A roundup of the sports information of the week
BOATING—Making a comeback in the big hydros, BILL MUNCEY averaged 99.410 mph in Miss U.S. in the six-boat final heat to win the "World Championship" race on the Detroit River. In elimination heats Bill Sterett was thrown out of Miss Budweiser, the favorite, when she dug a sponson in the rough water. He was not seriously injured.
Crown Prince Harald of Norway opened his defense of the Scandinavian Gold Cup for 5.5-meter yachts with a victory in Fram IV over Sweden's Joergen Sundelin and an international field.
BOXING—JOE FRAZIER, an Olympic gold medalist in 1964, defended his six-state world heavyweight title for the fourth time this year, pummeling Jerry Quarry for seven rounds in Madison Square Garden to win by a TKO (page 26).
Earlier in the evening, GEORGE FOREMAN, the 1968 Olympic heavyweight champion who was making his professional debut, wore down one Donald Waldhelm with a series of clumsy roundhouse blows before knocking him out in the third round of a scheduled six-rounder.
In a welterweight title bout at Mexico City, Texas' battered Curtis Cokes failed to come out for the 11th round and the Cuban-born champion, JOSE ANGEL NAPOLES of Mexico, was the winner by what will be recorded as a 10th-round knockout.
FOOTBALL—With O. J. Simpson and several other college stars absent, humidity high and attendance low (17,000), the Coaches All-America game at Atlanta was won in the last half by the WEST, 14-10, after it had fallen behind 10-0 (page 50). Short touchdown plunges by Oregon State's Bill Enyart and Houston's Paul Gipson earned the victory. Gipson's 74-yard kickoff return early in the third quarter boosted the West's morale and reversed the game's Eastward drift.
GOLF—Charging from five strokes back after the third round, DONNA CAPONI, daughter of a Burbank, Calif. public-links pro, scored a final-round 69 for a winning total of 294 in the USGA Women's Open, in Pensacola, Fla. (page 54).
Charles Coody moved from a tie with Jerry McGee and Orville Moody in the first round of the Cleveland Open into the lead for the final three rounds to win the $22,000 first prize. The big Texan, who had failed to win a tournament since the Dallas Open in 1964, finished with a nine-under-par 271 on the Aurora Country Club course. Bruce Crampton was second, two strokes behind Coody.
Bob Clark, a junior from California State at Los Angeles, shot a final-round 74 to win the NCAA championship with a total of 298 for 72 holes. Five other men shared second place at 301, and for the 11th time in 14 years team honors went to HOUSTON.
HARNESS RACING—In the $35,000 Meadow Skipper Pace at Yonkers Raceway, Levi Harner put KAT BYRD ($4.80) on top after Lavern Hanover broke stride about 60 yards from the finish.
HORSE RACING—The Countess de la Valdene's PRINCE REGENT (7-2) charged past Charles Engelhard's favored Ribofilio in the last 100 yards to win the Irish Sweeps Derby at the Curragh by a length and reward his owner, the former Diana Guest, with a purse of $128,410. Reindeer, owned by the Countess' brother, Raymond Guest, former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, finished third in the race whose outcome decided the payoff of millions in Sweeps prizes.
Bill Veeck's first Yankee Gold Cup at Suffolk Downs, a two-mile turf race worth $252,750, went to Thomas Nichols' Kentucky-bred JEAN-PIERRE ($13.40), ridden by Walter Blum, with French horses in the next three places. Jean-Pierre came from just off the pace in the last 16th to defeat Taneb by 1¼ lengths.
Perry Stable's DESERT LAW ($3.80) took the $81,350 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park, surviving a claim of interference by Manuel Ycaza, rider of Amerigo Lady, who was third.
Bobby Ussery rode Locust Hill Farm's 4-year-old colt PROMISE ($4.60) to victory by a head in the seven-furlong, $57,600 Carter Handicap at Belmont Park, withstanding a late surge by Jorge Velasquez on Iron Ruler.
Calumet Farm's BEST TURN ($16.00) came from behind in the last turn of the $58,200 Saranac Handicap at Belmont to take the mile event for 3-year-olds by a comfortable five lengths over Prevailing, with Buck Run third in a field of 10.
MOTOR SPORTS—GEORGE FOLLMER, of Arcadia, Calif., the United States Road Racing Champion in 1965, easily won the Bridgehampton, N.Y. Trans-Am in a factory-supported fastback Boss Mustang, averaging 96.54 mph for 250 miles over the 2.85-mile course.
TENNIS—PANCHO GONZALES, 41, tennis king of the '50s, enchanted Wimbledon with an opening-round victory over Charles Pasarell, 25, requiring five hours, 20 minutes and 112 games—the longest match in Wimbledon history. Ultimately, however, the tiring Californian lost to ARTHUR ASHE in the fourth round (page 56).
TRACK & FIELD—IVORY CROCKETT, a 5'6" speedster from Southern Illinois, was the surprise of the 81st AAU championships at Miami, upsetting Olympian John Carlos in the 100 (9.3) as Charley Greene finished third (page 18). The anticipated mile duel between MARTY LIQUORI and the world-record holder Jim Ryun fizzled when Ryun dropped out after a quarter mile and stalked out of the stadium. Liquori, who had defeated Ryun the previous week in the NCAA meet, outran Sam Bair to win in 3:59.5. The 18-foot pole vault again eluded BOB SEAGREN and John Pennel, although Seagren, who won at 17'6", twice cleared the bar at 18'¾", only to tickle it off on his descent. Seagren said he plans to retire from vaulting after the U.S.-British Commonwealth-U.S.S.R. meet in Los Angeles later this month. At Miami, Pennel was second at 17 feet and never came close to his world-record vault of 17'10¼", set the previous week. Six AAU meet records were broken: CARLOS ran the 220 in 20.2; LEE EVANS of San Jose State had a 45.6 in the 440: JON COLE of the Pacific Coast Club sailed the discus 208'10" (defeating the perennial champion, Jay Sylvester); MARK MURRO of Arizona State threw the javelin 284'3"; and RON LAIRD of the NYAC heel-and-toed it for two miles in 13.31.6.
MILEPOSTS—NAMED: JOE MULLANEY, 44, to succeed Bill van Breda Kolff as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. For 14 years Mullaney has been basketball coach at Providence College, where he developed Len Wilkens and Jimmy Walker. Van Breda Kolff has moved on to the Detroit Pistons.
NAMED: CHARLES (Bud) WILKINSON to the Football Hall of Fame. As head coach at Oklahoma from 1947 to 1963 he amassed 139 wins (with one streak of 47 games) against only 27 losses and four ties.
FIRED: STAFFORD SMYTHE and HAROLD BALLARD, as president and executive vice-president, respectively, of Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens and the NHL's Maple Leaf hockey team, by an 8-7 vote of the directors. Smythe, son of the Maple Leafs' founder, Conn Smythe, had himself summarily fired the Leafs' coach, Punch Imlach, after their Stanley Cup defeat by Boston in four straight games this spring.
RETURNED: An American Basketball Association franchise, from Minnesota to Pittsburgh, where the Pipers had opened in 1967—pending the Security and Exchange Commission's approval of a shift in majority ownership from Bill Erickson of Minneapolis to Gabe Rubin.
