in 23 seconds.
Villanova, slowed by injuries, managed to limp away as high scorer in the Queens-Iona Relays in New York, totaling 50 points in the 40-college field. Manhattan was second with 29½-Frank Budd carried Villanova's relay teams in the 440 and 880. New York University's Gary Gubner gave his usual winning performance in the shotput with a toss of 62 feet 2 inches.
Eino Oksanen, the 31-year-old Finnish detective, won his third and easiest Boston Marathon with only countryman Paavo Pystynen. 350 yards behind, as company out of a field of 181. Oksanen ran the 26-mile 385-yard course in 2:23:48. Marine Lieut. Alex Breckenridge was third in 2:27:17 and Johnny Kelley of Groton, Conn., only American to win in the last 10 years, was fourth.
Bruce Kidd, 18-year-old Toronto runner, who had never competed at such a distance before, sped through a 15-mile road race at Hamilton, Ont., defeating defending champion Fred Norris, 40, of Lake Charles, La. and breaking Norris' record for the event by almost three minutes.
MILEPOSTS—RETIRED: HERB ELLIOTT, 24-year-old Australian runner who never lost a mile race, to concentrate on his studies at Cambridge. His retirement ends the chance for a showdown mile between Elliott and New Zealander Peter Snell at the British Commonwealth Games in Perth later this year. Elliott held the world mile record of 3:54.5 from August 1958 until last January, when Snell bettered it by .1 of a second.
DIED: G. W. BLUNT WHITE, 66, of Mystic, Conn., past commodore of the Cruising Club of America, a member of the board of trustees of the New York Yacht Club and executive vice-president of the Mystic Seaport Marine Museum, in Nassau following a 2,500-mile cruise from Portugal to the West Indies.
DIED: JAMES P. CLARK, 63, Philadelphia millionaire trucker and Democratic Party leader, board chairman of the football Eagles and organizer of a corporation licensed to build and operate a new harness racing track in suburban Philadelphia, at his home.
DIED: WILLIAM T. WAGGONER, 57, of Phoenix, Ariz., wealthy cattle and oil man whose Gold Cup hydroplanes, Maverick and Shanty, won all major championships, including the U.S., World and Harmsworth Trophy, in Phoenix.