1972

At home, Richard Nixon is reelected in a landslide despite indications of a Watergate cover-up. Abroad, Munich is the scene of an Olympic bloodbath. In happier sports news, the A's, Bruins, Lakers and unbeaten Dolphins go all the way. Crosstown college winners: USC in football, UCLA in basketball.

INCIDENTALLY
ROLE REVERSAL
Women students at the College of William and Mary are wearing sweatshirts that read MARY AND WILLIAM.

IN SI'S WORDS
DEATH IN MUNICH
The outrage could scarcely have been greater or the grief deeper, which only partially suggests the sway the Olympic Games hold on men's minds. Certainly, the awful events cast their shadow across sport. Even as rabbis within Munich's high-walled Jewish cemetery prepared the bodies of the 11 fallen Israelis for the journey home, the Olympics were resuming after a 24-hour interruption. One of the first competitions following the delay matched Romania against Hungary in team handball, which, like murder, was new at these Games. The Romanians won 20-14, but Nicolae Nedef, their coach, could not rejoice. "The game doesn't seem to matter so much," he said.
—JERRY KIRSHENBAUM

Bobby Fischer takes Boris Spassky's world title.

Pittsburgh's prayers are answered by Franco Harris's Immaculate Reception in the playoffs.

Roberto Clemente, 38, dies in a New Year's Eve plane crash.

Paul Henderson's last-minute goal lifts Team Canada over the Soviets.

Run, America, run.

A Nixonian plea.

The U.S., 62-0 in Olympic hoops history, loses a disputed Munich final to the Soviets.

Mark Spitz's eye-popping score at Munich: seven events, seven gold medals, seven world records.

EIGHT PHOTOS

PHOTO

CO RENTMEESTER/LIFE

"There are 800,000 Canadians living in the Los Angeles area, and I've just learned why they left Canada. They hate hockey."
—JACK KENT COOKE, LOS ANGELES KINGS OWNER, ON THE TEAM'S POOR ATTENDANCE