A roundup of the sports information of the week
BOXING—Texan CURTIS COKES knocked out California challenger Charlie Shipes in the eighth round of their welterweight title bout in Oakland, Calif.
Unbeaten Florida Heavyweight AL JONES gained his 18th victory and 14th knockout when he stopped Minnesota's Jim Beattie in the first round of a scheduled 10-round bout in Miami Beach.
World junior middleweight champion KIM KI-SOO of South Korea scored a 15-round decision over Fred little of New Orleans, in Seoul.
FOOTBALL—AFL: Eastern Division leader NEW YORK, scoring its third victory, ended Oakland's streak at three games, 27-14, as Emerson Boozer picked up his seventh and eighth touchdowns of the season on a pair of seven-yard runs (page 34). SAN DIEGO caught up with Boston on two John Hadl touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to tie the Patriots 31-31 and remain unbeaten as the Western front-runners. Len Dawson paced champion KANSAS CITY to its second straight shutout over Miami, 41-0. Dawson completed 13 of 23 passes for 250 yards, including five touchdowns. The Chiefs are 3-1 for the season, sharing second place in the West with Oakland. BUFFALO, the defending Eastern champion, ended a three-game losing streak with a 17-16 squeaker over Denver—the Broncos' fifth loss in a row. The Bills came from behind in the fourth quarter, with Keith Lincoln scoring the tying touchdown on a four-yard run after a fumble recovery by Corner Back Butch Byrd. Mike Mercer kicked the winning point with three minutes remaining.
NFL: Coastal Division leader BALTIMORE, with the only perfect record in the league, extended its winning streak to four games by routing Chicago 24-3 as rookie Rich Volk set a team interception-runback record of 94 yards. SAN FRANCISCO jumped out to a 20-point lead in the first half but had to survive a big Los Angeles third quarter to knock the Rams out of a tie with the Colts for the Coastal lead, winning 27-24. John Brodie tossed the deciding 28-yard touchdown pass to Sonny Randle. In the first half he had connected with John David Crow for 59 yards and Bob Windsor for 55. GREEN BAY gained its third win in a row with a 27-17 victory over Detroit, to stay ahead in the Central Division. Zeke Bratkowski, who replaced the injured Bart Starr, accounted for two TDs on a 19-yard pass to Donny Anderson and a 13-yarder to Boyd Dowler. With 10 seconds remaining, Quarterback Don Meredith completed a 36-yard pass to Dan Reeves as DALLAS edged Washington 17-14. Scoreless in the first half, the Cowboys got into the game on Meredith's 25-yard pass to Lance Rentzel and a Danny Villanueva field goal in the third quarter. PHILADELPHIA gained its third victory over winless Atlanta, 38-7, as Norm Snead threw two touchdown passes—67 yards to Gary Ballman and two yards to Mike Ditka—to tie Dallas 3-1 for the Capitol Division lead. Minnesota again fell short of victory as ST. LOUIS, tops in the Century Division, came back from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win 34-24. Jim Hart tossed a 40-yard scoring pass to Dave Williams with 6½ minutes to go and finished with 14 completions in 25 attempts for 247 yards, while Johnny Roland, who gained 122 yards in 17 carries, scored on three-yard and 14-yard runs. Frank Ryan led CLEVELAND to a 21-10 win over Pittsburgh, pitching touchdown passes to Paul Warfield for 17 yards, Ralph Smith for 49 and Ernie Green for 15. The Steelers' Kent Nix completed 23 of 34 passes (including an eight-yard TD) for 218 yards. NEW YORK won its home opener against New Orleans 27-21, as Fran Tarkenton (18 of 28 for 348 yards) broke a 14-14 tie in the third quarter with a 34-yard scoring pass to Homer Jones and finally threw an 11-yarder in the last quarter to Bob Crespino for the victory.
GOLF—U.S. Masters Champion GAY BREWER shot a four-under-par 68 to defeat U.S. Open titlist Billy Casper by four strokes in a playoff deciding the $129,000 Alcan Golfer of the Year tournament in St. Andrews, Scotland (page 32). The victory was worth $55,000.
HARNESS RACING—SPEED MODEL ($3.60, 5$3.00), a bay filly trained by Frank Ervin and driven by Art Hult, lost one heat to Rocket Speed but took the next two (2:01⅖ 2:02[3/5]) to win the $58,642 Kentucky Futurity, the last leg of trotting's Triple Crown, at Lexington (page 72). It was Speed Model's seventh victory in 23 starts and earned Owner George H. Alexander $27,855.12.
Nevele Pride, son of Star's Pride, shattered Impish's 1961 world mile record for 2-year-olds in the second heat of the $8,662 Saul Camp Memorial at Lexington, Ky. with a time of 1:58[2/5]. That, combined with the winner's first-heat 1:59⅕ broke the two-heat record also held by Impish.
Claude Pelletier drove Canadian-owned GOLDEN BLEND ($6.60) to victory in the $20,000 Duane Hanover Pace at Roosevelt Raceway. Peerswick, a New Zealand-bred, finished second by three lengths.
HORSE RACING—With Aussie Bill Pyers up, TOPYO (82 to 1), Mme. Léon Volterra's French 3-year-old, raced to a neck victory over British-owned Salvo in the 1½-mile, $320,000 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Europe's richest Thoroughbred race, at Longchamp (page 84). Barely a head behind in third place in the close-fought race was Charles Engelhard's Ribocco.
Ogden Phipps's undefeated filly QUEEN OF THE STAGE ($2.80), ridden by Braulio Baeza, clipped [1/5] second off the Frizette Stakes record with 1:35[2/5] at Aqueduct when she won the one-mile. $114,475 event by¾ length over Gay Matelda. The victory, her seventh straight (and fifth stakes), all but assured her the 2-year-old filly crown.
Mako ($2.60), Mrs. Ogden Phipps's 1966 steeplechase Horse of the Year, scored a three-length victory over Golpista in the $16,800 Broad Hollow at Aqueduct. It was the 27th win of the season for rider Joe Aitcheson Jr., the 1961, 1963 and 1964 national steeplechase champion, who now leads his nearest rival, Tommy Walsh, by seven races.
MOTOR SPORTS—Mark Donohue's CAMARO won the final Trans-American sedan championship race of the season at Kent, Wash., but the title went to MUSTANG on Ronnie Bucknum's second-place finish. Donohue averaged 87.6 mph in the 303-mile race.
SWIMMING—U.S. swimmers won seven of nine events in a West Berlin meet as MARK SPITZ of Santa Clara, Calif. broke his own 100-meter-butterfly world record by 0.22 with a time of 55.68, then a day later regained the 200-meter-butterfly mark, which he had lost a month and a half ago to fellow-Californian John Ferris, with a 2:05.7.
MILEPOSTS—APPROVED: By the New Jersey State Racing Commission, the application of Jersey Downs, Inc., headed by Hyman N. Glickstein, to build a $20 million night harness track on the Secaucus meadows, 10 minutes from midtown Manhattan; also, the Atlantic City Raceway's proposal to present night trotting. Jersey Downs is expected to open by mid-1969, and Atlantic City plans to begin harness racing by next summer.
NAMED: To succeed Billy Hitchcock as manager of the Atlanta Braves, LUMAN HARRIS, 52, who piloted the Braves' Richmond club to the International League pennant this year. Harris, a pitcher for the former Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators for seven years (1941-47), coached the White Sox, the Orioles, and the Astros and also has managed Baltimore and Houston.
HONORED: As baseball's minor league Player of the Year, FELIX MILLAN, 24, second baseman for Harris' Richmond team. Millan had a .310 average and struck out only 19 times in 106 games.
TRADED: By the Kansas City Chiefs, highly regarded No. 2 Quarterback PETE BEATHARD, to the Houston Oilers, for giant Defensive Lineman Ernie Ladd, Quarterback Jacky Lee and the Oilers' No. 1 draft choice for 1968.
