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A roundup of the week July 25-31
BOATING—BILL MUNCEY drove his unlimited hydroplane Atlas Van Lines at an average speed of 114.869 mph to win his sixth Gold Cup victory at Tri-cities, Wash., beating Mickey Remund in Miss Budweiser. Muncey's qualifying speed of 128.338 mph on the 2½-mile Columbia River course set an American Power Boat Association Gold Cup record.
BOXING—CARLOS MONZON retained his world middleweight boxing title with a 15-round decision over Rodrigo Valdes in Monte Carlo (page 20).
PRO FOOTBALL—A 38-yard return of an intercepted pass for a touchdown by Don Rives was the big play in the Chicago Bears' 20-6 defeat of the New York Jets in the Hall of Fame game at Canton, Ohio.
GOLF—JERRY McGEE carded a two-under-par 69 final round for a 272 total and a four-stroke $40,000 victory over John Lister and Bob Shearer in the $200,000 Philadelphia Golf Classic.
Debbie Austin shot a four-under-par 69 final round for a 213 total to win the $75,000 Pocono (Pa.) Northeast Golf Classic. Austin's one-stroke victory over Sandra Post was worth $ 11,000.
HARNESS RACING—SPEED IN ACTION ($13.60), with Del Miller driving, won the $100,000 Founder's Gold Cup Trot at Vernon Downs in a track-record 1:57[2/5] (page 52).
HORSE RACING—STUB ($17.40), Ron Turcotte up, won the $104,790 Sorority Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Monmouth Park by three-quarters of a length, covering the six furlongs in 1:11[1/5].
MOTOR SPORTS—NIKI LAUDA averaged 129.8 mph as he drove his Ferrari 312 to victory in the German Grand Prix ahead of Jody Scheckter's Wolf-Ford. Lauda completed 47 laps of the 4.21-mile Hockenheim course—used this year after Lauda's near-fatal crash at the N√ºrburgring in this race last year—in 1:31:48.6.
Benny Parsons averaged a record-breaking 128.379 mph to win the 500-mile Grand National stock car race at Pocono (Pa.) International Raceway. After 200 laps of the triangular 2.5-mile oval, Parsons' Chevrolet crossed the finish line only [45/100] second ahead of Richard Petty's Dodge.
Johnny Rutherford survived a pit collision and cruised to a nine-second victory over Gordon Johncock in the American Parts 200 USAC race in Texas.
Rutherford qualified his McLaren-Cosworth on the front row with a speed of 205.421 mph, but averaged 164.191 mph on the two-mile Texas World Speedway oval in College Station because of caution flags.
SOCCER—Hat tricks and assurances of playoff berths were features of last week's NASL play. Seattle's Tommy Ord scored his three goals in the Sounders' 4-1 triumph over Connecticut, while Giorgio Chinaglia had three scores and one assist in the Cosmos' 8-2 drubbing of Washington. George Best had a goal and an assist in Los Angeles' 3-2 win over Las Vegas. Later in the week the Earthquakes beat the Aztecs 3-2 in overtime, with Best getting another assist, his 17th of the season. He has two more regular season games to tie or beat Pelé's league record of 18. Rochester clinched a playoff berth by downing Seattle 2-1, and Vancouver did the same in a 3-0 shutout of Washington. Fort Lauderdale lost to Chicago 2-1, but the Strikers assured themselves of first place in the Eastern Division by beating the Sting 3-0 later in the week. Minnesota defeated Dallas 2-1, and went on to clinch first in the Western Division by downing Las Vegas 4-3, a game in which Allen Willey recorded his second hat trick of the year. Dallas remained in front in the Southern Division by beating Portland 2-1 in a shootout. Toronto moved into the Northern Division lead as Drago Vabec got four goals and an assist in the Metros' 6-1 over Vancouver. Commissioner Phil Woosnam has ruled that the July 21 Toronto-St. Louis game called for brawling is to be wiped from the slate and replayed.
SWIMMING—DAVID MORGAN, 13, of Scarborough, Yorkshire, became the youngest person to swim the English Channel when he swam from Dover to Wissant in 11 hours and five minutes.
TENNIS—WTT: Eastern Division leader Boston downed Phoenix, its Western counterpart, 28-20 in front of 8,924, the largest home crowd ever for the Lobsters. In the match, Martina Navratilova beat Chris Evert 6-4 for her 11th consecutive victory, five short of the WTT record. The Racquets came back to defeat Cleveland 26-24 in overtime as Butch Walts won 6-1 over Bjorn Borg. It was Borg's only singles loss of the week, however, and he retains the men's singles lead with 178 victories. However, Borg's mixed doubles debut with fiancée Mariana Simionescu proved that love does not conquer all; they lost to Boston's Mike Estep and Greer Stevens, 6-4. The Lobsters, 3-0 during the week, won 27-15. New York, 1½ games behind Boston, was also undefeated, beating Phoenix 22-16 and Western cellar dweller Los Angeles 29-18. L.A. also lost to Golden Gate, 29-21, Sea-Port 26-16 and split a two-match series with San Diego 25-24 and 28-29 to finish the week 3½ games behind Phoenix.
TRACK & FIELD—Olympic champion JOHN WALKER ran the year's fastest 1,500 at an international meet in Stockholm. His time of 3:34.1 was 1.9 off Filbert Bayi's world record.
VOLLEYBALL—Santa Barbara ended El Paso/Juarez' nine-game winning streak with a three-game sweep that tied the Spikers with Orange County for the Western Division lead. Denver, tops in the Continental Division, opened its longest road trip of the season by beating Phoenix, then won the first game against San Diego to extend its streak to 13. The defending champion Breakers rallied to take the next game and win the match in five. Meliton Jimenez, recovered from torn ankle ligaments, rejoined Tucson and helped end its losing streak at five by scoring 22 kills in 36 attempts, leading the Breakers to another three-game shutout of El Paso/Juarez and into a tie for second place.
MILEPOSTS—HIRED: LARRY HILLMAN, 40, to coach the WHA Winnipeg Jets. Hillman, who was a defenseman on five Stanley Cup teams and played for the Jets in 1975-76, replaces Bobby Kromm, who has taken over as coach of the NHL Detroit Red Wings.
RETIRED: LARRY BROWN, 29-year-old All-Pro running back for the Washington Redskins. An eighth-round draft choice in 1969, Brown was NFL Player of the Year in 1972, played in four Pro Bowls and became the third man in NFL history to gain more than 5,000 yards rushing in his first five seasons. Brown will remain with the Redskins as a public relations man.
SHIFTED: The NEW YORK NETS franchise, from Uniondale, N.Y. to New Jersey. The Nets will play at the Rutgers University gymnasium in Piscataway for two years while an arena is being built at the Meadowlands complex in East Rutherford. A suit has been filed by Long Island's Nassau County, where the Nets played since 1972, in an attempt to block the move.
DIED: CHRISTOPHER (Bat) BATTALINO, 69, in Hartford, Conn. The world featherweight champion from 1929 to 1932, Battalino won 58 of 88 bouts before retiring in 1940.
