SCORECARD
OUT OF THE MOUTHS
Near Chicago a grandmother took her 4-year-old grandson and 7-year-old granddaughter for a ride in her small car. The youngsters began squabbling over which would get to sit in the front seat. "If you don't let me sit there," the 4-year-old said to his sister, "I'll chop your head off." The 7-year-old shrugged. "Who cares?" she said. "With all this pollution we'll be dead soon anyway."
ON THE BEACH
When word got around last week that NFL clubs were being subpoenaed by a federal grand jury rumors spread that it all had something to do with Walter Beach, a cornerback with the Cleveland Browns from 1963 to 1967. Beach, now a second-year law student at Yale, at first refused to comment, but in a little-noticed interview over New Haven radio station WELI he admitted, "I might have a lawsuit pending against the National Football League and the Cleveland Browns because they prevented me from playing football. I played in the NFL and started for four years. The fifth year I was reading Message to the Black Man by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The Browns said I should not read this type of material. I'm not a Muslim, and I'm not going to be a Muslim, but from that time on I had trouble. This was during the Black Power rise, when they first started to wear Afros. I was exerting my rights in terms of conversation."
The Browns say Beach was injured in his last season with them and lost his starting position. The following summer, they say, he did not want to accept a backup job and Owner Art Modell let him go. Last week, Beach told SPORTS ILLUSTRATED Correspondent Bill Guthrie, "Two days before camp opened in 1967 I went in to see Modell. He told me, 'We've decided to put you on waivers. You can't make our team.' " Beach said he then found himself unwanted by any club, including the brand-new New Orleans Saints, who had yet to put a squad on the field. "The Saints had such outstanding cornerbacks," he said, "that they didn't need my skills. All of a sudden, I was mediocre."
The point at issue in Beach's argument—legally, at any rate—is not racism but monopoly. He claims that he was blackballed for his off-field activities, that his opportunity to earn a living at his trade was denied him by an illegal agreement among NFL clubs. The ramifications of his suit—the grand jury hearing was to get under way this week—could open a very big can of worms.
BID AND ASKED
It's probably too late now, but a couple of weeks ago want-ad columns in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch were doing a land-office business in tickets for the Ohio State-Michigan game this Saturday. One ad one day said: "Four OSU-Mich. box seats, $400 today and I'll give one pr. $30 binoculars as bonus. Also will lend a stadium parking permit. Pressing bills only reason for selling." An inch or so farther down in the column there was an ad from the other side of the fence, a no-nonsense request that said: "Wanted, 12 tickets to Mich. game Nov. 21. No singles. $10 seat." Bid and asked prices seemed far apart, but we hope that somehow a compromise was reached, that the 12-ticket seeker will be ensconced in Ohio Stadium Saturday and that the $400 man is happily paying off his grocer, or bookmaker.
SOME BAY AREA
Talk about regional basketball teams with multiple home courts, like the Floridians and the Carolina Cougars, how does the San Francisco-Oakland-St. Louis Warriors sound to you? Franklin Mieuli, owner of the Warriors, has been listening to Ben Kerner, who sold his St. Louis Hawks to Atlanta two years ago. Kerner wants to buy 30% of the Warriors and put on half the club's home schedule in the new St. Louis auditorium. Mieuli has had only one profitable season in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1961, and last year the club is said to have lost $900,000.
If the deal goes through, maybe the team's name should be changed to the Bay Area Mississippi Mudcats.
THE COSMETIC OLYMPICS
Remember when woman athletes used to be considered oddball behemoths, Big Berthas, Powerful Katinkas? That's well in the past now, and the future is making sure of it. At the Munich Olympics in 1972 little "cosmetic cabins" will be on hand near the victory stands in the various venues. Woman distance runners can renew their makeup before presenting themselves for their medals. Woman swimmers can do something with their wet and tangled hair.
And the cosmetic cabins are not just for the women. Shotputters, boxers, marathon runners, all can take a couple of minutes to make sure they look all right before going on TV. It is also expected that those who present the medals will freshen up first, too. Can't you just see Avery Brundage dusting a shiny spot on that massive dome of his?
NO TWO BIT, HE
Quarter horses are supposedly poor relations of the thoroughbreds that race in prestige events like the Kentucky Derby, but everyone knows by now that quarter horses can make a bundle of money (the world's richest horse race is the $670,000 All-American Futurity for 2-year-old quarter horses at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico). Yet it still comes as something of a surprise to discover how dripping with gold some of these fast-stepping animals are. Easy Jet, a 3-year-old, has collected nearly $500,000 by winning 27 times in 38 starts (he's been out of the money only twice). Moreover, his income is augmented by stud fees. Even though he is still actively campaigning. Easy Jet was taken out of training for the first half of this year and bred to 136 mares. At $2,000 a live foal, that means he could earn $272,000 for one breeding season. And his stable says next year the fee will be $2,500.
CASUALTY LIST
Lest you forget that football is a rough game, know that a report in mid-November from the NFL listed the following injuries: JETS—Woodall (chest), Thomas (ankle), Thompson (shoulder), Philbin (foot), Boozer (rib cartilage). RAMS—Long (knee), Snow (knee), Baughan (arch), Smith (hamstring), Brown (groin), Williams (knee), Klein (knee). LIONS—Owens (shoulder separation), Walker (arch), VIKINGS—Eller (charley horse), Krause (bruised forearm), Alderman (neck), RAIDERS—Lamonica (bruised shoulder), Buehler (ankle), Wells (shoulder), BRONCOS—Brunelli (knee), Whalen (ankle), Washington (ankle), Thompson (knee), Bachman (knee), REDSKINS—Schoenke (knee). GIANTS—Williams (knee), Eaton (hamstring), CHIEFS—Brown (ankle), Taylor (shoulder), Budde (bruised thigh). STEELERS—Calland (charley horse), Beatty (arm), Bankston (shoulder separation). 49ERS—No reported injuries. OILERS—Johnson (bruised knee, but see item at right called "A Break for Charley"), Hopkins (ankle), Atkins (hamstring), BROWNS—Kelly (ankle), Jones (bruised shoulder), McKay (knee), BENGALS—Beauchamp (ribs), Lewis (face). CHARGERS—Rice (toe), Briggs (knee), Hadl (calf), Garrison (ankle), Garrett (ankle), Foster (ankle), Frazier (hand), Fletcher (hamstring), Schmedding (shoulder). PATRIOTS—McMahon (broken ankle), Webb (knee), Sellers (foot), Montler (calf). BILLS—Simpson (sprained knee), Moses (hamstring), Briscoe (shoulder), Cowlings (ankle), Marchlewski (neck), Reilly (ankle). COLTS—Hinton (leg), Jefferson (groin), Hill (knee), Smith (knee), Miller (ribs), Havrilak (knee, shoulder), BEARS—Mc-Rae (leg), Shy (foot), PACKERS—Starr (sore right arm), Williams (ankle), Bowman (shoulder), Carter (knee). SAINTS—Baker (knee), Howard (groin), Nevett (knee), DOLPHINS—Kiick (back). FALCONS—Malone (mouth), EAGLES—Pinder (bruised back), Bouggess (thigh), Snead (knee), Nelson (thigh), Tom (ankle), Jones (bruised shoulder), Calloway (knee), Nordquist (hip). CARDINALS—Edwards (ankle), Bakken (knee), Hutchison (knee). COWBOYS—Norman (groin). The league also noted that the following players had been dropped from active rosters in November because of injuries: Breitenstein, Falcons; Lassiter and Williamson, Patriots; Hester, Bears; Wheelwright and Livingston, Saints; Stewart, Jets; Austin, Steelers. Earlier casualties, like Namath, Snell and Sayers, are not included in this report.
BIG ONE
In Milwaukee, when someone gets something in the eye at a Hawaiian-style cook-out they call it a luau cinder.
A BREAK FOR CHARLEY
Three weeks after breaking his collarbone Houston Oiler Quarterback Charley Johnson was playing football again. Johnson's collarbone broke into three pieces when Charley landed heavily on his left shoulder while trying to make a tackle after one of his passes was intercepted. The operation to repair the collarbone may have been the first of its kind ever attempted, and Johnson's quick recovery may also have been a record. One of the orthopedic specialists who treated Johnson said, "In his eagerness to play he wanted us to devise some method by which he could return to action as rapidly as possible." The doctors therefore adapted a technique previously used in the repair of large bones in the arm or leg. A heavy compression plate immobilized the broken fragments, which were anchored into place with six heavy screws. The plate holds the fragments in place while the bone heals. Johnson was throwing a football (he is right-handed) three days after surgery and in a little more than two weeks had regained full and painless use of the shoulder.
The orthopedist admitted that the technique was radical for such an injury, since simpler methods of repair are available, and he feels the procedure used will draw criticism from some of his colleagues. One of the drawbacks is the presence of the plate. It may have to be removed in the future, which would require another operation with a general anesthetic. Simpler devices, like pins, can be removed in a minor procedure under local anesthetic. But the simpler methods require a longer period of inactivity, and Johnson wanted immediate results. If his injury had been treated in the usual way, the quarterback would have been out for the rest of the season. As it was, he played full-time against Kansas City only three weeks after his accident.
Archie Manning, Mississippi's sterling quarterback, who broke the radius in his left arm on Nov. 7, underwent a similar operation and is expected to play against Louisiana State on Dec. 5.
GOOD NEWS
At a cross-country meet in Utah between Murray and Cottonwood high schools, Scott Bennett of Murray and Brad Howes of Cottonwood were neck and neck as they came into the final stretch. Howes edged a couple of paces ahead and then suddenly stumbled and fell. Bennett stopped, helped Howes to his feet and crossed the finish line with him. Officials called it a dead heat. Bennett said, "I just couldn't think of anything else to do."
ILLUSTRATION
THEY SAID IT
•Joe Schmidt, Detroit Lion coach, after the New Orleans Saints beat his team on Tom Dempsey's 63-yard field goal: "It's like winning the Masters with a 390-yard hole in one on the last hole."
•John Havlicek, Boston Celtic basketball star, whose endurance is famed: "Without realizing it, I built up my endurance as a kid. I loved to run. I would run home from school. I'd run to the store. I'd run to the post office, to the playground. Everywhere I went I ran."
•Ben Davidson, Oakland Raider lineman whose chivalrous behavior on the field has occasionally been questioned, after Cleveland's Leroy Kelly caught a 10-yard touchdown pass against the Raiders: "It was a great example of 11 nice guys not wanting to hit another nice guy. I was one of the nice guys."
•Dr. William O. Reed, thoroughbred veterinarian, examining Nijinsky, syndicated for $5.4 million, as he disembarked in New York on his way to stud in Kentucky: "We've got to be so careful what we let into this country."