A roundup of the sports information of the week
BOXING—EMILE GRIFFITH regained the world middleweight title that he lost last April to Nino Benvenuti when he won a 15-round decision in a rematch at New York's Shea Stadium (page 50).
FOOTBALL—NFL: LOS ANGELES made it three in a row with a 35-13 victory over Dallas, the defending Eastern Division champion (page 24). BALTIMORE also won its third straight game and tied the Rams for the lead in the Coastal Division by crushing previously undefeated San Francisco 41-7. The Colts' defense held the hard-running 49ers to 84 yards rushing, while Johnny Unitas tossed two TD passes and Tom Matte scored two touchdowns. With Norm Snead completing 16 of 24 passes for 258 yards and four touchdowns and Ben Hawkins catching eight of them for 187 yards and two TDs, PHILADELPHIA defeated Pittsburgh 34-24. Rookie handyman John Love kicked a 27-yard field goal and five extra points, scored one touchdown on a 14-yard pass from Sonny Jurgensen and another TD when he recovered a fumble in the end zone as WASHINGTON edged New York 38-34. The Cowboys, Eagles and Redskins, all with 2-1 records, tied for the lead in the Capitol Division. Surprising ST. LOUIS came from behind in the second half to beat Detroit 38-28 on the passing of Jim Hart (19 of 27 for 313 yards and two TDs) and the running of Johnny Roland (three TDs). The victory boosted the Cardinals into the lead in the Century Division and dropped the Lions out of a first-place tie with GREEN BAY in the Central Division. The Packers shut out winless Atlanta 23-0 when Zeke Bratkowski, filling in at quarterback after Bart Starr hurt his shoulder in the first quarter, threw touchdown passes of five yards and 50 yards to Carroll Dale. CHICAGO won its first game and handed Minnesota its third loss in a row as the Bears beat the Vikings 17-7 on the running of Gale Sayers. He made 73 yards on 13 attempts and scored one touchdown. CLEVELAND also gained its first victory with a 42-7 rout of winless New Orleans. Although hampered by injured ankles, Frank Ryan tossed three TD passes, including an 18-yarder and a 50-yarder to Paul Warfield, and Leroy Kelly gained 110 yards rushing.
AFL: Joe Namath completed 23 of 39 passes for 415 yards and three touchdowns in leading NEW YORK to a 29-7 victory over Miami and first place in the Eastern Division. The loss dropped the Dolphins out of a share of the lead with the Jets. SAN DIEGO won its third game in a row and a tie for first place in the West with a 37-17 rout of Buffalo as John Hadl completed 18 passes for 282 yards and two TDs and rookie Dick Post gained 121 yards on 20 carries. Daryle Lamonica passed for two touchdowns and 40-year-old George Blanda booted field goals of 31, 33 and 42 yards to lead OAKLAND to a 23-21 upset of Defending AFL Champion Kansas City and a share of first in the West with the Chargers. It was the Raiders' third straight victory and the first loss for the Chiefs. HOUSTON edged Denver 10-6 when Miller Farr intercepted a pass late in the third period and ran it back 39 yards for a touchdown. The Broncos had taken a 6-3 lead at half time on Rick Duncan's 38-yard and 31-yard field goals.
GOLF—Former British Open Champion BOB CHARLES shot a 72-hole six-under-par total of 282 to take the $110,000 Atlanta Classic by two strokes over Tommy Bolt, Dick Crawford and Gardner Dickinson Jr., all tied for second. The first-place prize of $22,000 boosted the New Zealand southpaw's 1967 earnings to $72,148—the most ever won by a foreigner in a single season on the PGA tour.
HARNESS RACING—Del Insko guided New Zealand-bred ORBITER N. ($3.20) to his seventh win of the year with a 1-length victory over Coral Ridge in the one-mile $20,000 Bret Hanover Pace at Roosevelt Raceway.
HORSE RACING—Mrs. Edith W. Bancroft's DAMASCUS ($5.60) clinched Horse of the Year honors and the 3-year-old crown when Willie Shoemaker rode him to a runaway victory over Buckpasser and Dr. Fager in the 1-mile $107,800 Woodward Stakes at Aqueduct (page 16). Two days later Buckpasser was retired to stud by Owner Ogden Phipps.
Politely ($10), a 4-year-old filly owned by Bohemia Stables and ridden by Ray Broussard, won the first-place purse of $30,000 and the stud services of Hail to Reason, one of the nation's top stallions, when she clipped a full second off the Atlantic City Race Course record with a 1:55.2 and beat favored Straight Deal by three-quarters of a length in the 1[3/16]-mile $92,000 Matchmaker Stakes.
MOTORCYCLING—Italy's GIACOMO AGOSTINI clinched the world 500-cc. title with a total of 46 points when he finished second to Briton Mike Hailwood in the 98.36-mile championship race in Mosport, Ont. Hailwood, runner-up for the title, also set a course record for a lap, averaging 91.45 mph.
MOTOR SPORTS—Scotland's JIM CLARK, driving a Lotus-Ford, won the U.S. Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, N.Y. with an average speed of 120.95 mph, a record for the event (page 60).
Mark Donohue of Media, Pa. drove his Chevrolet Camaro to an easy win in the 351-mile Las Vegas Trans-American Sedan Race, beating Ronnie Bucknum in a Ford Mustang by 1½ minutes. Bucknum's second-place finish gave Mustang a one-point margin over Mercury Cougar in the battle for team honors in the 12-race series, while Camaro is 11 points behind in third.
SWIMMING—The U.S. defeated Great Britain 92-68 in an international meet in London as CATIE BALL of Jacksonville, Fla. recorded her third and fourth world records (2:46.9 in the 220-yard breast-stroke and 1:17 in the 110-yard), DEBBIE MEYER of Sacramento, Calif. set her fourth (9:44.1 in the 880-yard freestyle) and MARK SPITZ of Santa Clara, Calif. his second (0:56.3 in the 110-yard butterfly). A world mark was also set by the women's 440-yard medley relay team of Miss Ball, Pokey Watson, Ellie Daniel and Jane Barkman with a clocking of 4:37.4.
Australian Distance Swimmer LINDA McGILL, 21, clipped a whopping 24 minutes off Briton Elaine Gray's 3-month-old women's record for an English Channel crossing when she swam the 21-mile distance from Cap Gris-Nez, France to Dover, England in 9:59:57.
TENNIS—INDIA swept to a 4-1 victory over Japan in the Eastern Zone Davis Cup finals as Premjit Lal took both his singles matches and teamed with Ramanathan Krishnan to win the doubles.
MILEPOSTS—ANNOUNCED: By JOHNNY BACH, 43, his retirement at the end of the 1967-68 season as head basketball coach at Fordham University to devote full time to his job as athletic director. Bach, while compiling a won-lost record of 244-178 in 17 seasons and a winning percentage of .565, led the Rams to two NCAA championship tournaments and five NIT playoffs. He will be succeeded by his assistant, ED CONLIN, 35, the highest scorer in Fordham's basketball history (1,886 points) who played four seasons under Bach beginning in 1951.
AWARDED: To PAUL BROWN, the former Ohio State and Cleveland Brown football coach, and his 11 associates, the Cincinnati franchise in the AFL, to begin play in the 1968 season.
FIRED: As manager of the Atlanta Braves, BILLY HITCHCOCK, 51, after leading the club to its worst season (seventh place) in 14 years. Also out was Joe Adcock of the Cleveland Indians, whose team finished eighth. His replacement will be Alvin Dark, recently given the heave by Kansas City.
DIED: IVAN ERDOS, 43, one of the top-ranked international bridge players; of a heart attack, in Carlsbad, Calif. Erdos represented North America in the 1965 World Championships, took the National Men's Team title twice (1959 and 1964) and. with Tobias Stone, won the $28,500 First International Rubber Bridge Tournament—the richest in the history of the game—in 1966.
