A roundup of the sports information of the week
BASEBALL—Major league baseball's 24 teams selected 127 players in the sixth annual winter draft of free-agent prospects. The top pick was Third Baseman JOHN DAVID HILTON of Pearland, Texas, by the San Diego Padres. Mississippi Quarterback ARCHIE MANNING, a shortstop, was chosen by Kansas City.
BASKETBALL—ABA: The Indiana Pacers returned to the West Division lead after a 2½-month absence by stretching their winning streak to eight games while Utah was faltering. The biggest victory came early in the week, 111-101 over the Stars. The Pacers also knocked off the best in the East, Virginia, 125-119, but unlike the last lime the two played, when a full-scale brawl erupted, nobody got arrested. The Stars' decline was abetted by losses to Texas 125-104 and the Floridians 123-119. The Floridians' win came in their first game under former Texas Tech Coach Bob Bass, who has succeeded Hal. Blitman. Another team on the way up, Carolina, settled in third place in the East Division with a 125-114 victory over Denver, while New York was losing 120-117 to Pittsburgh. Helping the Cougars maintain the momentum could be a U.S. District Court ruling that All-Star Forward Joe Caldwell would not have to return to Atlanta of the NBA.
NBA: The New York Knickerbockers spent the week out West and apparently forgot to circle their wagons at night. The result was instant massacre—three straight losses to Portland (114-96), Phoenix (107-88) and San Francisco (102-93). Even in the All-Star game, where Coach Red Holzman and three of his Knick players had some help, things went awry as the West edged the East 108-107. Despite its worst showing of the year, New York still held a comfortable 4½-game lead over Boston in the Atlantic Division race. The only close division is the Pacific, where San Francisco moved within 1½ games of Los Angeles with three straight wins. Another second-place team showing well is Detroit, which won its seventh in eight starts, 121-118 over Boston. The score was a familiar one: the two have played to that same finish twice this year. The Pistons are gaining little ground on Milwaukee, however, which last week took the most decisive victory of its 2½-year history, 151-99 over Baltimore. The Bullets tried everything to plug the deluge—even sending Gus Johnson on a search-and-destroy mission that shattered a glass backboard and held up the game for 25 minutes. Baltimore also lost 117-100 to Phoenix, whose three wins during the week maintained its record as the best last-place (Midwest Division) team in sport.
BOWLING—Veteran DICK WEBER won his 21st professional title, the $50,000 Denver Open, with a low-scoring 183-173 victory over Tim Harahan.
BOXING—Former two-time heavyweight champion FLOYD PATTERSON knocked out Levi Forte in the second round of their fight in Miami Beach. The 36-year-old Patterson, with a 48-7-1 record, faces Oscar Bonavena of Argentina Feb. 12 at Madison Square Garden.
FOOTBALL—Rookie Jim O'Brien's 32-yard field goal with five seconds remaining gave the American Conference champion BALTIMORE COLTS a 16-13 Super Bowl victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Miami (page 12).
GOLF—TOM SHAW closed with a two-under-par 70 and finished two strokes ahead of second-place finisher Arnold Palmer in the Bing Crosby Open at Pebble Beach, Calif. (page 54).
Gary Player passed third-round leader and fellow-South African Harold Henning for a two-stroke victory in the Dunlop Masters in Johannesburg. Player's final-round 68 gave him a 269, 15 under par.
HOCKEY—The NHL's hottest team was finally cooled, but it took a club building a comeback of its own to do the job. Toronto, which had won 13, tied two and lost only one in its last 16 games, was shut out by Philadelphia 3-0. The Flyers later took their sixth straight since ending an 11-game losing streak by bumping Detroit 4-2. Philadelphia's other victory in a perfect week was 3-2 over Montreal, which enjoyed a measure of success itself by upsetting Boston 4-2. The Bruins thus maintained their narrow Eastern Division lead over New York, because the Rangers had fallen to lowly California 3-1 the night before. Earlier in the week Boston's Phil Esposito, who is averaging an astonishing two points per game, put on a record three-goal performance, his fifth of the season, in a 9-5 victory over Los Angeles. In the West Division, Chicago did a rare thing twice, dropping 3-2 decisions to Minnesota and St. Louis. Although the Blues have now defeated every rival at least once this year, they remain well back of the Black Hawks.
HORSE RACING—LION SLEEPS ($4.60) raced to a strong victory in the Super Bowl Handicap, which opened Hialeah's winter season. True North was second in the six-furlong sprint, 1½-lengths behind the favorite, who led from the start.
SKIING—TYLER PALMER, a high school senior from Kearsage, N.H., won the Lauberhorn special slalom at St. Moritz, Switzerland for the United States' first World Cup victory of the season. Patrick Russel of France maintained his overall point lead despite being disqualified.
SPEED SKATING—STIEN KAISER of The Netherlands set two world records and tied another as Dutch skaters dominated the Swiss international meet in Davos. Miss Kaiser's marks came in the 1,500 meters (2:15.89) and 3,000 meters (4:46.5), and she equaled the 1,000-meter time of 1:29.0. ARD SHENK, also of The Netherlands, set men's records in the 3,000 meters (4:12.6) and 1,500 meters (1:58.7).
TENNIS—ROD LAVER remained unbeaten in the Tennis Champions Classic with his third and fourth $10,000 victories, 7-5, 4-6, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 over Tony Roche in Boston and 6-2, 6-2, 7-5 over Roy Emerson in Philadelphia.
TRACK & FIELD—BARRY BROWN, of the team champion New York Athletic Club, set a world indoor mark for the three-mile run on an unbanked track at the Metropolitan AAU meet in New York City. His time of 13:37.2 was six-tenths of a second below the old record.
At the Sunkist Invitational in Los Angeles RANDY MATSON equaled the world indoor shotput record of 67'10".
Don Quarrie, a University of Southern California sprinter from Jamaica, bettered the listed 9.4 world indoor mark in the 100-yard dash with a 9.3 clocking at a meet in Pocatello, Idaho.
MILEPOSTS—ACCEPTED: For consideration by the Supreme Court, probably in April, MUHAMMAD ALI's 1967 conviction for refusing to enter the armed services.
APPEALED: By the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, a judgment by the NCAA that sprinter Isaac Curtis was ineligible to compete in the 1970 outdoor track and field championships, thus depriving the Golden Bears of last year's title. Curtis had scored 22 of the team's 40 points.
BARRED: From Davis Cup competition in the European Zone, SOUTH AFRICA and RHODESIA. Both were extended invitations last year but neither took part because of a threatened boycott by other competing nations over their segregationist racial policies.
NAMED: ROD DEDEAUX of Southern California's national baseball champions, as Coach of the Year, for the fifth time, by the American Association of College Baseball Coaches.
NAMED: DARRELL ROYAL of Texas and CHARLIE McCLENDON of Louisiana State, in a tie vote, as major college coaches of the year, and BENNIE ELLENDER, who moved on to Tulane after leading Arkansas State to an unbeaten season, as small college coach of the year, by the American Football Coaches Association.
REFUSED: By the Supreme Court, an opportunity to re-examine its nearly half-century-old doctrine that baseball is not subject to federal antitrust laws, when it let stand a lower court decision upholding baseball's dismissal of former American League Umpires AL SALERNO and BILL VALENTINE.
SELECTED: As Horseman and Horsewoman of the Year. ARTHUR SIMMONS, a saddle horse trainer from Mexico, Mo., and PATTI HEUCKEROTH, of Darien, Conn., the nation's top hunter rider.
SIGNED: Missouri football coach and athletic director DAN DEVINE, to a five-year contract as coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers. Devine's defensive coach at Missouri, AL ONOFRIO, takes over the Tigers.
DIED: PAUL WARREN, 53, director of 11 tournaments on the pro golf tour with prize money totaling more than $1 million, in Cleveland; of a heart attack.
