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A roundup of the sports information of the week
FOOTBALL—NFL: Each in its own way, Dallas and St. Louis prepared for their Eastern Conference showdown in St. Louis this Sunday. With Quarterback Don Meredith and Flanker Bob Hayes playing a game of catch—Meredith threw five TD passes and Hayes caught three of them—DALLAS (4-0-0) demolished Philadelphia (2-3-0) 56-7 and took dead aim on the NFL single-season scoring record of 466 points held by the 1950 Los Angeles Rams. Dallas now has 183 in just four games.
The St. Louis CARDINALS (5-0-0) had to work harder. A fourth-down, 30-yard touchdown pass from Charley Johnson to Bill Gambrell late in the game lifted them past winless New York (0-4-1) 24-19. In the West, Gayle Sayers and the CHICAGO BEARS (2-2-0) showed signs of regaining their 1965 form. Sayers scored twice, and the Baltimore Colts (2-2-0) went under, 27-17. Green Bay, en route to its fifth straight, came a cropper when SAN FRANCISCO's starting quarterback, John Brodie, came down with a groin injury. That forced George Mira into the game, and Mira responded by scrambling all over the place and leading San Francisco (1-2-1) to a 21-20 upset win. The Packers slid into a first-place tie in the West with LOS ANGELES (4-1-0), which defeated Detroit (2-3-0) 14-7 as Packer expatriate Tom Moore scored a pair of touchdowns. Back in the East, CLEVELAND (3-2-0) prepared for bigger things by overwhelming Pittsburgh (1-3-1) 41-10, and WASHINGTON (3-2-0) defeated game but outmanned Atlanta (0-5-0) 33-20.
AFL: Undefeated NEW YORK (4-0-1) got a bit of luck against the undefeated San Diego Chargers before a record AFL crowd of 63,497 at Shea Stadium when the Chargers' Dick Van Raaphorst missed two field goals, from 30 and 21 yards out, to preserve a 17-16 victory for New York. Joe Namath (page 42) had three passes intercepted in the early going and did not get untracked until the final quarter when he hit on passes of 44 and 17 yards to set up the winning touchdown run of eight yards by Emerson Boozer. KANSAS CITY (4-1-0) moved into a first-place tie with San Diego in the Western Division by defeating Denver (1-4-0) 37-10 despite a 100-yard kickoff return by the Broncos' Nemiah Wilson and the presence of Quarterback Tobin Rote in the Denver lineup after two seasons of retirement. BOSTON (2-2-1) continued the hot streak that began when it tied New York a week ago by defeating Buffalo (3-3-0) 20-10 behind a defensive blitz that left Bills' Quarterback Jack Kemp, Player of the Year in 1965, almost helpless. OAKLAND (2-3-0) handed Miami its fifth loss without a win 21-10.
GOLF—At Wentworth Golf Club near London, after defeating Billy Casper two and one in the semifinals, JACK NICKLAUS blew his cool and lost the Piccadilly World Match Play title to Defending Champion GARY PLAYER, six and four (page 74). On the 9th hole of the 36-hole final, Nicklaus got into an argument over the question of a free drop. Referee A. A. Duncan refused the request, Nicklaus lost his temper and Duncan resigned. Player reached the finals by beating Arnold Palmer two and one.
HARNESS RACING—Joe O'Brien very nearly scratched GOVERNOR ARMBRO from the $61,602 Kentucky Futurity over Lexington's "Big Red Mile" because of a questionable leg, but at the last moment decided to give the 3-year-old a chance. Governor Armbro responded with straight heat victories ($7, $4.60) to win the third leg of trotting's Triple Crown.
On the same night and in a one-mile lime trial on the same track BRET HANOVER, the mighty 4-year-old pacer, broke his own world record of 1:54, covering a mile in 1:53[3/5] despite Driver Frank Ervin's earlier complaint that the racing surface was "like a concrete road."
Del Insko drove SPEEDY RODNEY ($8.20) to an upset win over Noble Victory, driven by Stanley Dancer, in the $50,000 Gotham Trot at Yonkers. The win makes Speedy Rodney a likely candidate for January's Prix d'Amérique al Vincennes, France.
HORSE RACING—BON MOT, a 3-year-old colt owned by F. W. Burmann of England, won Europe's richest horse race, the $351,612 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, by half a length over Sigebert (page 78).
Dr. Fager ($3.60), namesake of the Boston neurosurgeon who last year operated on Trainer Johnny Nerud, won the $88,350 Cowdin Stakes at Aqueduct with Willie Shoemaker up and took a firm grip on 2-year-old Horse of the Year honors. It was the Tartan Stable colt's fourth triumph without a loss this season.
MOTOR SPORTS—Scotland's JACKIE STEWART outlasted England's Graham Hill and Canada's Billy Foster to win Japan's first Indianapolis-style auto race over a tricky 215-mile course on the side of Mt. Fuji (page 38).
MILEPOSTS—NAMED: To the Legion of Honor by French President Charles de Gaulle in a precedent-setting move: Miler MICHEL JAZY and five other prominent French athletes. They are Tour de France Winner JACQUES ANQUETIL, Skater ALAIN CALMAT, Skier GUY PERILLAT, Rugby Star MICHEL CRAUSTE and Olympic track and field star JOCELYN DELECOUR. "I know that this upsets custom a bit," De Gaulle told the French cabinet, "but when athletic champions, through their continued efforts, set an example and enrich the patrimony of France...the government ought to recognize and reward their achievements."
NAMED: By the new 11-team U.S. National Professional Soccer League as its acting executive secretary, SIR GEORGE GRAHAM, former head of the Scottish Football Association. Sir George predicted: "Soccer will become as big in the United States as it is in Europe."
TRADED: Itinerant NFL Back JOE DON LOONEY, from the Detroit Lions to the Washington Redskins for a middle draft choice, two weeks after Lion Coach Harry Gilmer suspended him for refusing to reenter a game against Atlanta. "If you want a messenger," Looney told Gilmer, "call Western Union." Washington is the fourth NFL team Looney has played for in three years. In two of his Detroit games Looney was fined an estimated $4,000. Though fines are the one aspect of the game not listed in the record books, this is believed to be the largest amount ever levied by a club against a player. It was perhaps exceeded only by Commissioner Pete Rozelle's fines against Paul Hornung and Alex Karras three years ago.
TERMINATED: The eight-year, 71-game winning streak of the JEFFERSON CITY (Mo.) High School football team, when a good, but hardly great, team from Columbia's Hickman High defeated the Jays 27-6. Up to then the closest the Jays had come to defeat since 1958 was two years ago when McCluer of St. Louis scored 13 points to Jefferson's 14. Five years before that, John Burroughs High nearly stopped the streak at eight games, but the Jays squeaked by, 19-14. During the entire eight years Jay opponents were able to score more than a single touchdown in only 12 games, while the Jays themselves racked up an unbelievable 35 shutouts, seven of them in succession.
RETIRED: By the Boston Celtics, the numbers of former stars TOMMY HEINSOHN (No. 15) and BILL SHARMAN (No. 21). They will be hung from the Boston Garden rafters with previously retired No. 1 (for late Owner Walter Brown), No. 14 (Bob Cousy), No. 22 (Ed Macauley) and No. 23 (Frank Ramsey).
DIED: Veteran Umpire GEORGE MAGERKURTH, 77, who retired in 1947 after 19 years in the National League; in Rock Island, Ill. The most flamboyant arbiter of baseball's Golden Age, Magerkurth set the tone of his whole career on his first day in the majors when he ejected fiery New York Giant Manager John J. McGraw. His later victims included such professional hecklers as Billy Jurges, Frankie Frisch and—several times—Leo Durocher. Magerkurth was also a fine storyteller and was most often asked to relate how Babe Ruth called in advance his famous home run against the Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series. Magerkurth had the best view for that one. He was behind the plate.
DIED: Bridge Expert ALBERT H. MOREHEAD, 57; of cancer, in New York City. A writer, editor, lexicographer and onetime student of Ely Culbertson, Morehead edited Culbertson's Bridge World magazine, and later, from 1959 to 1963, wrote a daily bridge column for The New York Times.
