A roundup of the sports information of the week

BOWLING—BILLY HARDWICK of Louisville won the $6,030 first prize in the $70,000 Smallcomb Classic at Redwood City, Calif., beating Jim Stefanich of Joliet, Ill. 289-192. The victory, Hardwick's fourth this year, increased his earnings to $41,825—tops in the sport.

GOLF—BILLY CASPER, sloshing through a final-round four-under-par 67, won the $130,000 Western Open at Midlothian, Ill., the tour's last tournament before the U.S. Open. Casper finished four strokes ahead of Rocky Thompson after an 18-hour rain that left the course in what Doug Sanders called "miserable but playable" condition. It was Casper's third Western win; the $26,000 first-place purse boosted his career earnings to $950,000.

Susie Maxwell Berning won her first tournament since the Women's Open, the $20,000 Lady Carling in Baltimore, with a 213, one stroke ahead of Donna Caponi. Carol Mann, who had led the first two rounds, dropped into a third-place tie with Sandra Haynie and Sandra Spuzich, finishing at 215.

HARNESS RACING—Mrs. Helen Buck's OVERCALL ($4.80), driven by Del Insko, paced the fastest mile and a half in the history of harness racing—3:02[3/5]—as he defeated Blaze Pick by 8¾ lengths in the $50,000 International at Yonkers Raceway.

HOCKEY—NHL: In a shuffle on the Coast LEONARD (Red) KELLY, 41, was out as head coach of the Los Angeles Kings, fourth-place finishers in the West Division last season, and HAL LAYCOE, 46, was in. The Kings beat Oakland in the playoffs, then lost in four straight to St. Louis. Kelly's 55-75-20 record with the Kings followed a 20-year playing career with Detroit (1947-1960) and Toronto (1960-1967), which included 164 Stanley Cup games and eight cup championship teams. Signed to a two-year contract was Laycoe, formerly a defenseman with New York, Montreal and Boston in the NHL and longtime coach of the Portland Buckaroos of the Western Hockey League. "I'm pretty strong on discipline," Laycoe said, "and I think my record shows I can handle men. We're going to do better than ever before."

HORSE RACING—ARTS AND LETTERS ($5.40) benefited from an extraordinarily slow early pace to win the $147,800 Belmont Stakes by 5½ lengths over Majestic Prince, depriving him of the Triple Crown (page 24). The day's betting handle for nine races was a world-record $6,371,829.

At Hollywood Park RISING MARKET ($5.20) was 2½ lengths better than Dewan in the $55,350 Inglewood Handicap. Laffit Pincay Jr. rode the winner to his first victory in the last five starts, covering the 1‚⅛ miles in 1:46⅗ [1/5] second off the track record.

On the hard, dry track at Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha, VALE OF TEARS ($5.20), ridden by L. J. Durousseau, equaled the world record of 1:07[2/5] for six furlongs in winning the $20,000 J. E. Davidson Handicap.

Back East, NORTH FLIGHT ($15), carrying top weight of 123 pounds, was ridden by Jockey George Cusimano to a 1-length victory over Eaglesham in the $30,080 Kent Stakes—one mile on grass at Delaware Park.

The 190th English Derby was Jockey Ernie Johnson's first, and a winning one, as he brought BLAKENEY (15 to 2) in by a length over Shoemaker in the $224,856 classic. Charles Engelhard's 7-to-2 favorite, Ribofilio, finished fifth in the 26-horse field. Later in the week at Epsom, 87-year-old Lord Roseberry won his first Oaks with SLEEPING PARTNER (100 to 6), who defeated Frontier Goddess by a¾ length. Across the Channel at Chantilly the $340,000 Prix du Jockey Club, the French Derby, went to Maurice Lehmann's GOODLY by a head over Beaugency, with Baron Guy de Rothschild's Djakao third.

LACROSSE—The LONG ISLAND ATHLETIC CLUB successfully defended its 1968 national club championship with a 19-8 victory over the Maryland Lacrosse Club of Hofstra University. "We achieved every objective," said Long Island's rookie coach, Cliff Murray. "We wanted to control the ball at least nine minutes in every quarter and draw only four penalties." This they did.

MOTOR SPORTS—A spin by Art Pollard on the first lap of Milwaukee's Rex Mays 150 precipitated a series of accidents that sent Gary Bettenhausen cartwheeling end-over-end, sidelined 10 other racers in the 24-car field and, though no driver was seriously injured, stopped the race for 32 minutes. After the restart, Indy Champion Mario Andretti led for 90 laps, only to be overtaken by the eventual winner—ART POLLARD in a substitute car.

TENNIS—ROD LAVER took his Australian countryman Ken Rosewall in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, to win the French Open championship in Paris. Said Laver, who has also won the Australian and South African championships this year, "It's the first time I've beaten Kenny in a big one on clay." Nancy Richey was the only American to reach any of the finals—she teamed with Australia's Mrs. Margaret Court in the women's doubles—but lost 6-0, 4-6, 7-5, to Mrs. Ann Jones of Britain and Fran√ßoise Durr of France. In the women's singles, MRS. COURT defeated Mrs. Jones 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

In Manchester, England, New York's CLARK GRAEBNER beat Graham Stilwell of Britain for the men's title in the Northern England grass court championships 9-7, 3-6, 6-4. In an all-American final MRS. MARY ANN EISEL CURTIS of St. Louis defeated Patti Hogan of La Jolla, Calif. 6-4, 6-4 for the women's prize.

TRACK & FIELD—JIM RYUN led a quartet of runners to sub-four-minute miles as he won the mile and the outstanding athlete award at the Coliseum-Compton Invitational in Los Angeles. Ryun's time (3:55.9) was the fastest in the world this year, and Sam Bair (3:56.7), Marty Liquori (3:57.6), Frank Murphy (3:58.1) and John Lawson (3:59.3) all recorded personal bests. Ryun, who had withdrawn from the mile the week previous due to a swollen knee, decided he couldn't hurt it more by running this week. "It really felt good to run under four minutes again." said Ryun after his victory. "I had absolutely no problem with it [the knee] tonight. The only real problem I had was nervousness before the race. Before tonight I was apprehensive about this whole season, but now I am looking forward to all the races." In other events USC's 440-yard relay team ran the world's fastest time (39.3) this year (Rich Coulter, Fred Kuller, Edesel Garrison," Lennox Miller); WILLIE DAVENPORT equaled a meet record and set a Coliseum record with a 13.5 in the 120 high hurdles, and NEIL STEINHAUER's 67'8" shotput was also a world's best this year; RON LAIRD of the NYAC set his third American record in two weeks with a 12:23.0 clocking in the 3,000-meter walk, and BOB SEAGREN won the pole vault at 17'6¼". John Pennell was second at the same height, both vaulters tying the Coliseum mark set by Pennell in 1966.

MILEPOSTS—SIGNED: LOUIS HOLTZ, 31, an Ohio State defensive backfield coach, to a three-year contract as head football coach at William & Mary.

TRADED: By the New York Rangers, Winger REGGIE FLEMING, 33, a better marksman with his fists than his stick, to the Philadelphia Flyers for LEON ROCHEFORT, 30.

RETIRED: BILL GLASS, 33, defensive end for the Cleveland Browns and 11-year NFL veteran. A lay minister, Glass will devote all his time to evangelism; at present he is leading an interdenominational "Crusade for Christ."

RETIRED: JOE NAMATH, 26, the New York Jet's Super Bowl hero, after Football Commissioner Pete Rozelle ordered him to sell his interest in a New York restaurant called Bachelors III (page 20). Rozelle said "undesirables" had been observed in the place. Said Namath: "I don't think it's right, so I am getting out of football. I am innocent of any wrongdoing. I won't sell, I'll quit." Declared Rozelle: "I've got my job to do." In this bumper year of brief retirements (e.g., baseball's Hawk Harrelson, Donn Clendenon, Maury Wills) there was speculation that Namath, too, would have second thoughts.

DIED: BOB HIGGINS, 75, former head football coach at Penn State (1930-1948) and a member of college football's Hall of Fame; at Bellefonte, Pa. In 1919 Higgins captained the Penn State team and made Walter Camps All-America at end. His lifetime coaching record at West Virginia Wesleyan, Washington University and with the Nittany Lions was 123-80-17.

DIED: RAFAEL OSUNA, 30, (Mexico's Davis Cup star and former U.S. singles champion (1963); in an airplane crash that killed 78 others on board; near Monterrey. Osuna had just led the Mexican Davis Cup team into the American Zone semifinals with a 3-2 upset over Australia in which he won both his singles matches and shared in the doubles victory. "One of my last ambitions in tennis was to beat Australia." Osuna had said. "I've always wanted to win the singles at Wimbledon, but you can't have everything."