Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 10

10-Santa Cruz Sentinel Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1981 ltd Sporti Cowog MwM Award 1979 PMIZE-WINNING NEWSPAPEH I tits CALIFORNIA NEWSMPf PUSUSHEflS ASSOCIATION Yet Another Turn In Wells Fargo Embezzlement Case lilllllilMl Is 5 411 Jfffll wmmm "He asked me to speak with the managers of fighters on a card scheduled for Feb. 23 at Madison Square Garden in New York and convey that he would need 30 days to put the show back on." Sam Glass Glass to deposit so a scheduled four-bout boxing extravaganza can be revived. "He asked me to speak with the managers of fighters on a card scheduled for Feb. 23 at Madison Square Garden in New York and convey that he would need 30 days to put the show back on," Glass said.

Tiffany was to be a co-promoter with MAPS of a four-bout card in Madison. Square Garden which was called off Friday. That show, in which the purses were to total $8.1 million, fell apart after Smith and two other MAPS officials were named in the Wells Fargo suit. Glass told The Associated Press in New York he spoke on the phone with Smith and the "conversation was that the stated allegations against him are untrue." "From certain things he said to me I knew it was him," Glass said. A man identifying himself as Smith dropped off tape cassettes at various radio and TV stations in Los Angeles Sunday night.

"I appeal to the media to go to the Miracle Mile branch of the Wells Fargo Bank and question the manager Gene Kawakami. It is there that you will find the beginning of what I guarantee is one of the biggest cases of fraud, embezzlement, illegal loans and kickbacks involving numerous branches and personnel SEE PAGE 1 1 LOS ANGELES (AP) The manager of Wells Fargo bank's Miracle Mile branch, Gene Kawakami, has been relieved of his duties, the bank announced today in yet another turn in the Wells Fargo embezzlement case. "We're not suspending him he's still in our employ," said Wells Fargo spokeman George Caulfield. But Caulfield would not elaborate on exactly why Kawakami was being relieved of his job. Caulfield had reported Monday that Kawakami had stayed home from work to avoid what he feared would be a disruption of office routine by reporters because of allegations made on a tape cassette from Harold J.

Smith, one of the two missing men named in the bank's $21.3 million embezzlement suit against Muhammad Ali Professional Sports, Inc. Kawakami has retained a lawyer who has advised him not to talk to the media. Caulfield said, adding that Wells Fargo does not want to release the name of the attorney. Asked if Kawakami relief from duties was a result of the allegations on Smith's tape, Caulfield said, "I'd better not comment on that. All you can say is that the action relates to our continuing investigation of facts around the case." The other missing man in the case, L.

Ben Lewis, is a MAPS director and an operations officer at the Miracle Mile branch. Asked about a report that Lewis was not really missing, but was cooperating with the FBI in the MAPS investigation, Caulfield said the bank has not had such information from the FBI. John Hoos, with the Los Angeles office of the FBI, said, "I can't comment on that. All I can say is that the investigation is continuing. There have been no warrants issued." Caulfield acknowledged that the text of the bank's suit targets Lewis as the key to the embezzlement operation.

"From 1978 to Jan. 23, 1981," the suit reads, "defendant L. Ben Lewis in his capacity as operations officer of Wells Fargo Bank caused fraudulent transactions to occur by manipulation of internal operation procedures." The suit also contends that Ben Lewis knowingly violated his obligations to act with loyalty and in good faith by doing the following acts causing fraudulent and fictitious credits to be made to the defendants accounts; issuing cashier's checks to the defendants against uncollectable funds or against no deposit; authorizing withdrawals from the defendants' account when the funds credited therein were uncollectible Sam Glass of Tiffany Promotions in New York said Monday that Smith had telephoned him and vowed to come forward within four days with $12 million for 4 (AP Laserphoto) L. Ben Lewis Ten Years Ago, Took Flack For Spec Richardson Trading Morgan The Astros, on the other hand, were a second-division club through most of the 1970s. They won their first division title last year with, ironically, Morgan back on the team.

Morgan became a free agent after the 1979 season and returned to Houston, where he began his big league career in 1964. He batted only .243 last season but, when healthy, hit well. 'T hit about .320 the last month of the season," the 37-year-old infielder recalled Monday. "For two years, I had injury problems. I was doing things to compensate for them and got into some bad habits." Morgan said he shortened his swing last September, returning to his normal batting style.

He had taken the bat further back when bothered by a thigh injury and a pulled groin muscle. "I rely on quickness, and I'd lost that quickness in my swing." he explained. If Morgan proves in spring training to Frank Robinson, the Giants' new manager, that the quickness is back in his bat. he'll have a good chance of starting the season ahead of Rennie Stennett. last year's regular second baseman.

"I'm going to spring training with the intention of proving I can be an everyday ballplayer," Morgan said. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Joe Morgan is playing baseball again for Spec Richardson, the general manager who made the mistake of trading away the second baseman 10 years ago. "Spec got a lot of flack for making that trade," said Morgan after signing a one-year contract Monday with the San Francisco Giants. "But I never blamed him," Morgan added. "I figured he just got some bad advice." Morgan signed as a free agent with the Giants and said he hopes to end his playing career with the team.

He lives in nearby Oakland. Richardson, general manager of the Giants since 1975, was running the Houston Astros' program in 1971 when he dealt Morgan, pitcher Jack Billingham, center fielder Cesar Geronimo and two other players to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for Lee May, Tommy Helms and Jim Stewart. In eight seasons with the Reds. Morgan played on teams which won five division titles, three National League pennants and two world championships. Morgan, one of the team's steadiest performers, won the NL Most Valuable Plaver award in 1975 and 1976.

(AP Laserphoto) Frank Robinson. Joe Morgan, who signed a one-year pact, and San Francisco Giants Manager West German Teen-Ager Upsets No. 1 Navratilova OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) West German teen-ager Claudia Kohde upset Martina Navratilova by beating the Czech native at her own game power tennis. "I knew it would be a tough match, because she always tries to hit winners and she either hits or misses.

Tonight, she didn't miss." Navratilova said after losing Monday night in the first round of the $125,000 Avon Championships of California. The tournament lost its top seed when the 17-year-old Kohde. ranked 67th in the world, knocked off Navratilova, the two-time Wimbledon champion, in a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 thriller. Navratilova had moved into the No. 1 position when Tracy Austin withdrew from the tournament field last week because of a lingering injury.

Austin's withdrawal resulted in the sponsor reducing the purse from $150,000 to $125,000 under a formula based on the number of top-ranked players participating. Kohde had most fans in the small but enthusiastic opening-night crowd pulling for her after she began hitting spectacular passing shots in the second set to turn the match around. She led 3-1 in the last set. fell behind 5-3 and then went ahead 6-5. She faced two match-point situations in the tiebreaker before winning 9-7.

"I thought I had the match won, but it just wasn't to be." said Navratilova. "Usually. I hit my backhand too late and the ball flies. Tonight, it was the best part of my game," said Kohde, making it clear that she surprised herself with her performance. "I never thought I'd bea her.

I had booked a flight to Frankfort for Thursday. I was going to go home." she admitted. Instead, she called her father, a lawyer in Saarbrucken. with good news and looked forward to her second-round match against South Africa's Rosalyn Fairbank, another of Monday's winners. The top-seeded player in the tournament now is No.

2 Andrea Jaeger, the 15-year-old from Illinois who is scheduled to begin play Wednesday night. Tonight's feature match. Leslie Allen of New York will make her first appearance since winning her first major pro title Sunday in Detroit. She will face Candy Reynolds of Tennessee. One of Monday's winners was 15-year-old Kathy Horvath of Hopewell Junction, Nebraska Football Is Big Business Enterprise' LINCOLN, Neb.

(AP) The young men who play football for the University of Nebraska at Lincoln are part of a "big business enterprise" and should be openly compensated for their work, Sen. Ernest Chambers of Omaha told the Legislature's Education Committee Monday. Chambers, saying compensation should be honest and not hypocritical, urged the committee to send his LB363 to the full Legislature. It would classify Nebraska football players as university employees. Chambers publicly acknowledged his belief that the panel would kill the measure.

He also said he knew the Legislature wouldn't enact the bill if it were advanced to the floor. However, he also said he wouldn't let the issue die, even the bill were killed. Keith L. Broman, Nebraska faculty representative to the Big Eight Conference, told the committee passage of the bill would "quite effectively eliminate the sport of football" at the University of Nebraska. He said Big Eight and NCAA officials had informed him that provisions of the bill, if enacted, would conflict with conference and association rules.

Broman said it would mean disqualification of Nebraska football players. The bill would classify Nebraska football players as employees of the university and require them to be "compensated and entitled to the same rights and benefits as other university employees." The university would set pay scales and working conditions if the measure were passed. The committee held the bill for later consideration. The thrust of Chambers' testimony was two-fold. First, he argued that football players deserve some compensation because they are involved in a "high risk" sport, in which their careers could be ended by a single injury.

Second, he said "there is a systematic hypocrisy that the current method of dealing with athletes encourages." He said players are given summer jobs and other "considerations" by alumni and other football supporters. Chambers said some of the jobs and the rates of pay that come with them wouldn't likely be available to the young man who receive them if they weren't football players. wm A. (AP Laserphoto) West German teen-ager Claudia Kohde registered big upset. 'Tennis Is No Longer A Country Club Sport7 By WILL GRIMSLEY Net Official Complains After McEnroe's Outburst Allen and a handful of other young hopefuls seeking to get their fingers into golf's treasure chest as have such stars as Chris Evert-Lloyd, Martina Navratilova.

Evonne Goolagong, Tracy Austin, Andrea Jaeger and Mandlikova. The scenario is the same but the backdrop and mood are starkly different. "It's easier now," acknowledged Allen. "Tennis has gone public. It's no longer strictly a country club sport." Althea was born in Silver, S.C., a "three-horse town," daughter of a sharecropper who one year reaped only a bale and a half of cotton worth around $75.

At first opportunity, the family moved to Harlem where Althea stayed with an aunt who made ends meet, by selling bootleg whisky. Althea recalls she was a tomboy who played marbles and stickball and occasionally joined kids in stealing fruit and vegetables. She learned to play tennis by hitting balls against the wall of an outdoor handball court. Allen, 23, is the daughter of an actress with middle class upbringining and access to the best tennis instructors, including Robert Ryland and Althea. She attended four universities, graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California.

"I would like to tell Leslie, and the other black girls on the tour, that there are no obstacles out there," Althea said, "nothing to fear. Work hard and play tennis." Althea. now 53. her tennis rackets and golf clubs gathering dust in the corner of a closet, is now a recreation administrator in East Orange. She plays the two games only casually and gets her greatest satisfaction in watching her young successors storm bastions once thought beyond a black woman's reach.

An oddity, she succeeded in two sports tennis and golf, the latter to a lesser degree which for generations were lily white and snobbish. She became the best woman tennis player in the world twice winner at staid old Wimbledon and twice U.S. champion at Forest Hills, 1957 and 1958. When her tennis reflexes dulled, she took up golf in 1963, never became a champion but mastered the sport well enough to play on the LPGA tour. "Althea was remarkable in that she took up golf so late in life," said Kathy Whitworth, the leading money winner of the ladies' tour.

"She was extraordinarily 'strong, was a natural athlete and had great power of concentration." Althea, with grit and determination, hewed a path AP Special Correspondent Althea Gibson was fixing breakfast in her East Orange. N.J. home and listening to the early morning radio news Monday when she heard that her former protege, Leslie Allen, had won an important tennis tournament in Detroit. "I was overwhelmed." Althea said. "My heart started pounding away with love and pride and concern.

I said to myself. This is the biggest obstacle to overcome. Now Leslie may go on to be a champion Allen not only won one of the main events on the Avon tour but. in doing so. defeated one of the world's most celebrated new talents.

Hana Mandlikova of Czechoslovakia. For Althea. it was as if the clock had turned back 30 years and she must have recalled the mountain of bias she had scaled to reach the center court of Wimbledon and hear the ringing applause as she curtsied before the queen not once, but twice as ladies' champion in this shrine of the court game. Leslie Allen, in winning at Detroit, became the first black since Althea to win an event against major competition. Since the Challenge was not a sanctioned Grand Prix event, the players were not subject to fines or suspensions.

Allison said it might help if promoters of such tournaments established a set of fines before the tournament as part of the agreement with the players. Allison is the umpire who disqualified Hie Nastase from a match against McEnroe on the opening night of the eight-player, round-robin tournament. Allison said he would never again let a player go as far as McEnroe did in the fourth set of the final match Sunday without beginning to assess penalty points. "Why should the officials have to take a bunch of garbage when they don't deserve it?" asked Allison. "The guy who never missed one all day was the guy McEnroe was getting on." TORONTO (AP) Tennis promoters must give game officials backing to prevent unsportsmanlike conduct, says the umpire of the volatile Vitas Gerulaitis-John McEnroe $500,000 Molson Challenge final last Sunday.

"We've got the book of rules, they should be enforced," said Karl Allison, who earned $34 in Canadian currency to umpire a match that was worth $175,000 to winner Gerulaitis and $100,000 to loser McEnroe. During the match, McEnroe berated Allison and some of the 11 linesmen who earned $24 each delayed the game, tossed his racket in the air and hit a ball into the stands. "They (tennis promoters) want the umpires to have a book of rules but they don't want to enforce it even if the player deserves it," Allison said..