The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 23

Chei1anouuerSiin SATURDAY NOV. 24, 1973 2 SPORTS BUSINESS SECTION irtrtt 23 Hdks if toy Jim TAYLOR Dim iDne temiclhies? in check but McGowan has the habit of haul-'ing in footballs in a crowd. "We've got to apply pressure," Ottawa head coach Jack Gotta says. "We get a good rush on their quarterback all day and maybe McGowan will be running a lot of patterns for nothing." Gotta says he's looking for the thing to be decided by kickers once everybody has just about finished beating on each other. And he figures that's his ace.

"Edmonton has a great one in (Dave) Cutler" Gotta says, "But Gerry Organ (who beat Cutler out to win the Schenley Award as the league's: outstanding Canadian) kicks so well under pressure. That son-of-a-gun has saved my job so often I sometimes think he should be getting my salary." If it does come down to field goals. Cutler has better range than Organ and the Esks are here as much as anything because he kicked six of them in the win over Saskatchewan. But it's still going to be muscle that decides who's top dog. And Edmonton should have the biceps to pull it off.

END ZONE Edmonton has placed im-port defensive end Leroy Jones on a five-day try-out. He's 67" and 225 pounds and he spent most of the season sitting in Edmonton on what head coach Ray Jauch says wasn't "any bigger taxi squad than anybody else had." It isn't likely Jones will be activated for the game The league accepted bids from Calgary and Ottawa to host the 1975 Grey Cup game at Friday's executive meeting and accepted a $25,000 deposit on a franchise bid from a group in London, Ont. But neither the site of the Grey Cup nor the expansion issue will be decided until the league's annual meeting here in February. On the franchise bid, though, the nine clubs did ask commissioner Jake Gaudaur to come up with an expansion draft procedure and decide on a franchise fee by February. The only other time the issue of a.

franchise fee came up was when Robert Schmertz offered to pay $2 million if the CFL expanded to New York. That bid failed The league has decided to start next year's i exhibition schedule one week earlier. Begin- ning the regular season the third week in July rather than at the end of the month. It'll mean that all teams will have to play four pre-season games in 15 days weather outlook for Sunday is windy and mild with the possibility of showers. By DAVE WAITERS TORONTO You can talk all you want about the quarterbacks and the field goal kickers.

Sunday's Grey Cup game really comes down to linemen. It says here that Edmonton Eskimos will get past Ottawa Rough Riders because the western champs will come close as anybody has to neutralizing that Ottawa front four. "The one thing we've got going for us is that our offensive line is about as big as an in the league," Edmonton quarterback Tom. Wilkinson was saying Friday. "That Ottawa defence is very physical but I knowur guys are capable of taking it to 'em.

We win the trenches, we win the game." Unfortunately, the only regular season comparison reaMy isn't a good one. Ottawa beat the Esks 32-20 but- Edmonton threw six interceptions in that one and gave the ball away four other times on fumbles. "Sure, defence forces mistakes," Wilkie admits. "But we were so off that day it was pathetic. That was our worst game of the year and now that I think about it, it's probably the best thing that could have happened.

I mean to have a bad one against the team you're playing in the Grey Cup. You never know, they might take us lightly because of it." The Riders do. They're nuts. Sure, Edmonton has a defensive secondary that is a bit suspect but in the last half of the season it started to knit. And up front, they're about as capable as anybody with the exception of Ottawa.

Offensively, the Riders may not be any great shakes. With Jerry Keeling on the limp because of a torn knee cartilage, they'll have to go with Rick Cassata. Now, when Cassata is hot he'll bum anybody but the man does have the reputation of being slightly, constricted about the throat in the big games. Still, Cassata does have people to work with. The game plan will probably boil down to passing and Hugh Oldham and Rhome Nixon do manage to get open now and then.

The premiere receiver here, of course, Is Edmonton's George McGowan. This year's outstanding player in the Canadian Football League led everybody in receptions this season with 81 and caught the big one against Saskatchewan Roughriders last weekend that put the Esks in the Grey Cup. The Riders make no bones about it. McGowan has them worried. They feel they have the troops to keep Edmonton fullback Roy Bell WINNIPEG Benny The Hat is laughing -the warm, gentle sound of a concrete mixer in overdrive.

"Sure Bobby Hull can leave," he growls. ''He wants to give me back the one million dollars, he can leave. But he won't. For two more years after this one he plays hockey for Winnipeg Jets, wherever they are. That's it.

It is Ben Hatskin's cross, and in some cases his weapon, to sound like a heavy. They call him Gentle Ben and his friends say he is, but he can make hello sound like a threat. When he says Hull is staying flatly, no trace of anger -you know Hull is staying. Or that whoever comes for him had better bring a lot of friends. But the rumor had started up again.

Robert Marvin Hull was in financial difficulty (no mean trick for a guy guaranteed a minimum $250,000 per year for 10 years). He was disenchanted with Winnipeg, and he was going back to Chicago Black Hawks next season because there's a loophole in his contract with the Jets, and people keep asking Benny why. "There's no loophole," he says in that Sheldon Leonard accent." "People say he'd be clear if I moved the team somewhere. That's garbage. His first four years on the contract are with the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Club as a player.

The next six are with the World Hockey Association as an executive or something if he isn't still playing. Either way he gets his 250 G's a year. But as long as he plays, he stays with the Hull himself dismisses the story as "something dreamed up by those NHL writers." But it's an interesting case history, a sort of Anatomy of a Rumor. Started with phone coll It started when Hull was in Chicago airport with the Jets. He phoned the Black Hawk offices to get the new and unlister number of his brother, Dennis.

The man he spoke to was coach Billy Reay. He got the number, plus a message from Reay. "Remember, Bobby," said his old boss, "The door is always open to come back." Almost before he'd hung' up the phone the word was going around: Bobby Hull was coming back to the Hawks. "It figures," Hatskin scoffs. "You know why? Because those NHL bleeps still figure we're gonna fold up and go away." Last night, with Hull and the Jets, unbeaten at home, playing a Blazers' team suddenly turned hot, with Andy Bathgate returning to his old haunts as a coach, they drew 5.063 customers.

Hatskin's break-even point is just over 7,000 average. "We're up 20 per cent over last year, and averaging 6,700," he mutters. "But last year we lose about $200,000. People keep telling me I gotta stay, but they're not talking about their money, they're talking mine. Ben's been approached "They keep saying I've had offers.

Sure I've had offers Detroit, Milwaukee, San Francisco. Offers, ha! Offers I got. But I ain't seen any greenbacks, I tell people there's a price tag on the franchise: 4.3 million, and Hull is $2.3. So much for offers." He is trying to get additions put on the rink. But he can't fill the seats he's got.

Last night, watching the scattered knots of people filling in, he said "No way. No way in this town. Not ever." Then he caught himself and changed the subject. Obviously, the possibility is there. Meanwhile, there's the a 1 1 of this other hat.

Benny has the Honolulu franchise in the proposed World Football League. Honolulu has a new stadium and no football team. It beats hell out of flogging a dead hockey horse. "There are eight franchises about set," he said. "Honolulu is ready and they tell me Steve Arnold, the San Francisco guy who used to be a players' agent, is all set up in Tokyo, that the reception there is fantastic.

"And don't tell me we won't sign big names. Joe Na-math's interested, you know. You wanna laugh, remember you laughed about Hull leaving Chicago. You can't laugh -anymore." That's right. And when he looks at his hockey books, neither can Gentle Ben.

is I A JN Sw 4, V- Taylor made for Wilkie but oh that Lemmerman ton will get rid of Wilkinson next season one way or the other because "(head coach Ray) Jauch is in love with Lemmerman," but Taylor wishes he could be as sure about his own future. When Edmonton cut him, he went to Calgary on a five-day tryout that lasted two days. "Nobody showed any, interest after that and I didn't mind because the season was well along but I'll tell you this if somebody doesn't sign me for training camp next year then it'll be a simple case of black-ball and I'll raise hell. There's nobody who can tell me I can't play this game." Coaches around the league suggest that Taylor's days are over. But if he does come back, there's only one thing he asks don't put him within field- goal distance of Bruce By DAVE WATTERS TORONTO Bobby Taylor likes Edmonton's chances providing Bruce Lemmerman is not the Eskimo starting quarterback.

You remember Bobby Taylor. He's the tough little flanker who played six Canadian Football League regular season games with the Eskimos this year and then decided it was time to take Lemmerman aside in a hotel room in Re-gina and punch him out. Needless to say, Taylor never played that seventh game. "First off you've got to understand that I think Lem-merman is a son-of-a-(bleep)," Taylor was saying here Friday. "I'd pick Edmonton over Ottawa in the Grey Cup if (Tom) Wilkinson starts," Taylor says, "simply because Wilkie is a leader and Lemmerman isn't." The Taylor-Lemmerman feud simmered for more than two years before it boiled over in Regina.

"He'd throw to me in practice and then he'd ignore me in a game," Taylor snorts. "In that Regina game, Wilkie got hurt and Lemmerman came in with us second-and-10 at their 10 yard line. The play he came in with, I was the only receiver and that (bleep) knows he has to throw to me. But here he comes on a roll-out. He keeps the damn ball and makes two yards.

We kick a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown." One practice after Taylor slugged Lemmerman, he was cut. "Jauch comes up with some crap about how he had to cut me because I was slow," Taylor says. "Hell, they play (Garry) Lefebvre in my place and he's slower over 40 yards than I am and he can't even catch the ball." Taylor is convinced Edmon RED WINGS PICK UP BRUINS' DOUG ROBERTS BOSTON (AP) The Boston Bruins Friday announced the sale of right winger Doug Roberts to the Detroit Red Wings. The 31-year-old former Michigan State star, acquired by the Bruins two years ago from California, appeared in only seven National Hockey League games with the Bruins this year and then saw limited service. Roberts broke into professional hockey with the Red Wings in 1965-66 and was traded to California in 1968 before coming to Boston.

Ken Oakes Photo TOWER OF POWER all night, Handsworth halfback Ron Cullen blocks Steves-ton pass Friday during Vancouver District high school football Hands-worth won 24-6 and will meet Notre Dame in Shrine Bowl. (Story, page 24). mikb can't dosh Flomes BATHGATE'S UNBEATEN Familiarity doesn't count Last Division West IHviaioD A Pts. 1 57 33 25 6 54 30 12 8 9 6 4 6 6 9 51 49 22 15 9 10 9 9 7 5 3 A Pts. 99 54 a.

PhiladelpMa 69 51 23 Chicago 60 50 23 Atlanta 74 60 22 St. Louis 63 67 19 Pittsburgh 62 88 15 Los Angeles 46 62 33 Minnesota 41 57 13 California Boston Toronto Montreal NY Rangers Buffalo Detroit Vancouver NY Islanders 52 41 21 50 78 Yi 49 64 13 51 67 12 38 65 11 11 3 10 5 12 By HAL SIGURDSOX Atlanta 4, Vancouver 1 ATLANTA The way they're playing, the Vancouver Canucks don't deserve Gary Smith. Friday night the big goal-tender did everything for them except clean up the dressing room. He got them out of a first period, in which they were outshot 18-5, with a scoreless tie. He stopped point blank drives, deflections and kept them in contention until the final 10 minutes while they ere in the process of being outshot 40-17.

He even got into a fight and won it decisively. For his troubles he- saw I- 'jit ond period fight, he felt rather good about it. However, while it was Arnason who emerged as the scoring leader and who was named the game's first star, it was Lysiak, the ex-Medicine Hat Tiger, who made the Flames burn brightest. The win lifted Atlanta into a tie for second place in the NHL West, while the loss left Vancouver mired in a tie for last place in the NHL East with the New York Islanders. And for the Canucks, things look as if they could' get worse before they get better.

They meet the Rangers in New York Sunday and the Blues Tuesday in St. Louis before returning home for next Friday night's game with Minnesota North Stars. And if things are ever going to get better for the Canucks, they will have to also shake their habit of taking unnecessary penalties. Last night they played shorthanded seven times to just once for Atlanta. For a change they managed to Mil them all off successfully, but that's 14 minutes where there's little likelihood they will score goals of their own.

With the sort of offence they've had recently, they can't afford to handicap it further. (Summary, Page 261 which was what they were doing in the first place. And things started working." Burgess tied it at 16:12 as Lawson got the puck at the Winnipeg line, swept in while fighting off a check by Woytowich, and one-handed it in front for Burgess to bang past Ernie Wakely. Lawson almost won it in regulation time, going in alone with 38 seconds left on a pass from Campbell, but fired it into Wakely's pads. Today the Blazers flew into Toronto, where they play the Toros Sunday night.

At the moment they're still in sixth place in the World Hockey Association's western division, but only four points behind the Jets, who they ve now beaten three times in four tries. For purposes of comparison, they are 8-13-0 as against 3-14 at this time last year when, as Philadelphia Blazers, they were in the eastern division, in last place and 11 points behind their nearest rivals. It's enough to make Bathgate think he'll like this coaching dodge. So far. everything's perfect.

(Summary, page 2R and Norm Beaudin scored for the Jets, who lost their first game at home this season after seven wins and a tie. "And we had that one won, too," a disgusted Hull muttered later. "What was there three four minutes left when Burgess tied it? Mistakes, silly mistakes, and no concentration." The last "mistake was the biggest. The Jets loafed a bit coming back in the overtime and Bob Woytowich found himself the only Winnipeg player facing Lawson, Campbell and Burgess. Burgess brought the puck in.

threw it across to Campbell, and it was over. Burgess and Myers put the Blazers up 2-0 in the first period of what looked like a laugher. Came the second and it was suddenly 2-2. Hull's between period fight talk had been bitingly simple. "I told them to get off their behinds," he explained.

It worked until midway in the third, particularly after Beaudin scored from a bad angle to put them up 3-2. Then they inexplicably glowed up. Or maybe the Blazers woke up. By JIM TAYLOR WINNIPEG He still can't tell a Meloche from a Migneault and in times of stress he tends to yell "hey, you." But the way things are going, Andy Bathgate must wonder why people keep insisting coaching is tough. The way it went here last night, his Vancouver Blazers won their fifth straight second under his command beating Winnipeg Jets 4-3 on Bryan Campbell's goal at 5:28 of overtime.

More important, they did it by scoring late in the third to get the tie. then came back to outshoot the Jets 3-0 in overtime hopefully a sign of a young club moving in on maturity. "You look at Danny Law-son," Bathgate said. "I gave him the job of shadowing Bobby Hull. He's our big scorer, but he sacrificed himself to check HuQ and still wound up getting two assists.

Hull did get one goal, his 16th in 21 games. But the Law son line did a job on him and got three goals of its own two by Don Burgess. Plus Campbell's winner. Murray Myers scored the other one. Dune Rousseau his goals against average inch higher again as the Canucks dropped a 4-1 decision to the Atlanta Flames.

You have to go all the way back to Nov. 6 to find the last time the Canucks won a National Hockey Leape game. On that momentus occasion they edged Bufalo 3-2. Since then they've lost six and tied two. They're now one-four-nine on the road, but for a while last night it appeared that Smith might pull them out of their skid in spite of themselves.

They actually broke on top when John Wright finished off a pretty passing play with Don Lever and Dave Dunn. That goal was scored early in the second period, but it was just a matter of minutes before Smith was getting sabotaged by a pair of costly defensive blunders just 26 seconds apart. The first occurred when rookie Dennis Ververgaert lost the puck to Atlanta's talented freshman Tom Lysiak in his own end. Lysiak passed to Randy Manery and the hard shooting defenceman slammed a low shot into the corner of the net. Then Wright had a pass blocked by Chuck Arnason.

The puck skidded to Bobby Leiter, who whirled and scored from some 20 feet out with another near-perfect shot. Perhaps because they were feeling guilty and if they weren't they should have been the Canucks came up with their first really sustained effort to get Smith some goals early in the third period. Unfortunately for them, that was Atlanta goaltender Phil Myres cue to get hot He came up with a quick series of clutch saves on Ververgaert Bobby Schmautz, Andre Boudrias and Bryan McSheffrey. That ended Vancouver's flurry and the Flames came storming back. Arnason scored twice to settle the Canucks once and for all and since it was Arnason who took his lumps from Smith in that sec DON BURGESS forces overtime "The second period for us," Bathgate said thoughtfully, "was just a case of going into the shell, playing defensively.

But maybe you can't make changes in the period because you're watching everything and trying to get the next line out and I still don't know everybody. But in the last 10 minutes I got them bark to sending two or three in after the puck, Foreman told to fight or ROANOKE, Va. (AP) Bill Brennan, an official of the World Boxing Association, said Friday that world heavyweight champion George Foreman has been put on notice he must make preparations to defend his title by Jan. 21 or be penalized. All contracts and negotiations must be in order and agreement be set by that date or the WBA will have to take action on the situation, he said in an interview..