Bo Will Leave Coronary Unit

However, the physician, Dr. H. J. Weinstein, said the 40-year-old coach is expected to remain hospitalized in Pasadena for at least two weeks before returning to Michigan. "This morning's electro-cardiogram shows the expected changes," Dr. Weinstein said. "Bo is expected to remain in the coronary care unit for another 48 hours."

Texas Tops Final AP Football Poll

Cashing a fourth-down gamble in the closing, minutes, they came from behind to win 21-17 and gain their second national title in seven years. The Longhorns were No. 1 in the country in 1963, the seventh of Darrell Royal's 13 seasons as head coach.

Penn State received seven first-place ballots and wound up the solid No. 2 team for the second year in succession. Two voters split their top choice between the Longhorns and Nittany Lions.

[source: ap]

Oakland 4-Point Pick In Showdown With K.C.

And with two of the best defensive units in pro ball banging away, it could come down to where a field goal might prove the margin of difference. So talented are the two teams that they even boast two of the best field goal kickers in the AFL -- Jan Stenerud for the Chiefs and George Blanda for the Raiders. Both coaches -- Hank Stram of Kansas City and John Madden of Oakland -- have the greatest confidence in their kickers, using them for boots almost half the distance of the field.

Stenerud, who at 27 is almost young enough to be Blanda's son, booted 27 field goals this past season and Blanda, winding up his 20th pro season, had 20. Jim Turner of New York led everyone with 32. Defensively, there is a standoff in talent between the Chiefs ' and Raiders. Offensively, there is a marked difference.

The Chiefs, although boasting the most successful passer in AFL history in 35-year-old Len Dawson, stick pretty much to the ground, and well they might be expected to again today even though that strategy cost them a 10-6 loss to the Raiders three weeks ago. But Stram, who never plays the same way twice if he can help it, worked his offense overtime in practice sessions for the title game, stressing the passing more than the running, although Robert Holmes, Mike Garrett and Warren McVea, the club's tough little runners, got in their time.

Over on the Oakland side, things are different. The club lived and died -- just once -- this year on the passing of Daryle Lamonica. It paid off in a 12-1-1 record and a playoff victory over Houston. The missing ingredient all season long was a running game. Now, it seems that the running may be revived since it's almost certain, according to the Oakland coaching staff, that the Chiefs will subject Lamonica to the greatest pressure he's had all season in an effort to nullify his "bombs" to speedy Warren Wells and Fred Biletnikoff.

[source: upi]

Assistant Gets Dickey's Job

An Alabama graduate, Battle played for coach Paul (Bear) Bryant' s Crimson Tide in 1960-62 and was an outstanding end. He served as a student assistant coach under Oklahoma's Bud Wilkinson in 1963 and then was on Paul Dietzel's staff at Army for two years before coming to Tennessee.

Battle devised the Vols' computerized scouting system and handled the pass receivers under Dickey. Battle and Doug Knotts, the Vols' defensive coach, had been considered the leading contenders for the post, along with former volunteer Johnny Majors, the All-America tailback who is head coach at Iowa State.

[source: upi]

Ziegler Still Owed $10,000 For Michigan Golf Victory

"I still think I'll get it," the slender, tow-headed Ziegler said Saturday between rounds of the Southern California Open at Mission Viejo. "The PGA credits me with the whole sum, which put me 28th in total earnings last year. And I'm exempt from qualifying for this year, so I can't complain too much."

Ziegler and Blancas were toweling off from a post-playoff shower, preparing to leave the Walled Lake clubhouse when PGA supervisor George Walsh informed them that there were no funds in the tournament till for the payoff. "I was so excited at winning my first big tournament that I hardly realized what he was saying," recalled Ziegler. "Homero and I just sort of stood there and laughed at each other. When it sank in that I wasn't going to get paid, I felt our organization (the Tournament Players' Division of the PGA) would stand behind the players."

A few weeks after the Michigan Classic, the TPD paid players half what they should have won in the bankrupt tournament.

[source: l.a. times]

PGA Adopts New Eligibility System

Under the new system, the winner will receive 120 points, the runner-up 90 and so on down to 1 point for 70th place. Total points scored will determine the 60 players exempt from qualifying for tournaments the following year. A 25-point bonus will be given winners of the U.S. Open and the PGA.

[source: upi]

Beaten North Charges Ref's Call Cost Win

North coach Duffy Daugherty of Michigan State claimed officials were wrong when they ruled that Jim McFarland of Nebraska was out of the end zone when he caught a pass in the final two minutes. John Riley of Auburn kicked the winning point following the Cappleman to Ray bomb, but the North struck back quickly on the clutch passing of Dennis Shaw of San Diego State and appeared headed for victory.

Shaw dumped the pass to McFarland from the 4-yard line to the back of the end zone. But the official said McFarland wasn't in bounds. The end zone was decorated with a red and white diamond design that left a one-yard border of grass around it. Daugherty claimed McFarland caught the ball in the green but the official must have thought the decoration was the end of the end zone.

"I'm not criticizing the officiating but these are the weirdest end zone markings I've ever seen and I'm sure the game films will show that McFarland scored," Daugherty said. "I was standing on the 20-yard line and saw it plainly, as all the boys did." Shaw said he didn't want to talk about the game. "Just give the game ball to the official," he said.

[source: ap]

Petty Entry Refused For Riverside 500

The three marked out a clause which forbids drivers from withdrawing their cars from a race without the consent of NASCAR competition director Lin Kuchler. The clause was added after several drivers, members of the Professional Drivers Assn., dropped out of the Talladega 500 in Alabama last year -- because they said the track was unsafe.

Petty is president of the PDA. NASCAR president Bill France, in a statement issued in Daytona Beach, Fla., said the drivers have until Monday to return an unaltered form. Filing after the deadline would cost the driver points, he said.

[source: ap]

Baseball Faces An Era Of Change

By 1980, the baseball fan can expect the following things to come to pass:

1. Interleague play during the regular season, pitting American and National League teams against each other on some limited basis.

2. A livelier baseball in use by the major leagues.

3. A central headquarters, located in New York, for all top baseball administration (including the Commissioner, the two major league presidents and the head of the minor leagues) -- but not a significant centralization of the commissioner's authority at the expense of the league presidents.

4. At least two franchise shifts in the major leagues.

5. A full-fledged strike by major league players.

6. An artificial playing surface in the majority of major league parks -- possibly all parks.

7. Weekday World Series games played at night.

8. Some significant weakening of the reserve clause, voluntarily by negotiation or under pressure from court or Congressional action.

9. Pay television for games televised locally in places where (unlike New York) free television has not been customary -- but no pay television for the World Series, All-Star Game or Game-of-the-Week programs, which will remain free on national networks.

10. A drastic revision of the minor leagues, virtually doing away with the traditional system, and replacing it by one that emphasizes central scouting, instructional and rookie leagues based in geographically compact complexes, and more day games.

11. A legal attack on the draft of previously unsigned players, the so-called "free-agent draft," which allots negotiation rights to players coming out of high school and college without their consent.

12. Considerably higher ticket prices.

These developments may be rated "likely." Less likely, but distinctly possible, are:

1. Major league teams in Tokyo and Mexico City (after supersonic transports begin to fly).

2. A complete re-alignment of the major league teams, so that each of four six-team divisions would contain teams that emphasized local rivalry. That way the Mets and Yankees would meet regularly, the two Chicago teams, the two Los Angeles teams, St. Louis and Kansas City, Oakland and San Francisco, and so forth.

3. Some step toward "free substitution" -- the use of a pinch-hitter more than once in a game, a permanent hitter for the pitcher, permission to use some sort of offensive or defensive specialist, and so forth.

[By William N. Wallace]

A professional football team of 1979 will reflect several changes for the sport in the next decade. A study of the crystal ball reveals that the squad of the Honolulu Alohas will number 50 highly-paid specialists. They will be larger and older and more of them will be black than on a 1969 squad. They will play on plastic grass at all times in shoes with crumble cleats like ski safety bindings and thus they will not tear up their knees so often.

Pro football already is specialized, with athletes trained for specific tasks. We have seen nothing yet. By 1979 there will be individual units for varying down-and-yard situations. "Here come the third-and-10 teams on the field," the announcers will say. Because of specialization, the coaches will have persuaded the owners to permit 50 rather than 40-man squads. The money will be so good that players will stay with the game well into their 30's. They will be larger, because athletes will continue to grow. The 6-foot 5-inch 240-pound quarterback will be no novelty.

There will be more black players because a professional sports career will remain in the forefront as the best and quickest way for them to climb the economic ladder. The athletes will be richer than ever because by 1979 cable or pay television is likely to be a law of the land and owners will have found a way to bring their product into homes for $1 or $2 a game. To keep the militant player unions from directly taking the money, the owners will have enlisted the athletes in employe stock plans.

There will be more teams such as the Honolulu Alohas. The American and National Conferences of the National Football League, which begin play this year with 13 teams each, will expand by three apiece, bringing the total to the easily divisible figure of 32. The conferences then will be divided into four divisions of four teams each, and season-end playoffs will take a month. Phoenix will have a team. So will Seattle, Memphis, Birmingham, Ala., Portland, Ore., and, of course, Honolulu.

No, pro football will not expand abroad; the natives there think our violent game is insane.