A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASKETBALL—NBA: PHILADELPHIA (55-25) closed out the season in grand style by winning three more games to make it 11 in a row and steal off with the Eastern Division title by a game. It was the first time in nine years that BOSTON (54-26), 3-0 for the week, failed to finish on top. Still, the Celtics closed fast and ended the season with a six-game winning streak. CINCINNATI (45-35), fading badly at the end, won one from the Knicks and then lost three straight to make it one victory in the Royals' last eight games. NEW YORK (29-50) was even worse. The Knicks dropped seven in a row, including four during the week. In the Western Division champion LOS ANGELES (45-35) won three, losing one to the Warriors, while BALTIMORE (38-42), 2-1 for the week, finished second, seven games behind. ST. LOUIS (36-43), won a tough battle with the Warriors for third place by taking three out of five as SAN FRANCISCO (35-45) split four, despite Rookie of the Year Rick Barry's 154-point total. He became only the fourth rookie in NBA history to score over 2,000 points in a season. DETROIT (22-58) lost four straight and finished in last place, 23 games out. Philadelphia's Wilt Chamberlain, who was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player, gained the scoring title (2,649 points for an average of 33.1 per game) for the seventh straight year and had the most rebounds (24.6 per game) for the fifth time, while Cincinnati's Oscar Robertson was the league leader in assists (11.1 a game) for the third year in a row.
Moberly Junior College of Moberly, Mo., defeated Cameron A&M of Lawton, Okla. 90-66 to take its third National Junior College championship (1954 and 1955), in Hutchinson, Kans.
BILLIARDS—RONNIE (Fast Eddie) ALLEN, a 27-year-old Californian, won the overall title at Las Vegas' $30,000 Stardust Open Pocket Billiard Tournament, the world's richest pool event, when he beat Cicero Murphy of Brooklyn in a three-match play-off 2-1 after both had finished the round-robin final with 4-2 records.
BOWLING—PETER TOUNTAS, 27, of Tucson defeated Gene Rhoda of Valparaiso, Ind. by 71 pins (246-175) to take the $5,000 first prize at the PBA's $40,000 Buckeye Open in Toledo.
BOXING—JOSE GONZALEZ of Puerto Rico gained the lightly regarded title of American middleweight champion when he won a unanimous decision over Don Fullmer of West Jordan, Utah in a 12-round bout in New York's Madison Square Garden.
Featherweight CALVIN WOODLAND of Washington won his 16th out of 18 professional bouts with a unanimous decision over former World Featherweight Champion Willie Pep of Hartford, Conn. in a six-rounder in Richmond.
GOLF—LIONEL HEBERT, 38, of Lafayette, La., fired a two-under-par 69 in the final round to take the $110,000 Citrus Open in Orlando, Fla., with a five-under-par 279, two strokes ahead of Jack Nicklaus, Dick Lytle and Charles Coody, who tied for second. The $21,000 victory. Hebert's first since the 1962 Memphis Open, vaulted him to the top of the PGA money-winning list with a total of $27,647.
HOCKEY—NHL: With two weeks left in the season MONTREAL (36-20-8) held its one-point lead over CHICAGO (36-22-7) as both teams won two games and lost one. Bobby Hull raised his goal record to 53 and his season point total to 93 (three short of the season mark) with a goal and an assist in a 4-1 victory over the Red Wings. But he was shut out in the next two games as the Black Hawks lost to the Maple Leafs 4-2, breaking a three-game winning streak, and beat the Canadiens 4-2. TORONTO's (31-23-9) third-place lead over DETROIT (29-26-10) dwindled to three points when the Maple Leafs lost two out of three and the Red Wings won two out of three. Last-place BOSTON (18-40-6), with two victories over the Rangers—3-1 and 4-3—and a 4-2 loss to the Red Wings, crept within four points of NEW YORK (18-37-10), loser of all three games it played.
Michigan State, which finished sixth in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, won its first NCAA championship when it defeated Boston University 2-1 in the semifinals and Clarkson 6-1 in the final, in Minneapolis.
HORSE RACING—Ogden Phipps's Derby hopeful, IMPRESSIVE ($3). with Kenny Knapp up, took the six-furlong Swift Stakes at Aqueduct by seven lengths over Richard D. Bokum II'S Quinta. Later in the week Phipps's other promising 3-year-old contender, BUCKPASSER, suffered a quarter crack in his right front hoof while training at Hialeah. It became infected, and Buckpasser may not be able to race for at least three months. Another Phipps 3-year-old, Time Tested, owned by Ogden's son, Dinny, was beaten by a neck by King Ranch's 4-year-old SEAMAN ($9.60), ridden by John Rotz, in Aqueduct's $28,250 Paumonok Handicap.
SKIING—France dominated the U.S. Alpine and International championships at Stowe, Vt., by winning four out of six titles as GUY PÉRILLAT and MARIELLE GOITSCHEL took the men's and women's slalom, while JEAN-CLAUDE KILLY and FLORENCE STEURER won the giant slalom events (page 30). Switzerland's PETER ROHR and MADELEINE WUILLOUD were the winners of the downhill titles.
TRACK & FIELD—BOB SEAGREN, the 19-year-old Glendale (Calif.) College student who, two weeks earlier, became the first man to pole-vault over 17 feet indoors, broke his own record by½ inch when he cleared 17 feet¾ inch at the Cleveland K of C meet, last of the major U.S. indoor meets this season. Another 19-year-old, MARTIN McGRADY of Central (Ohio) State, won the 600-yard run in 1:11, beating Tom Farrell of St. John's by 2½ feet, and Bill Crothers of Toronto by 7½ feet and later anchored the winning CENTRAL STATE one-mile relay team. A third outstanding youngster, Cleveland schoolboy STANLEY ALBRIGHT, defeated John Thomas in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet 11¾ inches.
Russia's IGOR TER-OVANESYAN, who set the world indoor broad-jump record (26 feet 10 inches) at the 1963 Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden, leaped 26 feet 10½ inches off a dirt runway at a meet in Leningrad, Russia.
"I'm not as strong as I was," said Texas A&M's RANDY MATSON, holder of the shotput world record (70 feet 7¼ inches), as he made his first track appearance of the year in a triangular meet with Rice and Louisiana State and put the shot 62 feet¾ inch to win the event. Matson, who also won the discus with a toss of 181 feet 8 inches, had dropped from his usual 260 pounds to 239 while playing basketball for A&M during the winter.
MILEPOSTS—ACCEPTED: By JOHNNY LONGDEN, 59, the world's winningest jockey, who retired from riding on March 12 (SI, March 21), a job as head trainer for the Frank McMahon Stables.
ENGAGED: ARTHUR ASHE, 22, second-ranked tennis player in the U.S., to Dianne Seymour of Stamford, Conn. The wedding will take place June 5 in Richmond.
NAMED: Head basketball coach at Navy, DAVE SMALLEY, 31, an academy alumnus and an assistant coach the past four years. Smalley, Navy's captain and high scorer for two seasons (1956 and 1957), replaces Ben Carnevale, who recently accepted the post of athletic director at his alma mater, NYU.
DIED: ABE SAPERSTEIN, 63, originator and owner of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, of a heart ailment in Chicago. As a youth in Chicago, Saperstein earned $5 a night playing pro basketball before taking over the Savoy Big Five, an all-Negro team named for Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. In 1927 he changed the name of the team to the Harlem Globetrotters and took it around the country on one-night stands. By playing it for laughs with lots of clowning and trick shots, the team gradually became one of the world's most attractive shows, and by 1966 it had performed in 87 countries before more than five million paying spectators. "Laugh standards are the same all over the world." Saperstein, a roly-poly five-footer, once said, "and that is our playing area."
