Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 35

KARRAS' SUSPENSION ENDS DETROIT FREE PRESS Tuesday. March 17. '64 -f rwiru to Bsc Si Thai BY GEORGE PUSCAS Now the smile comes easily. Quiet, almost bashful, philosophic in tone, the new Alex Kar-ras returned to the Detroit Lions Monday. He seems a changed man, this hulking brute of a football tackle who had been banished in virtual disgrace for gambling on games.

Eleven months ago to the day, April 17, 1963, National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle stunned the sports world by suspending Karras and Green Bay's Paul Hornung, and fining five other Lions. KARRAS ALONE rebelled. Bitter, belligerent, defiant, he was a caricature of the Angry Man, harshly punished for what he believed a minor offense. 1 The new Karras came striding into Lion headquarters on Michigan Monday afternoon, dressed in a black top coat, an open sports shirt, and accepted congratulations of his old bosses. "I'm thankful to be back," he said.

Karras received word of the lifting of his suspension at 11 a.m., several hours after Rozelle's office announced the commissioner's action. "At that instant," he remembered, "I felt great. But now it's sort of a letdown. You know, like after winning a big game, there's a great feeling, and then you begin to taper off." Cameramen swarmed around Karras and head coach George Wilson, and new personnel director Russ Thomas said he would like to talk contract when Alex had a moment. "Yes, I'm going to offer him a raise," Thomas confided.

Later, Karras talked freely of his 11-month ordeal, what it did to him, how much it meant, how it will affect his future. "It's a big change in my life, sure," he said. "But I know now I have more in the future than ever before. "There's a lot of time to think in a year when you can't do what you want to do. I think pro athletes get lulled into thinking that their careers are going to last forever.

"So, in a way, I think this may be the best thing that ever happened to me. Things like Turn to 2D, Column 1 -If Jr i rjj ji p-'S' i 'l I i I 1 ll 1 L. 1 1 rnitW jr.nr-''''- nM f' nT tui.m iirinrMim niiiiiin i ima if ornung Already .4 if 1' 1 'A VJf i i tt iraif-friTii'iiffuJhiir iiWiiiTi iit nn-rnri Planning Practice MIAMI BEACH (LTD Green Bay Packer halfback Paul Hornung was "very, very happy," Monday at being reinstated for play in the National Football League and said he would leave almost immediately for Green Bay to start workouts with coach Vince Lombardi. Hornung, who has been working out several times a week at the YMCA in Louisville, his home town, to keep in trim, said he was hopeful that he would not have too much trouble working back into the Packer lineup. Hornung pointed out that quarterback Bart Starr and several other members of the Packers live in Green Bay, and he hoped that by May perhaps, they would start some informal practice sessions together.

At Green Bay, Lombardi didn't wait for the question. "No, he's not going to be traded." He had the answer ready when commenting on the reinstatement of Hornung. NT Free Press Photos by JIMMY TAFOYA and FRED PLOFCHAN learning the news, Karras visited Lion headquarters to meet with coaches and begin new contract negotiations. Pictured at right is a shaken Karras, 11 months ago, April 17, 1963, the afternoon he was told that he had been banned from NFL play indefinitely. END OF AN ORDEAL Lion head coach George Wilson holds the door wide open in welcome for returning Alex Karras, the All-Pro tackle whose suspension for gambling was lifted Monday by National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle.

After s. .1 feS AP Photu Best wishes for Taul Hornung Go in 6 ers a Alex Puts New Life ml ii fi i Rozelle Relents Step Before AFL In Lions WW Prep Twin Bi ere Morale, Line Get Big Lifts Get Only 3 Singles Off Cards Fisher's Pitching Only Bright Spot 1 1-3 fl Cagers On the Air Michigan (22-2) will face Duke (23-4) in the open i game of the NCAA basketball semifinals Friday at Kansas City. The game will be carried by WWJ radio at 8:35 p.m. Detroit time. UCLA (28-0) and Kansas State (22-5) will meet in the other game at 10 3 5.

The consolation game will begin Saturday at 8 and the championship game at 10. BY GEORGE PUSCAS Alex Karras' return from football limbo Monday is more Admission to the double-header at U-D Memorial will be one dollar for all seats, it was announced Monday by ticket manager Frank Metz-ger. "We have 9.000 tickets available." Metzger explained. "Each school has picked up an allotment of 1,500 tickets. The remainder are available on a first -come-first-served BY HAL SCHRAM 1 Detroit area high school basketball tournament fans were provided with the state's only doubleheader in the quarterfinal round of the Michigan schoolboy championships which resume Wednesday.

U-D Memorial, with its capacity, will be host to a Class A twin-bill starting at 7 p.m. In the opener Monroe tan-I gles with Pontiac Central. In the second contest Northern meets Warren. ALL OTHER 14 quarterfinal games will be single attractions spread across both peninsulas. River Rouge, eyefng an unprecedented fourth straight Class crown, meets Tecum-seh at Ann Arbor High, while Grosse Pointe St.

Paul takes on Montrose in Class at Clarkston High. BY JOE FALLS Free Press Staff Writer Turn to rage 2D. Column 1 TO THE SURPRISE of hardly anybody isolated Eskimos and Siberians excepted the cherubic faces of Alex (Killer) Karras and Paul (Golden Boy) Hornung i will reappear in NFL huddles this season. This is good news for Detroit and Green Bay; bad news for Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Loui9, Minneapolis, Dallas, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia i Washington, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

Loud squeals of joy already are being heard from the home precincts of each player. It detracts not a thing from all such hurrahs to claim that they have been practiced for months. Not even the gloomiest pessimists were convinced of anything except that both pro stars would be restored to commissioner Pete Rozelle's good graces for 1964. Official announcement has been expected since the season ended last December. It came early Monday.

The day would have been otherwise dull. Rozelle, who had fined and suspended both players last April 17, gave each a pat on the same tender spot he had harshly placed his foot when he rocked the sports world with his disciplinary actions in the wake of the news that they had bet on games. Pete Makes It Sound Good HE PATTED 'EM with this statement: "Taking into prime consideration the extent of their violations and also their conduct during the period of suspension, it is felt the best interests of the league will be best served by termination of the suspensions. This is a very fine-sounding phrase. It can be inter LAKELAND Judge Robert Cannon, the official counselor of the big league ballplayers, came through town Monday and gave the Tigers their annual lecture about their off-the-field activities.

But the good judge neglected to say anything about their on-the-field behavior, and it was here that the Tigers could have used a few words of wisdom. The boys came up as flat as one of manager Charlie Dres-sen's flapjacks. They made only three hits, gave up three unearned runs and lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2. ONLY Fritz Fisher's pitching kept the day from being a complete washout, if the Chamber of Commerce will excuse the expression.

The young lefty from the University of Michigan pitched the first three Innings and stopped the Cardinals on two hits. He didn't have to face Ken Boyer, Bill White or Dick Groat, but he fanned two of the than the end of one man's banishment. It marks the return of life and championship possibilities to the Detroit Lions. Until National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle lifted Karras suspension for gambling, the Lions were headed for another year of trouble and uncertainty. Now his return triggers new enthusiam and opens the.

way for bold moves by head coach George Wilson and his aides. Karras' reinstatement did not surprise Wilson, but he was excited just the same. "WE WAITED long enough for it (11 months)," the coach said. "We were sure, hoping, all along that it would happen, but you can never be really certain until, it does. "He's going to have a tremendous effect on our overall picture." Can one man mean so much? "This one man does," Wilson insisted.

"There are two ways he will help us in morale and team strength. "There's no question that he's going to help team morale. The suspensions and fines last year took quite a bit out of our players, even if they didn't realize it. "They were beaten down from the beginning of the year until the end." WITH KARRAS. an All-Pro selection for three straight years until 1963, reclaiming his old defensive tackle spot, new possibilities are opened for Wilson in his realignment of the Lions.

The sudden death of rookie defensive tackle Lucian Ree-berg last January created a gaping hole. Already short of linemen, with no new and talented rookies coming their way, the 'I i preted to mean that he felt a year rest from football was enough punishment especially since Hornung has been contritely repentant all the way and Karras reluctantly got out of the bar business. But there also can be another interpretation placed on the commissioner's long-expected decision to release them from exile. It goes like this: At the time both were suspended from NFL competition, the ban promptly was recognized bv the two other professional St. Louis regulars, Curt Flood and Julian Javier.

HE IS SUPPOSED to be a cool cookie, this lad from Adrian. But he admitted afterward THE NEW LOOK FOR SPRING IRIDESCENT WORSTEDS BY HART, SCHAFFNER MARX A lustrous look that welcomes the shine of the spring sun with great enthusiasm. A luxurious look that takes its cue from the impeccable tailoring of Hart, Schaffner Marx. This renowned maker expresses it in a lightweight and long-wearing imported worsted; and styles it in a flattering 3-button model with trim, pleatless trousers. A splendid suit for spring in light iridescent tic-weave shadings, 89.50 with an embarrassed grin that, yes, he had trouble sleep ing; yes, he had trouble keeping I as I (W '4 I vyu- vY his breakfast down; yes, he was glad it was over.

"It's the first time I ever remember being nervous," Fisher said. "I guess it's because I was facing big league batters for the first time." He handled himself like a pro and Dressen said: "If he keeps his ball down, they won't hit him." Pete Craig, the 6-foot-5 giant Turn to Page ID, Column 4 leagues the AFL and Canada. Rozelle "We won't touch them," said the commissioners of both circuits, although drooling at the prospects of cashing in on their football capabilities plus their potent names as a gate attraction. AFL Was Ready to Pounce INDIVIDUAL CLUB OWNERS of those leagues were not unanimous in supporting such action. Some said so.

Others didn't say it, but went along on the premise that it might be unwise to pick up two players who had been bounced and were on the "hot" side. But there is reason to accept as a fact that such a hands-off attitude of a year ago had diminished to the point of complete disappearance by the time Rozelle officially brought them back into the fold Monday. Public reaction had simmered down to almost nothing. Where there was indigation at the disclosure of their actions at first, it had tailed off to the point where everyone took for granted that the year's suspension was enough of a punishment. That same attitude became evident in recent conversations with several AFL club owners.

They made it plain that if Rozelle by some quirk of reasoning did not reinstate both players for the '64 season, the American League would jump at the chance to sign them the second time around. That's the real reason for the cheers of gratitude from the Lions and the Packers. They have lost top draft choices to the other leagues. They didn't want to lose a pair of proven stars. Lions were in a desperate DETBOIT ST.

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would be Intercontin- Ad rays in an exhibition game tries for the Titleholders golf SHELBY STATE MACK MOROSS WOODWARD AT MONTCALM WONDERLAND WESTBORN NORTHLAND EASTLAND II GRAND RIVER GREENFIELD II LINCOLN PARK ARBORLAND PONTIAC MALL here. ental's choice as first challenger, tournament April 23-26. Balk Fisher. Dimui-o. Stevens, Forman.

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