A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASKETBALL—JACK LANGER, Yale basketball player whose appearance at Tel Aviv's Maccabiah Games last season led to the Elis being placed on two-year probation by the NCAA, quit the team, saying he had lost his motivation to play.
The minimum salary for NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION players, already the highest in professional sport, was raised from $13,500 to $15,500 and will go to $17,500 by 1972.
FOOTBALL—American Conference: While KANSAS CITY was dumping Joe Kapp where it left him last January, and spoiling, 23-10, his debut as a Boston Patriot in the process (page 22), OAKLAND was cutting down Denver's unbeaten Broncos, 35-23. The previously winless Raiders, called by Owner Al Davis "a miserable bunch of losers" earlier in the week, were sparked by Daryle Lamonica's four touchdown passes, three to Warren Wells. For the first time in their history, the MIAMI Dolphins defeated the injury-beset New York Jets, 20-6, and were off to the kind of start many were expecting from Namath and Co. Paul Brown returned to CLEVELAND but the Cincinnati coach was slapped with a 30-27 defeat—especially bitter since the Bengals led 10-0 after the first quarter. PITTSBURGH ended its 16-game regular season losing streak by defeating Buffalo 23-10, as Steeler Quarterbacks Terry Bradshaw and Terry Hanratty divided duty. BALTIMORE's John Unitas, the quarterback who made the two-minute drill a television favorite, capped an 80-yard drive with a 31-yard scoring pass to Roy Jefferson, with 46 seconds left, to defeat Houston 24-20. It was the second Unitas-to-Jefferson connection of the game.
National Conference: The league found itself fresh out of unbeatens this week as Detroit and Los Angeles fell to the experienced quarterbacking and tenacious defenses of WASHINGTON and SAN FRANCISCO. The Redskins' Sonny Jurgensen completed 14 of 20 passes for three touchdowns against the Lions, who beat the Bears early in the week 28-14, then continued the Monday's-winner-is-Sunday's-loser jinx by losing to the Skins 31-10. The 49ers' John Brodie kept up his phenomenal completion average with 13 out of 20 against the Rams, including one for a touchdown, and he added a 12-yard scoring run, in the 20-6 victory. MINNESOTA blanked Chicago 24-0, but even more discouraging to the Bears was an injury to the previously damaged knee of Gale Sayers that may put him out for the year. Torrential rain turned the Cotton Bowl's artificial turf into a birdbath for the Falcons as DALLAS plucked Atlanta 13-0. Jim Hart's 49-yard scoring pass to Jackie Smith with 5:38 remaining continued ST. LOUIS' fine early-season showing as the Cardinals tripped New Orleans 24-17. MacArthur Lane, who caught a 19-yard pass in the winning drive, also scored on a 74-yard run. In a meeting of Eastern Division have-nots, Ron Johnson ran 34 yards for the tie-breaking touchdown in the final minute to give NEW YORK a 30-23 win over Philadelphia.
GOLF—JACK NICKLAUS, five up after 27 holes, withstood a late charge by Lee Trevino and scored a 2-1 victory in the 36-hole finals of the Piccadilly World Match Play championship in Virginia Water, England.
HANDBALL—PAT KIRBY of New York wrested the world title from defender Joey Maher of Ireland in straight sets 21-19, 21-11 in Dublin.
HARNESS RACING—Favored TIMOTHY T. ($2.60, $2.60), who broke stride during a traffic jam and finished ninth in the first heat, won the next two one-mile trots to capture his second Triple Crown event, the Kentucky Futurity in Lexington (page 58).
Racing against the clock, STEADY STAR lowered the world mark for a mile by three-year-old pacers by a full second to 1:54. The record is still two-fifths off the best time for pacers of any age.
HORSE RACING—Previously unbeaten and 4-5 favorite Hoist the Flag was disqualified for interfering with another horse, and LIMIT TO REASON ($15.40) was declared the winner of the $205,025 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.
MOTOR SPORTS—LEE ROY YARBROUGH posted his first NASCAR victory of the year, in the $145,000 National 500 in Charlotte, N.C., by averaging 123.246 mph in a Mercury (page 62).
Austria's JOCHEN RINDT was named posthumously as the 1970 world champion race driver. Before he was killed in a practice heat for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza last Sept. 5, he had collected 45 points, a total no one will be able to exceed before year's end.
MILEPOSTS—FOUND: A new sponsor for the financially troubled HELMS ATHLETIC FOUNDATION AND HALL OF FAME, established in Los Angeles 34 years ago as a storehouse of sports memorabilia. The United State Savings and Loan Association plans to underwrite an expanded operation that will include roving exhibits in the company's branches.
NAMED: ROBERT SEAMAN, to succeed Ben Wilson as head coach of the decimated Wichita State football team for the remainder of the season. Wilson and 13 players were among 30 persons killed in the crash of a chartered plane two weeks ago (page 20).
PLACED ON PROBATION: By the Big Eight Conference, KANSAS STATE for three years and KANSAS for two years, both for recruiting violations. The Kansas State penalty, one of the most severe ever imposed by the league, applies only to football and rules out any bowl game or NCAA-sanctioned television appearance. The action against Kansas applies to all sports but carries no postseason or television restrictions.
REINSTATED: Former Cy Young Award winner DENNY McLAIN, whose three suspensions during the last season cost him $57,000 and caused him to miss 121 days of action, by Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Following the reinstatement McLain was traded, along with three other players, from the Detroit Tigers to the Washington Senators.
RETIRED: DAN GURNEY, a noted car builder who also achieved significant success as a driver, especially on the European Grand Prix circuit; to concentrate on private business interests.
RULED: By a federal judge in San Francisco, that RICK BARRY must stay with the New York Nets of the ABA until all aspects of his legal fight to return to the San Francisco Warriors are cleared up in a court trial scheduled to begin May 3, 1971.
SUED: The NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, for its planned local-area television blackout of the Super Bowl next January 17 in Miami, by the United States Consumers Protective Association. A similar suit in last year's game was dismissed.
SUED: The financially troubled PITTSBURGH PENGUINS of the National Hockey League, by the Mellon Bank, for falling behind in repayment of a more than $4 million loan. While the present owners seek a new buyer for the three-year-old team, NHL President Clarence Campbell said the league had extended "financial and other considerations" to preserve the franchise.
TRADED: Boston Red Sox Outfielder TONY CONIGLIARO, with Catcher Gerry Moses and Pitcher Ray Jarvis, to the California Angels, for Relief Pitcher Ken Tatum, Outfielder Jarvis Tatum and Second Baseman Doug Griffin.
DIED: CURTIS TURNER, 46, one of the winningest and most controversial NASCAR drivers of all time, whose career spanned the sport's growth from dirt tracks to superspeedways; when the plane he was piloting crashed in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania.
