
A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASKETBALL—BOSTON lost two straight while CINCINNATI was winning two in a row, and the Celtics' lead in the East slipped to 2½ games over the Royals. (One of the games was between the two teams and the Royals won it 109-92 for their fourth victory over the Celtics in their last six meetings.) Then Boston took three in a row while Cincinnati lost two, and suddenly the Celtics had their biggest lead in a month—five games. PHILADELPHIA dropped two games to extend its losing streak to five (longest of the season for the 76ers) before crushing the Royals 134-111. After edging the Knicks 131-129 on Larry Costello's two free throws with 24 seconds left to play, the 76ers were beaten easily by the Bullets. NEW YORK lost four straight to fall even deeper into the cellar (24 GB). LOS ANGELES held its lead in the three-cornered Western Division race by winning three out of five games, including two big ones over the Warriors. ST. LOUIS fell briefly to third after losing two out of three to the Celtics but jumped back into second, 2½ games behind the Lakers, by taking two from the Pistons. SAN FRANCISCO, which held its opposition to fewer than 100 points in nine of its last 10 victories, took two Straight from the Pistons, 100-88 and 125-93, before losing two out of three to the Lakers. BALTIMORE won five in a row for its longest streak of the season (it was the first time in seven weeks that the Bullets had won anything in a row). Walt Bellamy averaged 33 points and 18 rebounds a game during the streak, and at one point sank 17 consecutive field goals as the Bullets overpowered the 76ers three times (124-121, 124-116 and 131-120), the Knicks 130-114 and the Royals 115-99. DETROIT defeated the Lakers 118-107 but that was all—its next five games were losses.
BOWLING—BOB STRAMPE of Detroit rolled a 715 three-game final series to beat Tommy Tuttle of Rural Hall, N.C. (616) and win the $100,000 All-Star Championship in Dallas. It was his first national title in five years of professional competition (his best previous finish in the All-Star tournament was 76th in 1957), and earned him $15,000 first-prize money. Defending Champion Dick Weber finished fourth. LAVERNE CARTER of St. Louis took the women's championship for the first time, with a 683 final series, and Evelyn Teal of Miami was runner-up with 609. Mrs. Carter's husband, Don, four-time winner of the All-Star tournament and considered the best bowler in the world, had a poor 4,048 total in the 20-game preliminaries and failed to qualify for the semifinal round. The same fate befell Mrs. Marion Ladewig of Grand Rapids, Mich., eight-time women's champion, who placed 89th in the preliminary rounds and sat out the semifinals.
BOXING—PONE KINGPETCH of Thailand captured the world flyweight championship for an unprecedented third time by a split decision over Japan's Hiroyuki Ebihara, after a wild 15-round fight in Bangkok's 90° heat.
Argentina's GREGORIO PERALTA hooked, jabbed and chopped his way to a unanimous decision over Wayne Thornton in a 10-round light-heavyweight fight at Madison Square Garden. It was his 27th straight win (unbeaten in 47 fights) and earned him a title match with Light Heavyweight Champion Willie Pastrano later this year.
GOLF—JUAN (Chi Chi) RODRIGUEZ shot a one-under-par 70 in the playoff round to win the $50,000 Lucky International tournament in San Francisco by one stroke over Don January. The two had finished the regulation four rounds tied at 272, while Arnold Palmer and Ray Floyd had tied for third with 275s.
HARNESS RACING—Italian-owned NIKE HANOVER, driven by Hans Fromming, moved out at the top of the stretch and won the $100,000 Grand Prix d'Amérique, Europe's richest trotting race, by a length over French-owned Nisos H. in Vincennes, France. The American entries, Duke Rodney, Elaine Rodney and Porterhouse, finished far back in the 19-horse field.
HOCKEY—MONTREAL tied CHICAGO for the NHL lead by winning two and tying one in four games while the slumping Black Hawks went 1-1-1 for the week. TORONTO suddenly forgot how to score and was shut out twice (third time in five games). The only goal made by the Maple Leafs all week, however, earned them a 1-1 tie with the Rangers. DETROIT split two games and its fourth-place lead over NEW YORK shrank to two points as the Rangers, the best team in the NHL the past month (eight wins and one tie in 12 games), lost only one game out of four. In a 3-2 victory over the Red Wings, Ranger Goalie Jacques Plante made 46 saves. BOSTON dropped two straight (6-4 to the Rangers and 3-1 to the Black Hawks) and then won two straight (6-0 over the Canadiens and 2-0 over the Maple Leafs). The shutouts were Ed Johnston's fourth and fifth of the season.
HORSE RACING—The Gedney Farms' GUN BOW ($6), ridden by Willie Shoemaker, won the $132,000 Charles H. Strub Stakes for 4-year-olds by 12 lengths at Santa Anita, Calif. During the race William Haggin Perry's LAMB CHOP, last year's champion 3-year-old filly (she won nine stakes races and $309,137 in 1963), broke her left front ankle and had to be destroyed. "I feel very, very bad about this. Lamb Chop was really a great filly," said her jockey, Manuel Ycaza.
Earlier WILLIE SHOEMAKER rode four " winners in one day at Santa Anita, and after his last victory replaced Eddie Arcaro as the alltime leading money-winning jockey, with earnings of $30,043,792 in nearly 15 years of riding (Arcaro amassed $30,039,543 in 30 years).
MOTOR SPORTS—Driving a Morris Cooper, PADDY HOPKIRK of Northern Ireland and Co-driver HENRY LIDDON of England finished first among 299 starters in the grueling Monte Carlo rally (see page 48) and 15th in the final day's speed test to win the rally by 30 points. Bo Ljungfeldt and Fergus Sager of Sweden, who took the speed test in a Ford Falcon, were second, while Sweden's Defending Champion Erik Carlsson and Gunnar Palm, driving a SAAB, were third in the overall standings.
TRACK & FIELD—At the Telegram-Maple Leaf meet in Toronto, Australia's ALBIE THOMAS, competing indoors for the first time in his 12-year career, ran three miles in 13:26.4 to tie the world indoor record set by another Australian, Al Lawrence, in New York in 1960. Bob Schul came in second, 80 yards behind, and Bruce Kidd finished third. HAYES JONES took the 50-yard high hurdles in 5.9 seconds, equaling his own record. Other winners were TOM O'HARA in the mile (4:07.3), BILL CROTHERS in the 1,000-yard run (2:08.3), GEORGE KERR in the 600 (1:12.2), JOHN THOMAS in the high jump (6 feet 10 inches) and JEFF CHASE in the pole vault (16 feet). In Portland at the Oregon Invitational meet, BILL BAILLIE of New Zealand won the two-mile in 8:31.9—just 1.2 seconds short of Jim Beatty's record time. It was the first indoor race for the 29-year-old distance runner (20,000-meter world record holder), who said, "I expect to improve my times until I'm 35, then I plan to go in the marathon until I'm 40." At the Albuquerque Invitational meet BOB HAYES sprinted 60 yards in the world-record time of six seconds flat, for the second time in two weeks; and JIM MILLER upset Blaine Lindgren in winning the 60-yard high hurdles (7.1 seconds).
MILEPOSTS—WITHDREW: GEORGIA TECH from the Southeastern Conference, following a dispute over its allowed number of football and basketball scholarships. The school was a charter member of the 31-year-old athletic conference.
RELEASED: NICK SKORICH, 42, after three seasons as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, by the club's new owner, Jerry Wolman.
RETIRED: CHUCK NOE, 36, after a season and a half as head basketball coach at the University of South Carolina.
DIED: ROSS MILNE, 19, an Australian Alpine skier (see page 8), and Polish-born KAZIMIERZ KAY-SKRZYPESKI, 58, a British bobsledder, from injuries suffered during Olympic practice sessions, in Innsbruck, Austria.