Scorecard

Father George Clements of the Holy Angels Church in Chicago saw Pryor later on Sept. 11. "He was still trying to deny his [drug] involvement," Father Clements said. "He told me he had just got out of the hospital that morning. He looks so very thin, so gaunt. It is very pitiful to see Aaron look like that. I feel that if something isn't done soon, he's not going to be around much longer."

Last Friday, Pryor called his trainer, Richie Giachetti, who is in Las Vegas training Larry Holmes for his fight this week with Michael Spinks. Pryor said he was driving to Boston to give a legal deposition; he and LaRosa are suing Boston-based promoter Richard Mangone for $300,000 they say is due them from a June 22, 1984 fight against Nick Furlano. Pryor promised Giachetti he would go to Las Vegas from Boston. Maybe he will. "I think I'm the only one he trusts," said Giachetti. "He's so paranoid and scared of everyone else. If I can just get him here, I think in nine or 10 weeks he will surprise everyone."

At last word, he was still out there wandering. As Father Clements said, one can only pray.

LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBOARDS

Fresno City College basketball coach John Toomasian has joined the thousands of Americans seeking happiness through personal ads. No, Toomasian is not a jilted lover on the rebound; he's just looking for a little rebounding.

A couple of weeks ago he poured out his needs and desires in the The Fresno Bee's classifieds as a "sensitive and caring basketball coach who yearns for 6'4"+ rebounders." He specifically lusted after individuals who are "physically aggressive, academically and spiritually motivated and mobile enough to duck under doorways. Agility to leap and drop ball in 18" hoop will further insure TLC."

Toomasian mentioned the rewards that would come from a meaningful relationship, including "physical contact, statewide getaways, fast-food dining and many leisure hours in aromatic gyms."

The appearance of the ad elicited 12 responses but no real prospects, and the $66 fee for running the 100-word adjust about wiped out Fresno City College's recruiting budget for the year. But one of the 12 respondents was a female, so the coach may at least have found a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.

PERILS OF THE DEEP

Rod Johnson, transportation supervisor for the Great Falls ( Mont.) public schools, was scuba diving with his brother early in September in Holter Lake on the Missouri River. The 53-year-old Johnson was 55 feet down in the dark water when he felt "a bite on my right ankle," then another. When he reached with his left hand to investigate, the hand was "bitten" too and pulled close to his ankle. Johnson's face mask and oxygen regulator were knocked askew, and he was hauled rapidly upward before he realized that he had been hooked by a fisherman. He tried to break the line, but the leader was too heavy. He was rising toward the surface as fast as the air bubbles he had expelled, much too fast a rate. A diver can contract the bends—a painful and sometimes fatal accumulation of nitrogen bubbles in the blood caused by rapid decompression—if he returns to normal air pressure too quickly from the much greater pressures that exist in deep water.