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A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASKETBALL—The U.S. national team, which included five Olympians, ended a disastrous two-week tour of Russia with an 87-66 win over Georgia, its third in eight games against Soviet teams. In the six previous years of U.S.-U.S.S.R. competition, the Americans had never been beaten in Russia.
BOWLING—After 65 days of competition among more than 20,000 bowlers, the $330,262 American Bowling Congress tournament in Oakland, Calif. finally came to a close. BILLY HARDWICK of San Mateo, Calif. was the only double champion, taking both the classic singles and the all-events titles. The other classic division winners were the ST. LOUIS FALSTAFFS in the team competition, and BOB STRAMPE and HAL JOLLEY of Detroit in the doubles. In the regular division the all-events title went to LES ZIKES of Chicago, while his Old Fitzgerald teammate, JIM STEFANICH of Joliet, Ill., won the singles. Truck-farming brothers PAT and TONY RUSSO of Teaneck, N.J. finished first in the doubles, and the 300 BOWL of Pontiac, Mich. gained the team championship.
BOXING—First-ranked Flyweight HIROYUKI EBIHARA of Japan earned a probable title match with Pone Kingpetch of Thailand later this year when he won a split decision over Mexico's Efren Torres in a 12-round elimination fight at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.
GOLF—Successfully defending his title, JACK NICKLAUS (see page 80) took the lead on the third round and went on to victory in the $65,000 Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas, becoming the first double winner on the PGA circuit this year (he also won the Phoenix Open in February).
"It gives me great pleasure that it was a friend of mine who beat me. You wouldn't want to lose to just anyone," said Defending Champion Billy Joe Patton in Pinehurst, N.C., after losing the North and South Amateur Championship 3 and 2 to DALE MOREY of High Point, N.C., his former neighbor and Walker Cup teammate. Patton had won 19 straight matches and was trying for his third consecutive victory in the tournament.
Competing in a field of 104 amateurs and professionals, Los Angeles Pro PETE BROWN, 29, shot a seven-under-par 280 for 72 holes and became the first Negro to win the $20,000 Waco Turner Open in Burneyville, Okla. (see page 28).
The temperature was in the 90s in Alexandria, La., but MICKEY WRIGHT coolly stroked a five-under-par 67 on the final round to take the $8,000 LPGA Clifford Ann Creed Invitational by a six-stroke margin over Runner-up Kathy Cornelius. The tournament's namesake finished a disappointing 14th.
HARNESS RACING—Post Rail Farms' 3-year-old colt IRON RAIL ($12.30), driven by Stanley Dancer, finished half a length ahead of Red Carpet to win the $37,150 Commodore Pace at Roosevelt Raceway, his third straight victory of the season.
HORSE RACING—E.P. Taylor's NORTHERN DANCER ($8.80), ridden by Bill Hartack, won the $156,800 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs see page 22). The Canadian-bred colt set a new Derby record of 2:00 for the mile-and-a-quarter distance as he edged favorite Hill Rise, winner of the Derby Trial earlier in the week, by a neck.
At Churchill Downs the previous day, Mrs. W.R. Hawn's BLUE NORTHER ($3.20), Willie Shoemaker aboard, won the $47,975 Kentucky Oaks, one of the oldest American stakes races for 3-year-old fillies, for her fifth straight victory of the season.
In the 2,000 Guineas, Britain's richest horse race, BALDRIC II, a 3-year-old colt owned by Mrs. Howell E. Jackson of Middleburg, Va. and ridden by Australian Jockey William Pyers, swept to a two-length victory over Faberge II in a field of 27 at Newmarket, England. The win established the American-bred son of Round Table as the early favorite for the Epsom Derby on June 3.
Jaclyn Stables' 4-year-old AHOY ($6.10), guided by Howard Grant and carrying top weight of 133 pounds, easily won the $57,700 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct.
Mrs. Paul R. Fout's 8-year-old MOON ROCK, with Joe L. Aitcheson Jr. in the saddle, romped to an eight-length victory in the four-mile, 22-fence Virginia Gold Cup timber race in Warrenton, Va. Hill Tie, the winner in 1962 and 1963, finished second.
JUDO—Japan's GOTARO UEMURA, 20, a graduate student in business administration at Monmouth College, Ill., won the heavyweight division and went on to take the all-round title at the National AAU championships at the World's Fair Pavilion in New York. His twin brother KENJIRO finished first in the 200-pound class, but lost to Gotaro in the all-round competition, as did the 165-pound class champion, JIM BREGMAN of Washington. The other individual winners were YUZO KOGA, 135 pounds; RENZO SHIBATA, 150 pounds; and HARRY KIMURA, 180 pounds.
MOTOR SPORTS—In one of the closest finishes in Formula I racing history, Australian JACK BRABHAM, driving one of his own Brabham cars, sped across the finish line half a car's length ahead of Britain's Graham Hill in a factory BRM in a Silver-stone, England international race. It was the second victory in three weeks for Brabham, who averaged 110.35 mph during the 152.27-mile race and set a new track lap record of 112.58 mph on the next-to-last trip around the circuit.
Texas Millionaire JIM HALL of Midland increased his lead for the SCCA sports car driver's road-racing title as he guided his Chevy Chaparral an average 88 mph to victory in the 150-mile Laguna Seca championship in Monterey, Calif. Dave MacDonald finished second in a Cooper Cobra.
ROWING—The eastern crews met in the first major cup races of the season and, with one exception they competed at the 2,000-meter Olympic distance. In its first start of the year, low-stroking Cornell, 1963's intercollegiate champion, defeated Syracuse and Navy for the Goes Trophy at Annapolis, and in Cambridge, Mass., HARVARD, another low-stroking crew, easily overpowered Princeton and MIT for the Compton Cup, setting a course record of 6:00.5 in the process. YALE rowed to its third straight season victory on New York's Harlem River, defeating Pennsylvania and Columbia for the Blackwell Cup at the 1 5/16-mile Henley distance (slightly more than 2,000 meters), and in Hanover, N.H., RUTGERS edged Dartmouth and Boston University for the Bill Cup.
SOCCER—A crowd of 100,000 packed Wembley Stadium in London to watch WEST HAM UNITED defeat Preston North End 3-2 for its first victory in the English Football Association Cup final. The winning goal was scored by Ronnie Boyce, an inside right, with less than a minute remaining.
TENNIS—Australia's ROY EMERSON out-played Rafael Osuna of Mexico 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to win the Río de la Plata international tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
TRACK & FIELD—Three colleges each won two championship relays at the two-day Marine Corps Relays in Quantico, Va. VILLANOVA, which had dominated the Penn Relays a week earlier with four team victories, was beaten in its first three races, then ran off with the 880-yard and collegiate two-mile relays on the final day. Senior Vic Zwolak also won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in what seemed to be a meet record 8:52.8—until the course was measured and found to be 191 feet short. NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE swept the sprint medley and 440-yard relays, and GEORGETOWN the four-mile and collegiate distance medley relays. Senior JOE LYNCH, who anchored the latter, went on to win the invitation mile in 4:09.6 and was named the meet's outstanding athlete.
In outstanding performances around the country, RANDY MATSON of Texas A&M put the shot 64 feet 10½ inches at a Houston triangular meet, bettering by 9½ inches the national freshman record he set only the week before, and at Nashville's Volunteer Games BOB HAYES of Florida A&M again equaled his 9.1 world record in the 100-yard dash, despite a damp track. At the Beloit (Wis.) College Relays, on a track soggy with four days' rain, Oregon's DYROL BURLESON won the mile in 4:01.5, and in Norfolk, Va. at the Tidewater Relays JIM BEATTY, now running for the North Carolina Track Club, did the anchor mile on the winning distance medley relay team in 4:08.4, a time he considered "satisfactory, considering it was my first outdoor start." At the same meet JOHN PENNEL of Miami cleared 16 feet for the first time this season when he won the pole vault with a leap of 16 feet 1½ inches. Another vaulter, BOB NEUTZLING, a sophomore at Ohio State, bettered 16 feet for the first time in his career at a dual meet with Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich.
MILEPOSTS—DIED: Australian Jockey W. RAE JOHNSTONE, 59, who rode on six continents and had 2,000 winners in his 36-year career, of a heart attack in Chantilly, France (see page 16).
