Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 23

DETROIT'FREE PRESS Saturday, May 31, '75 1-C PREFONTAINE SUFFOCATES IN CRASH Track Star Dies U.S. Police said his small foreign car crossed the center line, skidded about 40 feet, struck a rock embankment and flipped over, pinning him beneath ft- Assistant medical examiner Edward Wilson said an autopsy Friday night showed the alcohol-level measure in the Oregon star's bloodstream was .16 of one percent. Oregon law says a level of .10 is regarded as intoxication. Dr. Wilson said Prefontaine's death was caused by a form of suffocation.

"He couldn't have lived for more than a under those circumstances and he suffered no other injuries that would have caused his deatlt themselves," Wilson said. The time of death was about 12:30 a.m. Detroit time. It sent shock waves through the track world. "I could just cry," Dick Buerkle, a three-time winner on the recent China track tour, said Friday when informed of the death of his long-distance rival.

"When heard it, I began shaking all over," said Francie Larrien, American's premier woman distance runner. Said his friend and rival Frank Shorter, the Olympic marathon champion and the man who ran second to Prefontaine in a race Thursday night: "I'm really upset. It's very hard to talk right now. It's very upsetting." Bill Dellinger, University of Oregon track coach who had coached Prefontaine since he arrived on the Oregon campus in 1969, said the death was "a great personal loss, a great Please turn to Page 5C, Column 1 Frt Prut Wirt Strvlcoi EUGENE, Oregon Steve Prefontaine, for almost a decade one of this country's best athletes and the owner of every American Tunning record over 2,000 meters, is dead at 24, the victim of a pre-dawn automobile accident here Friday, The 5-foot-9, 155-pound distance runner, whose dedication to running and training was matched by his bitterness over the treatment of amateur athletes in America, had come within V2 seconds of his record the second-fastest time ever by an American at a meet in Eugene Thursday night. Barely four hours later, after leaving a party in honor of six Finnish athletes he had brought to America to compete, Prefontaine had taken his girlfriend home and was driving along a Eugene residential street, AP Photo Steve Prefontaine runs final lap of his last race just hours before dying in car wreck sop5 RAIN DROWNS OUT GAME WITH CHISOX ers Cut Catcher Lamont items Tig Racquet Ball Threatens To Envelop Us All I could go ahead and call some teams, so I guess that's what I'll do." Pierce, who entered the Tiger farm system last winter in a minor league exchange that sent Reggie Sanders to the Atlanta Braves organization, was called up Thursday to alternate with non-hitting Nate Colbert.

The Tigers also sought to improve their faltering bullpen Thursday by trading minor league pitcher Fred Holdsworth to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Bob Reynolds. BOTH MEN were in uniform Friday evening and manager Ralph Houk indicated he plans to take a look at both of them as soon as possible. Pierce will be platooned with Colbert at first, but since the White Sox are throwing nothing but lefthanders at the Tigers this weekend, he probably won't make his first start until next week. "IF I DIDN'T think I could play in the big leagues, I'd go home right now," admitted Lamont, who departed shortly before the Tigers' encounter with the -Chicago White Sox was drowned out in the bottom of the second inning bv a torrential dwnpour, with the Tigers trailing, 3-2. That game will be replayed in Us entirety as part of a doubleheader Sunday.

"I don't know how well I could hit in the big leagues," Lamont said. "I've never had the chance to play regularly enough to tell. But I do know I can catch in the big leagues. There aren't too many catchers in the big leagues who are better than me. "I just wish I had played enough so I could prove that," he continued.

"I thought for sure some other club would want me. But I had to clear waivers in order for them to send me down, so I guess nobody wanted me. Jim Campbell said BY JIM HAWKINS fn Prsi Sportj Writer The Tigers decided Friday that a third-string catcher is a luxury they can no longer afford. Gene Lamont didn't have to be 'told twice what that meant. The 28-year-old receiver, who was the Tigers' initial selection in the very first free agent draft: ahead of Johnny Bench, among others was op-' tioned to Evansville to make room for rookie first baseman Jack Pierce.

The marked improvement of Bill Freeban be-' hind the plate, plus the presence of backup catcher Terry Humphrey, had left little for Lamont to do this season, other than warm up the relief pitchers in the bullpen. The only thing Lamont regretted as he said goodby to his Tiger teammates again, was the fact that he has never really been given the chance to prove he deserves to be ranked higher than No. 3. Gene Lamont Some say1 it is the new rage, the latest of the very "in" things to do, and so we give them a moment now, just in case they are right. Be aware that for weeks guys have been pounding on my ear with such stuff as "You mean you haven't tried it yet?" and I have brushed them aside.

In a world that has tennis, paddle tennis, squash, racquets, handball and whatnot, who needs racquet ball? Who needs still another game to play? The last time I was lured into such a "new rage" I almost splattered against the equipment building at Mt. Holly, the girl friend tore up, a knee and could not scrub floors for six months, and all my bandit friends cursed the loss of bar time, learning to ski. What convinced me to give up racquet ball a moment was surprising information that dozens of new courts will be erected in the area this summer. When that happens in times like these, when businessmen begin pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a game, or anything for that matter, there's a trend worth noting. To show you, within a few months, a battery of 30 racquet ball courts will be erected at 12-Mile Road and Northwestern Highway.

Another 24 will be installed on site along W. Eight Mile Road, and Franklin Racquet Club, which is tennis, will add 20 more. Doubtless there are many more courts planned at other "We'll just have to wait and see what happens at first base," the Tiger manager explained. "If Nate gets real hot, of course, we'll go with him. But my plan right' now is to platoon them and play it by ear and see what happens." "On paper, the Reynolds trade should really help us, too," Houk continued.

"We gave up a guy who didn't figure to help us (Fred Holdsworth) an! we got a guy who has been a real good pitcher for the last two years." "To me, it's not even a gamble. Either he does it or he doesn't. Either way, we haven't lost anything. And I Teen Wins 9.4 Dash VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP Schoolboy world record holder Houston McTear darted to a quick three-step lead and won the 100-yard dash in 9.4, beating Steve Riddick and fellow world-record holder Ivory Crockett on Friday night in the Wildcat Meet of Champions.

McTear, who equaled Crockett's 9.0 mark at a high school meet earlier this month, jumped to two lalse starts. ABA's McGinnis Signs with Knicks 76ers May Sue From AP and UPI NEW YORK The New York Knicks signed American McGinnis George Please turn to Page 2C, Col. sites, but you get the idea. i Almost before people knew it was around, and maybe before most know what it is, racquet ball threatens to envelop us all. It Got Rolling in California "The big explosion of the game developed in California, and now it has spread eastward," says Franklin's Marshall Greenspan.

"Racquet ball has erupted there just as tennis has here over the last half-dozen years." What it is, essentially, is handball with a sawed off tennis racquet played in a rectangular, enclosed court. One drives the ball off any or all four walls and the ceiling and the ball remains in play. What that inspires, as you might imagine, is considerable Basketball Association superstar George McGinnis Friday, setting up an almost certain legal showdown with their National Basketball Association rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers. McGinnis, the ABA's scoring champion this past season with a 29.8 average, agreed to a six-year, $2 million-plus, contract. But there is the strong possibility that when the agreement is submitted for approval to the NBA commissioner's office, it will be rejected.

McGinnis' NBA rights still belong to the 76ers, who drafted him two years ago when his college class at Indiana was graduated. THE 76ers LABELED the signing as "piracy" and said the acquisition was "in flagrant violation of our NBA draft rights and the constitution and bylaws of the NBA." In a letter to NBA owners, the club asked the commissioner's office and other team owners "for your support in preserving our rights against piracy and to insure all league rules apply equally to all member clubs." "The Knicks have acted at their own peril and now must be prepared to take the consequences," the 76ers letter said. LIKE A 46-SHORT A 39-EXTRA-LONG A 52-PORTLY-LONG. GOOD NEWS! OUR HUGE mm Last year, when the Knicks were searching desperately for front-court help to replace retired Dave DeBusschere and Willis Reed, they obtained from Philadelphia permission to negotiate with -the 6-foot-S, 235-pound McGinnis, who turned pro with the ABA's Indiana Pacers following his sophomore yeare in college. It seemed at that time that the strapping star, considered one of the two or three best forwards in basketball, would come to New York.

But he decided not to, signing instead a two-year contract with the Pacers that included an escape clause after the 1974-75 season. The deal seemed dead until last week when McGinnis sued the NBA and its member disputing the 76ers' claim to him and arguing that he should be free to sign with New York. A hearing on that suit was scheduled for Friday before U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Carter but was -canceled when McGinnis' attorneys notified the court that the case was being dropped.

That action came one hour before McGinnis' signing was announced by the Knicks. IS AT OUR violent action, almost every stroke a slam, almost every maneuver charged with quick starts and stops, acebmpanied by outlandish body contortion. It is fast, tricky and exhausting, far more so than tennis, the king of the racquet games. "It's a game that seems to capture younger people particu-, larly," says Greenspan, "and it has become very popular as a recreational thing in a lot of colleges." For a basic reason, the spread of racquet ball poses a threat to the current tennis boom. It is a game a newcomer to rac-1 quets can learn to play effectively within a short period of time.

Strictly as a guess, tennis players are not likely to desert i their game for this new "in" game. Still, tennis could lose 1 some potential newcomers to racquet ball, i "I suppose that's so because it doesn't take as much skill to learn to play racquet ball," says Greenspan. The delicate touch, the spins, lobs and volleying artistry of tennis are largely lost in racquet ball, and it is true that a competent tennis player almost immediately becomes competent at the latter. Truckloads of the sizes that are so hand to find fn a wide selection of suits and sport coats. We got ft all together in one caravan, so you'll have a particularly big pick of things instead of the usual two-or-three that most find lots of your favorite brands represented.

We counted up the special stock that arrived in the caravan so you can see the wide range of hard-to-find sizes in suits and sport coats. (There are thousands of things and we have them in stock at this time.) But don't wait around. The caravan will only be there just three more days: Saturday, Sunday and Monday. stores carry if they carry odd sizes at all). Like lots of suits in sizes 50-portly-long and 36-cadet.

And lots of sport coats in sizes and 46-extra-long. And you'll tlRO.TO-riNO SUIT SHIS MARO-TO-FINO SPORT COAT SIZES Shots Ricochet All Over Place "That's one of the real attractions of racquet ball for people who have not played a racquet game before," says, Greenspan. "It might take some people months or even years to develop in tennis so they can thoroughly enjoy it, whereas they can jump into racquet ball very quickly." I tried it for an hour or so at the Downtown YMCA, whose courts are overrun almost every evening with racquet ball buffs. Beyond a moment to pick up the scoring rules, one begins I immediately pounding the walls, ricocheting shots from one I corner to another, slamming the light rubber ball with unre-1 strained power. I There is no way to hit the ball out of court, as in tennis, so the invitation is to blast away.

It is great for a while and for some, and I would not knock it, 'but I will be no convert to racquet ball. It is just one more game, like bridge, I figure. Did I ever tell you about bridge? A group of us took lessons fa bridge over a six-week period when it was a rage, too, some years back, and finally on graduation day, we were allowed to play our first uncoached hands. My first hand was a grand slam, the ultimate, flawlessly played, though in truth, I cannot tell you how it happened. 2 Yanks Fistfighl At China Banquet From AP and UPI SEATTLE A 64-member American track and field squad returned home Friday from its historic China tour, one which ended in a rowdy, drunken display by a few of the American athletes at a banquet in Peking given for them by the Chinese hosts.

Near the end of the banquet Thursday night, at which the athletes toasted each other with the potent Chinese drink mao tai, some of the Americans started table-hopping, clapping and talking even while speeches were being made. There was one particularly ugly incident between pole vaulter Terry Porter, of Wharton, and high hurdler Willie Davenport. The mustached, long-haired 23-year-old Porter was strolling around the room and talking loudly while U.S. AAU officials were expressing their gratitude to the Chinese for the exceptional treatment the Americans had received during their 16-day stay in the Peoples Republic of China. A number of those in the room were annoyed by Porter's behavior.

One of them was Davenport. "Why don't you cool it?" asked Davenport, a 32-year-old from Baton Rouge, who was a gold medalist in the 1968 Olympics and a silver medalist in 1964. 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 46 44 S2 35 37 1 3 3 40 41 42 43 44 46 48 SO 52 Regular XXXXXXXXXXXXXX rUgulw XXXXXXXXXXXX Short XXXXXXXXXX Short )T IT XXX Long XXXXXXXXX tons jT IT jT Et-long ")T fatnrtons Portty JLiLJLiLJLJLJLx Portly-short XXXXXXXX PPrttyhaft jf IT Portty-tong Brtn-ohort Eitro-ohort XXXXXXXX I said, leaving them AT OUR NORTHLAND STORE ONLY THIS SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY "I will play this simple game no II aghast at the table. And I have not. Pinochle anyone? Plruse hirn to Page 5C, Cnl..