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A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASEBALL—Everybody got "fired up" and everybody in the lineup got a hit as HOUSTON beat West New York, N.J. 8-2 in the final to take the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. Twelve-year-old Steve Reeves paced the Houston team with two doubles and a single and four RBIs. In a double-elimination tournament for the Connie Mack League championship in Farmington, N. Mex., TORDENA, a team made up of 16-to-18-year-olds from Torrance and Gardena, Calif., won its second title (the first was in 1964) by defeating Toledo, Ohio 10-0 as Dave McCormick pitched a no-hitter.
BOXING—CURTIS COKES, 29, of Dallas took the World Boxing Association's vacant world welterweight title with a 15-round unanimous decision over Manuel Gonzalez, 27, of Odessa, Texas, in New Orleans (page 18).
"It looks like the big guys are easier to hit," said Brooklyn's JOHNNY PERSOL, 26, seventh-ranked light heavyweight, after he made his debut in the heavyweight division by scoring a unanimous decision over another New Yorker, James J. Woody, 24, who weighed 13 pounds more than Persol and was previously unbeaten in 10 straight fights, in a 10-rounder in Madison Square Garden.
GOLF—DON JANUARY, a 36-year-old Texan who hadn't won a PGA tournament since the Tucson Open in 1963, defeated Defending Champion Jack Nicklaus by a stroke to take the Philadelphia Golf Classic title at Whitemarsh, Pa. with a 278 total.
Sandra Haynie of Fort Worth won the Glass City Classic in Toledo when she birdied the final hole in a three-hole sudden-death playoff with Gloria Ehret of Allentown, Pa. They had tied after 54 holes with even-par 213s.
HARNESS RACING—BRET HANOVER ($2.40) appeared in the win column again, but his latest victory was nearly ignored as Bret's owner, Richard Downing of Cleveland, announced he had sold the top money-winning pacer to Castleton Farms in Lexington, Ky. for $2 million and Bret would be retired to stud following this racing season. A few hours after his approaching retirement was announced, the 4-year-old Bret beat Cardigan Bay by three lengths at Batavia (N.Y.) Downs to register his 13th win in 14 starts (Cardigan Bay defeated him at Yonkers in May) this year and his 58th in 62 career starts. He has earned more than $860,000 in less than three racing seasons. Downing, who said he would retain "a substantial interest" in Bret, did not disclose what Bret's stud fee will be but hinted it would be the highest ever placed on a newly retired stallion of any breed.
Romeo Hanover ($2.80), the 3-year-old who won the Cane Futurity, first of pacing's Triple Crown races, in May, set a new world record of 1:56[1/5] for a mile on a five-eighth mile track as he won the American-National Stake at Sportsman's Park in Chicago by three lengths over True Duane. Three days earlier, Romeo's full brother, ROMULUS HANOVER ($2.60), driven by Billy Haughton, broke the record for a 2-year-old pacing a mile on a half-mile track as he took the Star Pointer Pace at Yonkers in 2:00⅖ finishing three lengths ahead of Nardin's Byrd.
HORSE RACING—George D. Widener's BOLD HOUR ($7.40), a 2-year-old son of Bold Ruler, took Saratoga's $107,700 Hopeful by 1¾ lengths over Great Power (page 49).
Pete Anderson rode BOLD BIDDER ($20.20), a 4-year-old owned by John R. Gaines, to a 3½-length victory over Powhatan's favored Tom Rolfe, Bill Shoemaker up, in Chicago's $109,200 Washington Park Handicap. Bold Bidder, who was temporarily retired to stud in March and April, increased his career winnings to $383,521 with the $64,200 purse.
SWIMMING—Olympian DON SCHOLLANDER broke the world 220-yard freestyle record (held by Michael Wenden of Australia) by .3 second as he swam a 1:57 at the British Columbia centennial meet in Vancouver, Canada. "It's about time I did something," said Schollander, who was unimpressive in his earlier events, even failing to qualify for the 110-yard freestyle final, which ZAC ZORN, a 19-year-old from Los Angeles, won in a world-record 53.6. Schollander later tied Zorn's mark in a special trial. KAREN MUIR, a 13-year-old South African, lowered the 220-yard backstroke world mark to 2:28.2, then joined Vancouver's ELAINE TANNER, 15, in swimming the fastest 220-yard individual medley on record as both girls were clocked at 2:32. (Miss Tanner was named winner of the event.) The Santa Clara Swim Club's SUE JONES, 18, broke the 110-yard breaststroke world record with a 1:18.3 and Los Angeles' GREG CHARLTON bettered the world 440-yard with a 4:12.2.
Frank Wiegand, a 23-year-old East German swimmer, bettered Don Schollander's world 400-meter freestyle mark (set at the AAU championships a week earlier) by half a second with a 4:11.1 at a meet in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
TRAPSHOOTING—Reno's DAN ORLICH, a 42-year-old former Green Bay Packer lineman who won his first title in the Grand American at Vandalia, Ohio 10 years ago, set a meet record as he broke 982 of 1,000 targets to become the year's high overall champion. A dog trainer from Anoka, Minn., LORAL I. DELANEY, 28, entered her second Grand American and took the women's overall with a new world mark of 954 out of 1,000. She captured the women's all-round title with 380 out of 400. DELBERT O. GRIM of Lincoln, Neb., also competing in his second Grand, won the Grand American Handicap with a perfect 100 score to edge Willard Langford of St. Petersburg, Fla. and Don Slavich of Sacramento, Calif. by one target. SLAVICH later took the men's all-round title with 390 out of 400.
MILEPOSTS—DIVORCED: Former World Heavyweight Champion FLOYD PATTERSON, 31, and his wife, Sandra, after 10 years of marriage.
NAMED: To succeed Jack Ramsay as head basketball coach at St. Joseph's College, JACK McKINNEY, 31. Last season McKinney, an alumnus of St. Joseph's, was head coach at Philadelphia Textile where he led his team to a 21-6 record. The previous five years he served as assistant to Ramsay, who left St. Joe's to become general manager of the 76ers.
SOLD: The SAN DIEGO CHARGERS, winners of five AFL division titles in six years, for $10 million—the highest price ever paid for a pro football team—by the Hiltons to a group of 21 businessmen, headed by two executives of the National General Corporation, Eugene Klein and Samuel Schulman, both of Beverly Hills, Calif. Among the new owners is former Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, now vice president of Continental Airlines. Barron Hilton, founder and president of the Chargers, said that he and his father, Conrad, would retain a 20% interest in the club.
RETIRED: All-Pro Offensive Tackle ROOSEVELT BROWN, 34, of the New York Giants, because of phlebitis in his right leg. Rosey, who joined the Giants in 1953 as an unknown 27th-round draft choice from Morgan State, was an NFL All-Pro tackle eight times in his 13-year career. He will continue with the Giants as a coach.
DIED: SAM ZOLDAK, 46, a journeyman south-paw pitcher for whom the Cleveland Indians paid $100,000 in 1948; of lung cancer, in New Hyde Park, N.Y. Sad Sam, who had a lifetime record of only 43 victories in nine seasons, won 11 of them in 1948 to help the Indians gain their first pennant in 28 years.
DIED: HERMANN GEIGER, 51, the "glacier pilot" who, for 13 years, rescued lost or injured alpinists; when a glider crashed into his single-engined Piper Cub as he was conducting a training flight near Sion, Switzerland. Geiger had become a Swiss legend because of his rescue efforts (nearly 4,000) and had made more than 15,000 landings on remote slopes and glaciers in the Alps.
