December 13, 1971 | Volume 35, Issue 24

BASEBALL—For the first time ever, trades out-numbered rumors at the winter meetings (page 22). Some 15 deals were made in Phoenix, involving 54 players and 18 of the 24 major league teams. The...

Mike Leidy, a junior linebacker for Hampden-Sydney (Va.) College, had 105 unassisted tackles and three interceptions as he led the Tigers to an unbeaten season, in which they allowed only 112.2...

18, 19—Heinz Kluetmeier20, 21—Neil Leifar22—Walter Iooss Jr.23—Tony Triolo24—Sheedy & Long42, 43—Charles Trainor62—Rogers-Sharkey from Los Angeles Times, AP65—Rich Clarkson73—John...

OPENING SHOTSSirs:SI's basketball research rates a top salute! I have just reviewed your 1970-71 Top 20 selections (I kepi the Nov. 30, 1970 issue out of curiosity). You hit on 14 of the 20 in the...

Book publishers, who were reminded what a rich lode the sports Held can be when Instant Replay and Ball Four broke through to the bestseller lists, have been mining it with uncommon vigor this...

TARGET OF OPPORTUNITY

•Gary Hammond, SMU's senior quarterback, after his final game: "You start out in college worrying about growing up, and when you finish you're worrying about growing old."

Now it's a pro quarterback, of all things. Detroit's Greg Landry runs so well he has the entire NFL dropping back to contemplate the options

It was almost like old times last week for a pair of ex-Alabama quarterbacks, Joseph William Namath of the Jets and Bryan Bartlett Starr of the Packers. Both were returning to play after injury...

Beginning in November, baseball got smart. Shooting at last for a big-league image, the general managers riffled the deck and in a blaze of publicity sent players flying every which way

A special year-end issue marks the close of 1971 with the kind of dash the decade's start deserves. The Sportsman of the Year is named, a flashing figure with verve to spare. A distinctive...

They can still be seen, the Chesapeake canvasbacks, and to watch them as they slide, wings flaring, through a lead-gray sky is to know why they are and always have been the most majestic of ducks....

The canvasback of the Atlantic Flyway is not, officially, an endangered species. He numbers about 100,000 now, not much more or less than he did a decade ago. But what is extinct, as the daily bag...

After a short but busy stay in New York, where a host of drinking companions accompanied him home, drank with him till he fell asleep and then relieved him of $16,000 in cash and belongings, Actor...

Led by a giant Yugoslav who thinks he's a 5'4" guard, Brigham Young stepped off smartly into the new season with two wins and a new home

WEST

The Australians may not have known whereof they sang, but they played a fast game and took the measure of the best U.S. team ever assembled

Nebraska ended the season with a trip to Hawaii, but not even the islands' diversions kept the Cornhuskers from their appointed tasks

Undaunted by a fracture as he closed in on his 500th win, Driver Herve Filion had his arm in a cast and an 11-year-old claimer out ahead

John Ferguson, long and lean and sharp, is perched on a stool in a New York City drugstore, his shoulders hunched over the counter. His face, fleshless and dominated by a beaklike nose, is pointed...