Contents

30 Ramming to the Top
No ifs, ands or butts about it, the rambunctious Los Angeles Rams are the surprise of the NFL

34 Last Tango to Pennantville
Baseball's playoff foes bring a special intensity—and a touch of danger—to their fight to reach the Series

38 There Are Two Kinds of Death
That was the philosophy of Francois Cevert—and what Jackie Stewart had to consider after Cevert was killed

44 A Long Locomotive for Choo Choo
It has been 24 years since Charlie Justice played his last game for North Carolina, but the cheers are still ringing

Pro Basketball: The New Season

54 Dr. J. has the clamps put on his operating room

61 The Lakers dry up, the Stars dim, the Rockets ascend

70 You can count on Tiny Archibald to do very big things

128 When is fair foul and foul fair? Just ask the refs

90 Pushed to the Arctic Brink
Some mad-keen rod fishermen, eager to catch a giant halibut, approach the icy Atlantic with a parachute and a prayer

The departments

19 Scorecard
109 People
110 College Football
118 Golf
126 Horse Racing
146 For the Record
149 19th Hole

Credits on page 146

Cover photograph by Neil Leifer

PHOTO

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ILLUSTRATION

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Next week

Underdogs Bite back in college football as a pack of also-rans snarl in rebellion. John Underwood reviews the season's surprises and explains what unleashed them.

Affluent Icemen take to the rinks for Season II of the blazing money war between the established National Hockey League and the aggressive World Hockey Association, which Gordie Howe & Sons now serve. Mark Mulvoy writes about Bobby Clarke, the mining-town marvel who struck the mother lode in Philadelphia, and scouting reports appraise the strengths and weaknesses of all the teams.