A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASKETBALL—NBA: The expansion draft produced a few surprises, perhaps the biggest being the availability of Los Angeles Laker Guard Dick Garrett, who was quickly grabbed by the Buffalo Braves on the first round. Other players selected by Buffalo include Don May and Bill Hosket of the world champion New York Knicks, the Celtics' Bailey Howell and Emmette Bryant, and Ray Scott of Baltimore. Portland took the Bullets' Leroy Ellis, Fred Hetzel of the 76ers and Boston's Larry Siegfried, who was immediately traded for San Diego's Jim Barnett. Cleveland included Atlanta's Butch Beard, Laker Johnny Egan and the Knicks' John Warren among its picks.
ABA: Indiana took the first two games of the championship playoffs from Los Angeles, winning the first 109-93 despite the fact that All-League Center Mel Daniels picked up three fouls in the first quarter and was forced to the bench for much of the game. The second match was much closer, the Pacers coming from 11 points down to edge the Stars 114-111.
BOWLING—Lefthander DON GLOVER won five matches on the final day and beat Bob Strampe 821-800 in a four-game series to win the American Bowling Congress Masters tournament in Knoxville, Tenn. MERCHANT ENTERPRISES of New York won the classic team championship, rolling a 3,154 series. Four of the five members also are lefties.
GOLF—HOMERO BLANCAS won his first tournament since 1966 with a seven-under-par 273, capturing the $125,000 Colonial National in Fort Worth. Lee Trevino, the early leader, and Gene Littler, both of whom had a chance to tie it up, failed birdie putts on the final hole.
HARNESS RACING—RUM CUSTOMER ($10.40), owned by Lloyd Lloyds and Mr. and Mrs. Louis Mancuso, took an early lead and held on for a three-quarter-length victory over favored Good Chase in the $50,000 Good Time Pace at Yonkers. Fulla Napoleon placed third. Driven by Billy Haughton, the winner covered the 1¼ miles in 2:33[1/5].
Adonis Stable's DAYAN ($20), driven by William Myer, beat champion mare Fresh Yankee by a length to win the $35,000 Erwin Dygert Memorial at Hawthorne Park, with former Hambletonian and Triple Crown winner Lindy's Pride finishing sixth. Dayan was timed at 2:00[4/5] for the mile, over a sticky track.
HOCKEY—The BUFFALO BISONS, playing their last season in the American Hockey League, swept the final series with the Springfield Kings 4-0 to take the Calder Cup for the fifth time in 30 years and outscore the Kings 21-9 in the totals. The team joins the NHL next year as the Sabres.
HORSE RACING—After a rousing stretch duel with My Dad George, Mrs. Ethel D. Jacobs' PERSONALITY ($11) managed a neck victory in the $203,800 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Silent Screen held on for third, three lengths farther back. Eddie Belmonte brought the winner home in 1:56[1/5] for the mile and 3/16ths. Kentucky Derby winner Dust Commander finished ninth in this second leg of the Triple Crown (page 26).
Two supplementary entries earned more than their $5,000 starting fee by capturing both divisions of the $113,750 Acorn Stakes at Aqueduct, the first leg of the filly Triple Crown. Mrs. Lawrence W. Knapp's ROYAL SIGNAL ($17.40) led most of the way under Garth Patterson to take the first division by three-fourths of a length over Cold Comfort, who nosed out Luci Tee for the place. Hastings Harcourt's CATHY HONEY ($5.20), ridden by Laffit Pincay Jr., came on with a rush in the second division to beat the tiring Missile Belle by two lengths, with Fast Attack the same distance away in third. Cathy Honey finished the mile in 1:36; Royal Signal took one-fifth second more.
Arts and Letters was the prohibitive favorite, but Frank McMahon's BAFFLE ($12.40) scored a five-length victory in the $112,800 California Stakes at Hollywood Park. Ridden by Jerry Lambert, the winner covered the mile and 1 /16th in just 1:40[1/5] leading Figonero and Nodouble across the line, with Arts and Letters back in sixth spot. But there were touches of irony in the race. Baffle was a stablemate of Majestic Prince, who lost last year's Belmont Stakes to Arts and Letters, and in one sense this victory evened the score. But Majestic Prince never raced again after his Belmont loss, and now it appears the same will be true for Arts and Letters. The 1969 Horse of the Year pulled up lame with an apparent bowed suspensory tendon after stumbling at the start.
LACROSSE—JOHNS HOPKINS and VIRGINIA clinched at least a tie for the national championship, closing out their seasons with home victories, Hopkins beating Maryland 7-4 and Virginia besting Hofstra 14-3. The two teams join Army and Navy with one loss apiece but the latter two have yet to play each other (page 78).
MOTOR SPORTS—AL UNSER won the pole position for the 54th Indianapolis 500 with an average speed of 170.221 mph for the 10-mile qualifying time trials (page 28).
SURFING—Californian ROLF ARNESS, 18, whose dad is Marshal Dillon on television's Gunsmoke, won the world surfing championship in Victoria, Australia. He outpointed Australian Bernard (Midget) Farrelly, a former world champ, who finished second, while another Aussie, Peter Drouyn, placed third. Sharon Weber of Hawaii won the women's title.
TENNIS—Unseeded PANCHO GONZALES, 42, seized top prize of $17,500 in the $50,000 Howard Hughes Invitational in Las Vegas, beating Australia's top-seeded Rod Laver 6-1, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. LAVER and ROY EMERSON took the doubles over Cliff Drysdale of South Africa and Roger Taylor of England 8-6, 8-6.
South African ROBERT MAUD bested countryman Keith Diepraam 7-5, 7-5 to win the London hard-court championship after Diepraam had defeated American Arthur Ashe in the semifinals. ANN JONES defeated Joyce Williams 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in an all-British women's final.
TRACK & FIELD—Villanova's MARTY LIQUORI easily beat Kipchoge Keino of Kenya in a meet-record 3:42.6 for the 1,500 meters in the second annual Martin Luther King Games in Villanova, Pa. REYNALDO BROWN of the California Track Club won the high jump at 7'2¾", best in the world this year, with Frank Costello second at 7'1". DAVE ROMANSKY of the Delaware Track Club set a new American record of 5:48.0 in the 1,500-meter walk, while JOHN CARLOS won both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes in 10.1 and 20.4 (page 22).
Indiana won its first Big Ten outdoor title in 13 years, capturing five events, including a meet-record performance by Steve Kelley, who was clocked in 8:48.3 for the 3,000-meter steeplechase. UCLA scored 33 points in the last two events to retain its Pacific Eight title, but Washington State's RICK RILEY stole the show with the year's first sub-four-minute mile in the U.S., a meet-record 3:59.2. KANSAS won the Big Eight title for the fourth year in a row; Missouri's MEL GRAY was named the meet's outstanding athlete—winning the 100-yard dash in 9.3, the 220 (after setting a meet-record 20.4 in the preliminaries), placing second in the long jump, fourth in the triple jump and anchoring the third-place 440-yard relay team.
MILEPOSTS—RESIGNED: After bringing Boston its first Stanley Cup since 1941, HARRY SINDEN, coach of the NHL Bruins, to enter the construction business. Sinden guided the Bruins from last place to first in his four years with the club.
RETIRED: England's leading bookmaker, WILLIAM HILL, 67, leaving his multi-million-dollar business in younger hands to concentrate on his bloodstock and breeding interests, which already include the 1949 English Derby winner Nimbus and the great sprinter Grey Sovereign.
REAPPOINTED: As head coach of the 1972 Olympic basketball team, Oklahoma State's HENRY IBA, who directed the 1964 and 1968 gold medalists. After 41 years of coaching, his record of 767 wins and 338 losses ranks second only to Adolph Rupp in college play.
AMBUSHED: Shot in the back by an unknown assailant in Jersey City, N.J., light-heavyweight contender FRANKIE DePAULA. All set to fight Don Fullmer at Madison Square Garden last year, DePaula was suspended from boxing after being named in a federal indictment involving the theft of $75,000 worth of copper bars.
DIED: WALTER (Dutch) RUETHER, 76, pitcher for the Cubs, Dodgers, Senators and Yankees, who ran up an 11-year major league record of 137 wins and 95 losses. His most famous win was a 9-1 victory over the "Black Sox" in the opening game of the 1919 World Series.
DIED: CLARK SHAUGHNESSY, 78, considered one of America's foremost football coaches, whose 1940 Stanford team won the Rose Bowl and who reintroduced the T formation to the game. Shaughnessy also spent 12 years with the Bears as technical adviser; his motto: "The object of football is not to annihilate the other team, but to advance the ball."
