A roundup of the sports information of the week
BOWLING—JIM STEFANICH of Joliet, Ill. withstood a closing surge by Butch Gearhart of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to capture the $4,000 first prize in the $50,000 Gansett Open in Cranston, R.I. Stefanich's 9,098 pins gave him a 119-point margin.
BOXING—MUHAMMAD ALI fought eight exhibition rounds against three little-known heavyweight opponents at the Morehouse College gym in Atlanta. The former champion, who has not had a regular bout since March 1967, was warming up for a fight next month (page 20).
FENCING—The U.S. won in its first Fencing Masters' World Tournament, capturing the London event 46-44 over Italy. EDWIN RICHARDS of Boston was the big winner with 21 victories.
FISHING—In international tuna fishing competition between five countries off the southwest tip of Nova Scotia TED NAFTZGER of Los Angeles won the Alton B. Sharp Trophy for the U.S. with a 670-pound catch. It was the first time in two years that a tuna had been caught in the annual event.
GOLF—LANNY WADKINS—like another Wake Forest star, Arnold Palmer, in 1954—won the U.S. Amateur, holing a 20-foot birdie putt on the last hole at Portland's Waverley Country Club to insure a one-stroke victory over Tom Kite of the University of Texas. Wadkins' final-round 70 gave him a one-under-par 279 (page 98).
HARNESS RACING—TIMOTHY T., with victories in the first and third heats, won the 45th edition of the $143,630 Hambletonian at the State Fairgrounds in Du Quoin, Ill., making John Simpson Jr., 27, the youngest winning driver ever (page 24).
HORSE RACING—BILL SHOEMAKER, 39, tied Johnny Longden, who retired in 1966, as the most victorious jockey ever by winning the 6,032nd race of his 22-year career, at Del Mar, Calif. (page 28).
Carrying 140 pounds, 4-year-old TA WEE ($5) won the $28,300 Fall Highweight Handicap at Belmont Park. The lone filly in the field of nine, Tartan Stable's entry took the six-furlong event by a neck over fast-closing Towzie Tyke. The favorite's time was 1:10⅖ one-fifth of a second slower than last year, when she won under 130 pounds.
MOUNTAIN CLIMBING—NAOMI UEMURA, a 29-year-old, 115-pound Japanese, became the first man to complete a solo climb of North America's highest peak, 20,320-foot Mt. McKinley in Alaska. Carrying only a 40-pound food and equipment pack, Uemura made the ascent in five days by the west-buttress route.
SWIMMING—The two-year-old world record for the women's 400-meter medley relay was broken by a U.S. team in Osaka, Japan. SUSIE ATWOOD (backstroke), KIM BRECHT (breaststroke), ALICE JONES (butterfly) and CINDY SCHILLING (freestyle) combined for a 4:27.4, trimming seven-tenths of a second off the old mark and finishing well ahead of the second-place Japanese team, whose 4:36.3 broke the national record.
TRACK & FIELD—Two world records were toppled .at the World University Games in Turin, Italy, by East Germany's WOLFGANG NORDWIG, who pole-vaulted 17'11" to break his own mark by half an inch, and HEIDE ROSENDAHL of West Germany, who added less than an inch to her old long-jump standard of 22'5¼".
Both the men's and women's two-mile relay world records were broken in an international meet in Crystal Palace, England, by a KENYA men's team (Naftali Bon, Hezekiah Nyamau, Thomas Saisi, Robert Ouko) in 7:11.6, and a BRITISH women's team (Rosemary Stirling, Georgena Craig, Pat Lowe, Sheila Carey) in 8:25.0.
MILEPOSTS—ENDED: His string of consecutive appearances in National League games, at 1,117, by Chicago Cubs' Outfielder BILLY WILLIAMS. He had not missed a game since Sept. 21, 1963 but was given the day off to rest up for the pennant drive. He established a new National League endurance record when he passed the 982-game mark last season, but his final total remains far short of Lou Gehrig's major league record of 2,130 consecutive games.
PROPOSED: A series of 20 INTERNATIONAL TENNIS MATCHES beginning next February in which 32 selected contract and independent players would compete for $1 million in prize money, culminating in a tournament for the top eight qualifiers in which the winner would receive $50,000; by World Championship Tennis of Dallas.
SHAKEN UP: The CHICAGO WHITE SOX, an American League team with the worst record in baseball, whose front office and field leadership underwent major overhaul, with Stu Holcomb becoming executive vice-president and general manager, Roland Hemond director of player personnel and Chuck Tanner (lured from the California Angels' farm club in Hawaii) the new manager, succeeding Don Gutteridge.
SHIFTED: The American Basketball Association's NEW ORLEANS franchise, to a new home in Memphis under a new owner, P. L. Blake, a former pro football player. Blake plans to call the team the Memphis Pros until the club's new fans choose a name for themselves.
SUSPENDED: SOUTH AFRICA, already barred from the 1972 Olympic Games, from international track and field meets for the next two years; by the International Amateur Athletics Federation. The country's "segregationist policies" and its future membership will be reviewed in 1972.
SUSPENDED: PAT PALINKAS, 27-year-old schoolteacher and the first woman to sign a professional football contract; by the Orlando Panthers of the Atlantic Coast Football League, for missing too many practice sessions. The announcement by Panther Coach and General Manager Paul Massey came after the approval of her $100-a-game contract (for holding placekicks) by the ACFL and the release of her placekicking husband Steve.
TRADED: Peripatetic RICK BARRY, who, rather than be carried back to ol' Virginny to play for the ABA's Virginia Squires, was sent to the New York Nets in exchange for a No. 1 draft choice and an undisclosed amount of cash. Gimpy-kneed Barry still hopes to return to the San Francisco Warriors, where he was NBA scoring champion his second season, but as that legal battle continues he said, "New York is the next-best place."
DIED: VINCENT THOMAS (Vince) LOMBARDI, 57, professional football's best-known, and probably best, coach; of cancer, at Washington's Georgetown University Hospital. The smallest of Fordham's famous Seven Blocks of Granite during his playing days (1934-37), Lombardi achieved his most lasting fame as a coach, starting at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, N.J. from 1939-46, followed by assistants' jobs at Fordham (1947-48), Army (1949-54) and the New York Giants (1954-58). In 1959 he went to Green Bay as coach and general manager, where he built the doormat Packers into the most consistent and feared team in football. In nine seasons the Packers won 89 games, lost 29 and tied four, were league champions five times (1961, 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1967) and won the first two Super Bowl games. Lombardi retired as coach in 1968, but a year as general manager of the Packers frustrated him and he accepted an offer to coach the Washington Redskins last year, giving the team its first winning season in 14 years.
DIED: Austrian Grand Prix Formula I driver JOCHEN RINDT, 28, whose five victories on the European circuit had all but assured him of this year's world championship and left him one short of the alltime record; after his Lotus Ford crashed on Monza's dangerous Parabolic Curve during trials for the Grand Prix of Italy.
