A Worldwide Roundup Of The Sports Information Of The Week

RECORD BREAKERS—RINK BABKA, whalish (6 feet 5 inches, 245 pounds) USC senior, literally threw discus out of park at Victorville, Calif., scaling platter 198 feet 10 inches into ditch to better spectator Fortune Gordien's world record by more than 4 feet (March 22).

Earlene Brown, pudgy California strong girl, heaved basketball 135 feet 2 inches, sent 4-kilo shot zooming 49 feet 6 inches to break two U.S. marks in national indoor championships at Akron. Other record breakers: Shirley Crowder of title-winning Tennessee State, who scissored over 50-yard low hurdles in 7 seconds; Shirley Hereford of Cleveland, who lunged 9 feet ½ inch in standing broad jump (March 22).

Swim records, as fragile as a crate of eggs in these days of chlorine-happy youngsters, took another beating abroad and at home. At Auckland, New Zealand's perky Backstroker Phillipa Gould, 17, wind-milled 100 meters and 110 yards in 1:12.52 on first lap of 440-yard medley relay to make two world marks obsolete (March 16). At Seattle, limber-armed Sylvia Ruuska, 15, hustled through 400-yard individual medley in 5:05.2 to better American standard, set bristling pace for U.S. record-breaking spree by Chris Von Saltza, 14, who free-styled 100 yards in 57.1, backstroked 200 yards in 2:23.6; Marianne Hargreaves, 16, who breaststroked 250 yards in 3:22; Nancy Ramey, 17, who splashed 200-yard butterfly in 2:21.9 (March 22). At Indianapolis, Indiana Freshman Frank McKinney Jr. covered 220-yard backstroke in 2:19.2 for U.S. record (March 16). At Santa Clara, Gary Heinrich, 17, broke high school standard with 4:39.9 clocking for 440-yard freestyle (March 21).

BOXING—VIRGIL AKINS, bewildered and even bewitched by Isaac Logart's fast hands and faster feet and looking every bit the part of 11-to-5 underdog in first five rounds, unaccountably found rival a sitting duck in sixth, dumped him twice before Referee Harry Kessler stopped welterweight elimination bout (see below) at New York's Madison Square Garden. Victory earned Bible-reading Akins title bout with Vince Martinez, probably in June, but he also picked up subpoena (along with at least a dozen others) from New York District Attorney Frank S. Hogan, who began moving in on boxing mob (see page 23).

TRACK AND FIELD—RON DELANY, Dublin's Loitering Irishman, with world-indoor-mile record (4:03.4) safely tucked away, contented himself with merely winning (for 24th straight time) in season's last meet at Cleveland, running down Maryland's Burr Grim at three-quarter mark to canter home in slowish 4:12.7. Other winners: Bob Gutowski, who soared 15 feet 4 inches (see below) in pole vault; Ohio State's Glenn Davis, who scuttled over 50-yard high hurdles in 6.1.: Polish Refugee John Mach, who ran away from two-mile field in 9:02.4.

Texas, with fleet Eddie Southern running wild as the wind in relays, piled up 81 points, finished far ahead of runner-up Abilene Christian (despite 10 points by Bobby Morrow, who won 100 in 9.6, ran on winning 440, 880 relay teams) in university division of West Texas Relays at Odessa.

FOOTBALL—U. OF PITTSBURGH, despite NCAA squeamishness (SI, March 3), following latest trend in college-pro relations, worked out deal with city's Public Auditorium Authority to make Pitt Stadium available to Steelers for home games. Said Pitt Chancellor Edward Litchfield: "I can see no threat to our amateur status from the use of these facilities...by professional teams. Let's be very realistic. Professionalism results from a depreciation of values of an institution."

BASKETBALL—KENTUCKY Stood at top of college basketball heap after squeezing past Temple 61-60, outscoring Seattle and fabulous Elgin Baylor 84-72 to win NCAA title at Louisville (see page 14), brought forth some tongue-in-cheek metaphor-mixing from crowing Coach Adolph Rupp: "We were just a bunch of ugly ducklings who weren't supposed to swim. We fiddled around all season until the tournament. Then we became violinists." In New York's NIT, low-ranked Xavier got high-class performance from medium-sized Playmaker Hank Stein (see below), caught fire in overtime to upset top-ranked Dayton 78-74.

Nashville business college put end to 131-game winning streak of Wayland College's glamorous Flying Queens, used basketmaking of 6-footer Nera White to out-hustle Iowa Wesleyan 46-40 for women's AAU title at St. Joseph, Mo., earn six places on 12-girl team which will tour Russia April 20-May 7. The squad: Nashville's Nera White, Peggy Tate, Shirley Byrd, Joan Brown, Joan Crawford, Margaret Hollaron; Iowa Wesleyan's Barbara Sipes, Sandra Fiete; Wayland's Kay Garms, Katharine Washington; Kansas City Midland Jewelry's Lucille Davidson, Edith Keaton.

Boston Celtics, hot-handed as ever, ran off three straight over Philadelphia 107-98, 109-87, 106-92 in Eastern Division final, headed for NBA title playoff with winner of St. Louis-Detroit series. In West, Hawks took first two from Detroit 114-111, 99-96, dropped third game to Pistons 109-89.