A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASKETBALL—NBA: Sam Jones scored a career-high 51 points as Boston defeated New York 118-109 to take the Eastern Division semifinals three games to one. In the finals, however, PHILADELPHIA gained a quick 2-0 lead by whipping the Celtics 127-113 and 107-102. In the first game Hal Greer tossed in 39 points, while Wilt Chamberlain had 24 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists and blocked 12 shots. In the second, Chamberlain pulled down 29 rebounds. SAN FRANCISCO also raced to a 2-0 lead in the Western Division final playoffs with 117-115 and 143-136 victories over St. Louis as Rick Barry popped in 38 and 47 points. The Warriors' point total in the second game set a playoff record, and the combined total was the highest ever.
AAU: Second-seeded AKRON gained the National championship for the second time by defeating 11-time titleholder and defending champion Bartlesville, Okla. 77-62 in the finals in Denver.
BILLIARDS—LUTHER LASSITER, 48, of Elizabeth City, N.C., defeated Jack Breit of Houston 150-73 in the finals of the 1967 World Pocket Billiards Tournament in New York City for his fourth title in the last five years.
BOATING—Ted Turner, the SORC's 1966 champion from Atlanta, sailed his new 40-foot-sloop VAMOOSE to a record-breaking victory in the 811-mile Miami-Montego Bay (Jamaica) race with a corrected time of four days 22:33:47.
BOWLING—Twenty-six-year-old JIM STEFANICH of Joliet, Ill. won a two-frame roll-off over Don Johnson of Kokomo, Ind. to take the $25,000 first prize in the $100,000 Firestone Tournament of Champions in Akron, Ohio (page 86).
BOXING—Philadelphian GYPSY JOE HARRIS won his 17th straight professional fight with a unanimous decision over Welterweight Champion Curtis Cokes (45-9-3) of Dallas in a nontitle bout in New York's Madison Square Garden (page 77).
In another unanimous decision, Heavyweight Eddie Machen, 34, lost to California State Champion HENRY CLARK in a 12-rounder in Sacramento. After the fight, Machen announced his retirement from the ring because he had come "to the end of the line and this is a good time to get out."
Former Heavyweight Champion FLOYD PATTERSON, 32, stressed that he's "ready to meet Clay" by knocking out Bill McMurray of Sacramento in 2:37 of the first round of a scheduled 10-rounder in Pittsburgh.
Sonny Liston, 34, another former heavyweight titleholder, scored a first-round knockout over Dave Bailey, 34, of Philadelphia in a scheduled 10-round bout in Goteborg, Sweden.
FENCING—Defending champion NEW YORK UNIVERSITY gained the NCAA championship in Northridge, Calif. for the seventh time, with 72 points to runner-up Penn's 64, as two of its members took individual titles—GEORGE MASIN in the épée and MIKE GAYLOR in the foil. Sabre honors went to Penn's TODD MAKLER.
GOLF—GEORGE ARCHER, a 6'6" rancher from Gilroy, Calif., shot a closing round of 68 in the $125,000 Greater Greensboro (N.C.) Open for a tournament record 17-under-par 267 total to win by two strokes over runner-up Doug Sanders. Arnold Palmer, who finished third with a 271, regained his position as top money-winner of the year with $54,673 and became the first golfer to reach the $800,000 mark in official tournament winnings.
Susie Maxwell of Pasadena, Calif. took the LPGA Louise Suggs Invitational tournament in Delray Beach, Fla. when she birdied the 3rd hole of a sudden death playoff with Sandra Haynie.
GYMNASTICS—SOUTHERN ILLINOIS retained its team title in the two-day NCAA championships in Carbondale, Ill. by beating runner-up Michigan 189.55 points to 187.40, although Michigan's DAVE JACOBS took first place in both the floor exercise and the trampoline. The all-round title, also successfully defended, was won by STEVE COHEN of Penn State, whose team placed fourth in the standings behind Iowa.
HARNESS RACING—New Zealand-bred pacers finished one-two-three in the one-mile $25,000 Adios Butler Cup at Roosevelt Raceway, as Trainer and Driver Stanley Dancer guided CARDIGAN BAY ($2.40) to a 1½-length victory over Orbiter N., with Tactile another length back in third. The 11-year-old bay gelding's second straight win of the season raised his alltime earnings to $764,706, the highest of any active Standardbred.
HOCKEY—NHL: Champion CHICAGO (41-17-12) finished the last week of the season with three wins in four games as Stan Mikita tallied five points to tie Bobby Hull's 1966 record (97 points). It was Mikita's third scoring title in the past four years. Mikita also broke his league assists mark with 62, and Pierre Pilote tied his NHL record for assists by a defenseman with 46. The Hawks, as a whole, also set another league mark with 264 goals. Bobby Hull, though, missed the last three games because of a knee injury and ended the season with 52 goals, two short of his NHL record. The tight fight for second place was finally resolved when MONTREAL (32-25-13) won its last three games to close out the season on an 11-game unbeaten streak and edged TORONTO (32-27-11), winner of two of three, by two points. NEW YORK (30-28-12), in the meanwhile, dropped two of three and came in fourth, three points behind the Leafs. Fifth-place DETROIT (27-39-4) lost three, and BOSTON (17-43-10) dropped two.
The U.S.S.R. completed a sweep of seven games to take its fifth consecutive world championship, in Vienna (page 80).
HORSE RACING—Mrs. Frances A. Genter's IN REALITY ($11.60), with Earlie Fires up, won the 1‚⅛-mile $139,400 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park when he finished 2½ lengths ahead of Biller (page 83).
MOTOR SPORTS—FORD finished one-two in the 12-hour Sebring (Fla.) Endurance Race, as Mario Andretti of Nazareth, Pa. and Bruce McLaren of New Zealand, in their new Mark IV, averaged a record 102.9 mph. for the 1,237.6 miles (page 34).
Cale Yarborough of Charlotte, N.C. averaged 131.078 mph in his 1967 Ford in the Atlanta 500 to gain his first NASCAR victory of the season. Placing second, also in a 1967 Ford, was Dick Hutcherson of Camden, S.C.
TRACK & FIELD—Texas A&M's RANDY MATSON, the outstanding performer at the Texas Relays in Austin, set a new national collegiate record of 201'1" in the discus and a meet mark of 68'8" in the shotput, while TEXAS SOUTHERN took the team title by winning more relays (four) than any other school. Kansas sophomore JIM RYUN ran a 4:04:9 mile anchor leg on the winning four-mile relay team and anchored the Jayhawks' world-record-breaking sprint medley team (3:15.2) with a 1:46.1 half mile.
MILEPOSTS—NAMED: As NBA Coach of the Year, JOHNNY KERR, 34, who gave up playing for Baltimore a year ago to coach the Chicago Bulls, then the newest entry in the NBA, and led them to the playoffs with a surprising 33-48 record.
NAMED: To head coaching positions at Illinois, two former Illini athletes: JIM VALEK, 40, after serving as assistant football coach at four schools, to succeed Pete Elliott; and HARV SCHMIDT, 31, after three seasons as assistant basketball coach at New Mexico, to replace Harry Combes. Both Elliott and Combes resigned from their posts two weeks ago because of a slush-fund scandal.
HIRED: JACK McMAHON, 38, coach of the Cincinnati Royals for the past four seasons, as coach and general manager of the new NBA San Diego team. Also named as coach, for the new Seattle Supersonics, was AL BIANCHI, 35, an assistant with the Chicago Bulls the past season.
RESIGNED: Head basketball coaches H. A. (Bud) MILLIKAN, 46, of the University of Maryland, who felt that "17 years [241-179] at one school is long enough," to be replaced by his assistant, Frank Fellows; WILLIAM C. FITCH, 34, after a five-year record of 92-44 at the University of North Dakota, to succeed Coach Warren (Porky) Schollar at Bowling Green; and DON RUBERG, 34, Xavier's coach for four years (53-51), because he was "not having any fun anymore."
RETIRED: Southpaw JOE NUXHALL, 38, after a 23-year pitching career (135-117), to accept a position with a Cincinnati brewery and become a member of the Reds' play-by-play broadcasting team. Nuxhall, who spent 15 seasons with the Reds, became the youngest player ever to appear in a major league game when, on June 10, 1944, he pitched two-thirds of an inning for Cincinnati at the age of 15.
