FOR THE RECORD

DIED At age 88, Hank Borowy, the losing pitcher in the Cubs' last World Series game. The righthander, who started the 1944 All-Star Game for the American League, was sold by the Yankees to Chicago midway through the '45 season for $97,500. He went 11--2 for the Cubs and shut out Detroit on six hits in Game 1 of the World Series, at Tiger Stadium. He was the loser in Game 5, then came back the next day to win Game 6 with four innings of shutout relief and asked manager Charlie Grimm to start him in Game 7 on one day's rest. In a decision Cubs fans still rue, Grimm consented. Borowy (right) was pulled after giving up singles to the first three Tigers he faced, and Detroit won 9-3. He retired in 1951 after 10 years in the majors with a record of 108-82.

BEGAN Minus All-America receiver Mike Williams, USC's defense of its national championship, with a 24-13 win over Virginia Tech last Saturday. Two days earlier the NCAA denied Williams's request to have his college eligibility restored, saying the wideout was academically ineligible and had violated NCAA rules by signing with an agent. Williams, 20, who would have been a junior this season, planned to enter the NFL draft before a league rule barring players who have been out of high school less than three years from turning pro was upheld by the Supreme Court. The NCAA's decision left Williams without a team--he plans to take classes at USC and, his former agent says, has offers to do national TV broadcasting work. "We've been preparing without him for six months," says quarterback Matt Leinart. "We've moved on."

LOST For 12 hours, the Stanley Cup. The trophy was checked onto an Air Canada flight last week from Vancouver to Fort St. John, B.C., where it was to spend the day with Lightning scout Jake Goertzen. But it never made it onto the plane. "I'm waiting in baggage claim, and it doesn't show up," says Walter Neubrand, who escorts the Cup everywhere it goes. "Basically, I was angry." The 35-pound trophy, which travels in a 65-pound case, was taken out of the luggage hold because the plane was over its restricted weight. (To save money, the Cup doesn't fly coach.) It turned up in the Vancouver airport's luggage area and eventually made it to Goertzen. "I've done this 100 times before. I make sure the ticket agents take a look at it, and ask them to take care of it," Neubrand says. "We're at the mercy of the airlines. All we can do is hope it doesn't happen again."

WON By the United States, the medals race in Athens, with 103. That comes to one medal for every 2,854,786 Americans--not bad, but not nearly as impressive as the Bahamas, a nation of 314,000 which got a gold in the 400 meters from Tonique Williams-Darling (right) and a bronze in the 200 from Debbie Ferguson. The top five countries in medals per capita:

Country (medals)......... People per medal

Bahamas (2)............... 157,000

Australia (49).............. 402,673

Cuba (27)................... 418,519

Estonia (3).................. 441,000

Slovenia (4)................. 496,000

China was third in medals with 63, but that's just one for every 20 million people--70th out of the 75 countries that won medals. India was last, at one medal for its 1.065 billion people. But at least India wasn't one of the 127 teams to go home empty-handed. The five biggest to win no medals:

Country ....................... Population

Pakistan ....................... 153,578,000

Bangladesh ................... 146,736,000

Vietnam ........................  81,377,000

Philippines ....................  79,999,000

Congo ..........................  52,771,000

COLOR PHOTO

ALEXANDROS VLACHOS (WILLIAMS-DARLING)

B/W PHOTO

CORBIS (BOROWY)