San Antonio Express from San Antonio, Texas • Page 56

WFL pact was for seven times as much money as the NFL team offered. a five-year, $2 million contract with a personal guarantee by Sam Battistone, the Sun Trope said. front money of this contract is more substantial than the entire Jets A spokesman for the Jets expressed regrets about decision but said he was not surprised. tempo of the game for the first 45 minutes, but was You gotta F16HT. HENRY Toros may be down for count After eight years of fighting for survival on the football field, the San Antonio Toros are apparently dead.

In all probability, they will play no more. It is common knowledge here that if you take the fight ot Henry Hight, you have defeated the Toros. He is their leader, their energy, their engine. For over seven years now Hight has overcome big odds in various and often wacky ways. While most minor league teams were falling dead shortly after birth, Hight somehow managed to keep the Toros alive.

Although the average life span for a minor league team is short, Hight and his Toros continued to exist. Year after year they popped up to win some sort of league title. the Toros were billed as the strongest minor league organization in the nation or, as Hight so often boasted, the Team in Professional Hight may be the biggest single sparkplug in the Toro engine, but even he run without fuel. In short, he has run out of gas. We are all aware of his latest battle, his struggle against the World Football League and its San Antonio franchise, the Wings.

Hight already has filed a $3 million suit against the league and until early this week he had plans of fighting the local team head-to-head. It was obvious to most of us that Hight was fighting a losing cause that is, it was doubtful if his Toros would be able to draw enough fans to break even. Few of us ever thought that he would draw as many, and certainly not more, than the Wings. But Hight, admittedly a stubborn man at times, see 'it that way. He truly believed he could beat the Wings at the gate and.

if necessary, on the field. He was determined to fight it out, to defend little He refused to quit. But finally, after a long line of little defeats, he can fight no more. Even he admits it's a losing cause. get stadium One by one he began losing his top players to the Wings.

Then a couple of his key front office people jumped sides. One of the biggest blows was when his right hand man, head coach George Pasterchick, joined the Wings. And the No. 1 Toro assistant, Bill Blankenship. But no one thing prompted Hight to give up.

It was a combination of all of these little defeats. The most recent, however, was the clincher. It came Monday when Hight was told he could rent Alamo Stadium for just one night this season. can have the stadium in late July for my game with the Oilers, but it. all they will give Hight dejectedly reported yesterday.

had hoped to bring in the New Orleans Saints, Oakland Raiders and possibly the Atlanta Falcons for games. But Alamo Stadium is the only field here that is big enough and since I get it, I Marvin Gustafson, athletic director for the San School District, which owns the stadium, explained why he give Hight more than one playing date. he wanted to play the night before the Wings. We would have to hire additional help to clean up the stadium after the Toros in time for the Wings the next night. It would have presented a big said Gustafson.

primarily, we just put new dirt on the field and we want to let the turf develop in June and July, as much as possible before our high school season Gustafson explained that over 50 high school and junior high games will be played at Alamo Stadium this season, in addition to at least 10 WFL games. Legal war to continue Hight has not officially announced that the Toros are folding but he has said that if he play in Alamo Stadium, he play, period. keep coming up to me on the street and saying, do this to you Henry, you gotta But what can i he asked, not expecting an answer. sure the Indians happy when we started taking their land. They wanted to fight, too.

But when they had to start dodging bullets they didn't have much choice, did Hight will continue his legal fight against the league and he's toying with the idea of trying to get an injunction against WFL teams playing in San Antonio. But it now appears that already lost half the battle. Ordinarilv, we should be happy that part of this ugly battle has ended because we all realize that our city support two teams. One would have died in the end. Probably the Toros.

The death, of course, will make it much easier for the Wings to survive. Perhaps it will eliminate a lot of nasty mudslinging and hard feelings. But no matter how much we want the WFL to be a success here, it is hard for us to be completely happy and pleased with the death of the Toros. The fact that they died is not the big thing. It was going to happen, sooner or later.

the way they died sad. A fixture here for eight years, the team first lost some players, then its coaches and, finally, it lost everything without receiving one single cent in return. Toros suffered a slow death. They were, perhaps, buried alive. Thunder falls again, Lay assumes control Says he is not pleased By JIM HUTTON OF THE EXPRESS STAFF Ward Lay, the principal investor in the San Antonio Thunder franchise, has taken over complete control of the soccer administrative operations.

Lay informed Thunder GM Mike Boyle and coach Alex Perolli of his decision Wednesday. The wealthy Dallasite told writers he plans to remain in San Antonio to coordinate front office business on a fulltime basis and move his family to the Alamo City later this summer. have not been satisfied with the way things have been Lay said, for this reason, I think I should devote more time to overseeing the operation The youthful-looking Lay added that all final decisions would be made solely by him and this included all administrative matters in the areas of team promotion, media relations and player personnel and development. No Trades will be no player trades, transactions or moves without my final Lay emphasized. consider this operation a business and I think we can do a better job in all areas and have a more positive influence on San Lay was asked what recent newspaper stories regarding team, player and coaching disenchantment had to do with his decision.

would rather not comment on Lay said. think some of the comments were generalities and I would comment on specifics but there is no doubt that we have problems and I'm not pleased with the situation at Lay said the primary reason for his fulltime intervention hinged on presenting a more positive image of his soccer club. plan in the near future to initiate more promotions through the local TV, radio and Lay continued. think the situation can be improved and I plan to visit San Jose and observe their The San Jose Earthquakes are averaging fans per match and lead the See LAY, page 2E Stoff photo by PAT HAMILTON Davis signs ASSOCIATED PRESS ANAHEIM All- American running back Anthony Davis has signed a $2 million multi-year contract with the Southern California Sun, it was announced Wednesday. The long-rumored agreement was the first major signing by a WFL team since the league reorganized after its finaciallv- plagued first season last year.

main thing is I like Southern Davis said. Davis was the top draft choice of the York Jets. The agent, Mike Trope, said the ANTHONY DAVIS the WFL Final Indy tests will run today INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Carburation tests are scheduled through Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedaway, marking the last chance before 500-mile, $1 million race, for the drivers to shake down their machines. No use of the oval by the drivers and their cars has been permitted since the close of last Sunday's final qualifications. The track is kept shut down during this final week to minimize the chance of injury to drivers and damage to their equipment.

The carburation test, a misnomer in that there are no carburetors on Indianapolis-type machines, are used to calibrate fuel mileage, to review pitstop procedures and to map race strategy. A crowd of aprroximutely 50,000, just a fraction of the number which will pack the raceway on Sunday, is expected for the three-hour period in which the drivers will test their sleek merchants of speed for the final time. Asked why so many peo- ple would pay just to watch an occasional car run around an oval, one veteran Indy observer said, guess it take much to get Hoosiers excited. The tests could be critical for sortie drivers, whose crews have worked long hours this week taking apart and putting together the race cars in an effort to find the extra milli second of speed which could be so critical on Sunday. For Steve Krisiloff, the test will also determine if he is actually going to drive on Sunday.

Krisiloff, injured May 6 here in a wreck during practice, has his broken left heel in a special cast that is designed to enable him to work the clutch. If Krisiloff feel he can race with the cast on, driver Bill Simpson will take over his car. Race rules permit driver changes in cars already qualified. But if the ear cannot start, one of the alternate drivers in cars would move into the field. Rick Muther is the first alternate and A1 Loquasto is second.

Sun pact Stinghands S. A. 5th straight loss By KARL SPORTS EDITOR The Chicago Sting extended two streaks with a 2-1 victory over the San Antonio Thunder Wednesday night in North East Stadium. A crowd of .3,711 faithful watched the Thunder drop its fifth straight game and the Windy City visitors rack up their third straight win. S.A.

is now 1-5 and Chi is 3-2. It as artistic as the job pulled by Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the movie which inspired the Chicago nickname, but it was just as effective. In fact, it more resembled one of Lizzie hatchet jobs than one of the delicate maneuvers of the aforementioned duo, for the big Chicago crew was downright brutal. Referee Ray Puricelli cautioned three of the Stingers and also Ned Ha- sanbegovic, who almost got into it with sweeper Eddie May at the 32:02 mark. In view of the roughness of the game, there could easily have been twice that many yellow cards flashed.

Different It was a game of two completely different halves. San Antonio was on the offensive and in control of the STING 2, THUNDER 1 Chicago 1 1 2 Son Antonio 1 0 I FIRST HALF SCORING: 1. Chicago Allen 2:07. 2. San Antonio Doherty (AAarotte) 4 58 SECOND HALF SCORING: 3.

Chicago Hill (May) 61:20. SHOTS: Chicago 13, San Antonio 10 SAVES: Chicago (Cawston) 2, San Antonio Cavallero (5). CORNER KICKS: Chicago 4, San Antonio 6, FOULS: Chicago 3, Son Antonio 1. OFFSIDES: Chicago 4, Son Antonio 0. REFEREE: Puricelli (St.

Louis). ATTENDANCE: 3,711. after never intermission. The Sting got a fluke opportunity almost immediately and cashed in on it, but the Thunder was on top the rest of the half. A simple pass that was evidently going nowhere suddenly skipped crazily over right fullback Roberto outstretched foot and with electrifying abruptness it was S.A.

goalkeeper Trini Cavallero going one-on-one against Sting striker Russell Allen. Cavallero came out almost to the penalty area line in order to cut down the angle, but Allen still booted it past See THUNDER, page 2E The Generous Taste of Johnnie Walker Red. Scotch at its smooth and satisfying uniquely rich and mellow, consistent in quality throughout the world. the generous taste of Johnnie Walker Red, A tradition enjoyed Enjoyment you can always count on. Scotch Whiskies.

86.8 Proof. 1975 Somerset Importers, N.Y., N.Y. Antonio Erpress SPORTS Page 1-E Thursday May 22 1975 Page 8E Scoreboard Page 2E Jockeys Indicted Page 7E Major League Baseball Page 5E South Son wins series opener Story, page 3E.