CONTENTS

28 King of the Leadfoots
The drawl and down-home air are real but deceptive. Behind Richard Petty's laconic facade lurks the fiercest charger in the game of stock-car racing. And in Daytona's Firecracker 400, the king started way back there—and then blew them all away
by Robert F. Jones

12 A Centre Court Case
A. Ashe vs. J. Connors went to trial at Wimbledon last week. The verdict: Ashe
by Joe Jares

16 It Ended with One Fatal Step
Foolish Pleasure won the big match race when one stride cost Ruffian her life
by Jack Mann

18 Two-Ring Circus in the Garden
Ali was present in image only as Galindez and Monzon defended their titles
by Mark Kram

20 Another Keel Haul in the East
Led by massive Willie Stargell, Pittsburgh is demonstrating an old Pirate custom
by Roy Blount Jr.

34 Ramble In Golf's Great House
You are welcome anytime in the halls of history at the country seat of the game
by Charles Brome

56 The Magic of Ragtime
An excerpt from the superb new novel that blends fact with its fancy
by E.L. Doctorow

The departments

7 Scorecard
42 TV/Radio
44 Fishing
50 Track
52 Baseball
70 For the Record
73 19th Hole

Credits on page 70

Cover photograph by Tony Triolo

ILLUSTRATION

ARNOLD ROTH

Next Week

Hard by the north sea in Scotland lies Carnoustie, site of the British Open. Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino will be at the unforgiving course trying to match Gary Player's three titles, as Dan Jenkins reports the action.

The Chesapeake is a bay of plenty—strings of geese crisscrossing its skies, its "critical zones" churning with fish. Robert H. Boyle and Mark Kram view the life within and surrounding the world's richest body of water.