Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 37

DETROIT FREE PRESS Monday. Feb. 24, '64 1 -J ft Only OM Age is Going to Liston Ring Experts Echo Words of Joe Louis 2 i 4 I 1 I Is Joe Louis BY GEORGE PUSCAS The fight world has known far better boxers than heavyweight Sonny Liston. It has seen men with quicker feet, finer faster, perhaps even more stunning fists. But with the exception of Dempsey and Louis, it has not in the last half-century produced a champion so clearly dominant, so apparently indestructible as Liston.

It is 7-1 against Cass-ius Clay Tuesday night, but it might as well be 100 or No one gives Clay much chance to survive, and even less chance to win. JOE LOUIS has attached himself to Liston, and he lends authority to the notion that Liston is unbeatable. "The only thing that's going to stop him," Louis remarked the other day, "ia old age." Liston's two first-round knockouts of ex-champion Floyd Patterson revealed awesome punching power. But there is more to Liston than his fists. Liston left many lumps and memories among associates in a brief Detroit sojourn 10 years ago when he was fighting at Arcadia.

"Man," exclaimed a onetime preliminary fighter who remembers sparring with Liston, "there just ain't no way of skinnin' that cat. "He's got a head like a manhole cover. You can hit it and make it ring a little, but it ain't crackin'." THE SUGGESTION is that Clay, even if he escapes Liston's knockout punch, cannot win because he cannot hurt Liston. It may be a valid premise. "The time I beat him," reflected Marty Marshall, the old campaigner who dealt Liston his lone setback in 1954, "I broke his jaw in the second round.

"But that fight went all the way to a decision, and nobody knew until the next day Liston didn't even know it that his jaw was busted in two places." So what does Marshall think of Liston? "What can I think? I fought him twice more and even knocked him down once. But I've never been sorrier about anything in my life. He really beat me." DETROIT'S fight referees remember Liston, some vaguely, others clearly. All have similar notions about Tuesday's title fight, which will be seen here by more than 20,000 people at six theaters and Cobo Arena. "Clay will have to run away from him for at least five or six rounds," guessed Johnny Weber.

"If Turn to rage 3D, Column Johnny Weber mvw.VA-y.rrw.w.vAv.vv.v -V- i. Plymouths Finish 1-2-3 TLL SIGN; HE TELLS CRONIN I Finley Surrenders rj At Daytona Boston that the Kansas City lease proposal of four years was fair. "As a result of this meeting, I have no alternative but to sign up immediately or be thrown out of baseball. Since I have such great love for the game, my decision was easily made. In Boston Cronin said that he had not yet received the telegram or any word from the controversial A's owner.

LA PORTE, Ind. tfi Charles Finley, owner of the Kansas City Athletics, said Sunday night that he has sent a telegram to American League president Joe Cronin and Kansas City mayor Ilus Davis accepting the city's four-year lease proposal for the use of Municipal Stadium. Finley made the following statement: "I have continuously stated that the A's will open the 1964 season under the ownership of Charles O. Finley. "The American League voted, 9-1, last Friday in BY GEORGE CUNNINGHAM Fnt Pnt Special Writer DAYTONA BEACH, Fla Richard Petty, a 26-year-olc driver from Radleman, N.C., was nothing but a blue blur to 82,460 fans Sunday as he averaged 154.334 miles an hour in a 1964 Plymouth Sunday to capture the Daytona 50C mile stock car race and a purse of $35,300.

Despite three caution fiags caused by wrecks and six pit stops, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Petty still broke the 500-mile closed-course record of 152.529 set here in 1962 bv corele Wonders Richard Petty sports a winning smile Fireball Roberts in a 1962 Pontiac. for in Wings I Petty's new Chrysler engine which features hemispherical combustion chambers, enabled his blue Plymouth to outrur everything else in the 46-car field. He set the pace on 184 of th-200 lafs around the 2'i-mile. high-banked Daytona International Speedway. This netted him 59,700 of the $10,500 in lap money.

Petty, a sensational dirt-track driver since his start in 195S. had never won a major race at one of the South's four super-speedways Daytona Beach. Charlotte, Atlanta and Darling- vt I -v I 1 -r III jton, S.C.) before Sunday. BY JACK BERRY "The Scoreless Ones" gave the Red Wings a going-away present Sunday night to keep them warm the next two weeks while they're on the road. The present was a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, a victory which just about clinched a playoff spot for the injury-riddled Wings.

It put them 12 points ip on fifth-place New York and only 12 games are left. Irv Spencer remember him? Ht's the one who started the injury string back in training camp when he dislocated his shoulder in the first scrimmage. Spencer came back from the minors Saturday, and Sunday night he popped the first goal that sent the Wings off to their seventh victory in the last nine games, a triumph that put them at the .500 mark for the first time since Nov. 16. I 4 IN CRACKING his personal jinx, he shattered an even larg- Turn to Tage 4D, Column 4 The goal was Spencer's first in 13 games spread out over the season.

Pit Martin, scoreless in 17 games, got the second goal and Larry (Elbows) Jeffrey made the score 3-0 early in the final period with his first tally in eight games. It was a cushion which Detroit needed. Bernie Geoffrion didn't have his booming shot working, but he still snapped in John Ferguson's passout at the corner to cut the lead to 3-1 at the 4:50 mark at the third period. Then Ralph Backstrom got past the. defense and beat goalie Terry Sawchuk with 14 seconds to play.

The Wings caught the Canadiens coming off a hard game with Chicago and Detroit beat the Habs at their own skating game. Manager-Coach Sid Abel made heavy use of his youngsters with the swift legs and they kept the Canadiens off balance. Montreal was strong in the middle period, but Sawchuk was better to stand off that threat. Again Abel had to juggle the line up, bringing over 32-year- nold amateur Bill Mitchell from the Windsor Bulldogs to play Hafonca in nl no cnrfl-VnpoH Free Press Photo bv FRED PLOFCHAN'- FULLING OFF a slick piece of robbery Is Red Wing goalie Terry Sawchuk as he slides out to turn aside a shot by Montreal's Dave Balon in the Detroit-Canadien game Sunday night at Olympia. ResistoVs Khrushable-.

the hat that packs like a shirt WIN SKATING TITLES Mike and His H. 111 1 1 1 V- VI t''l IVI'V 5" Marcel Pronovost St. Paul Cage King 3rd Time BY JOE DOWDALL MITCHELL, who played a game in the afternoon with the Finally Break Ice Bulldogs, turned in a good. steady job in NHL debut BY HAL SCHRAM Speed skating luck finally came to Mike Carey and his A 20-foot jump shot at the final buzzer gave Grosse Pointe St. Paul a come-from-behind playing almost regularly through the first two periods.

Spencer, wTio has bounced around the Red Wing system 51-49 victory over Holy Redeemer Sunday, which made the Lakers the first team in Catholic League history to win the basketball title three years in a iow. dog Duffy Sunday on windswept Farwell rink. Mike, 25-year-old physical education teacher, won the Silver Skates and Duffy, two-year-old top collie, pulled Mike's nephew, 12-year-old Tom Flannery, to victory in the dog sled derby. I For Mike the victory ended years of frustration. The past1! 11 Tvillc three years he fell in this Vl Oil XV1115 this season, played as If he belongs in the NHL.

firing bullets and forecheoking the Canadiens. Spencer worked both defense and a line Saturday, but he Turn to Page 2D, Col. 6 Bill Bigham, the junior guard who has played in the Drag Racer shadow of his brother Jim for two seasons, took the ball with one second left and fired a high, arching shot which didn't spMt the nets until after the buzzer sounded. event, losing a year ago only 10 yards from the finish after leading a good share of the two-mile distance. RAMON Calif.

The DUFFY, MAKING his sec- country's sixth-ranked start in the derby, took his tor in drag racing was killed THE DRAMATIC basket triumph in stride and didn't Sunday in a 160-170 mile-an even ask for extra rations duplicated the one the six-foot junior got a year ago to give hour time trial run on the San Diego Raceway. the Lakers a regional champ Sharing the spotlight was pretty, 1 22 year old Beverly Shomo. a Detroit secretary who ionship in the state tournament. Killed in the crash of his Pandemonium broke loose as jLnrrV jjirL 1 ft "fj Fold it pack it pocket it almost nothing dents the dashing good Vplt looks of this hat. It springs back into shape at your touch, without a wrinkle.

You'll yl find this remarkable hat in a very smart pinch crown model called the Gotham, with narrow band and brim. In a variety i I I I 1 won the one-mile Gold Skates Chrysler-powered dragster was in a driving, falling finish with John Joseph Wenderski, 25, of the crowd of 7.238 sat almost spellbound as the two evenly Larry Jeffery Midland's Barbara Best. isortnnage, uani, matched teams sparred like boxers in the crucial final quarter. The dragster went out of control, hit a bank and soared 20 feet through the air before The Gold and Silver Skates highlighted the Midwest Speed Skating Championships which attracted nearly 300 entrants from clubs Turn to Page 2D, Col. 1 crashing into rocky terrain.

The impact disintegrated the ve- St. Paul had fought back from a 25-15 deficit in the second quarter to tie the count at 31-all early in the third period. The teams tied or changed the lead 13 times from there. Jim Bigham, the Lakers' BUCKEYES STAY DEAD EVEN scoring ace, sank five straight points at the start of the final quarter to give St. Paul its biggest bulge at 45-42.

U-M Can't Afford a Slip The Lakers, using all the moxie gained in four straight tournament finals, smothered Redeemers' passing game- as they held the Lions without a basket for five minutes and 13 seconds of the final quarter. Holy Redeemer managed to get off onlly two shots in that time. first-night regional game anywhere. On the night of March 13 in Minneapolis in the Mideast eliminations, the Wolverines would go against Loyola's defending national champions. The Ramblers from Chicago have a preliminary qualifer earlier in the week against the Ohio Valley Conference champion, but nobody expects them to lose that.

gjHWlSH PI of shades favored for spring, and priced at a modest, 16.50 Bob Mendryga finally got a layup for Holy Redeemer and BY BOB PILLE Dave Strack managed to remain unimpressed Saturday as dressing room visitors brought around breathless tales of Gary Bradds' 12-point afternoon. "Only one thing counts," the Michigan coach would grumble. "Won or lost." And Bradds' Ohio State team had won, just as Strack's Wolverines had. THE RESULTS left the Buckeyes still attached to Michigan in a first-place tie in the Big Ten. If the deadlock is to become unglued, the odds are that it will have to come through an Ohio defeat.

Michigan has the better of remaining schedules Illinois at home Saturday afternoon, ninth-place Iowa on the road, then Purdue back home. Ohio gets Indiana at home Saturday, Illinois on the road, then closes with Michigan State at home. If both win the rest of the way, their present 9-2 records would project out to 12-2 for a championship tie. SINCE the Buckeyes have been there most recently, this would send Michigan into the NCAA playoffs for the finest Turn to Page 2D, Col. 4 ALL 11 NHS STORES OPEN MONDAY TO 9 P.M.

$1 VU Jim Dandy JtHU Jim Swain broke his own school scoring record with 41 If you scoring care to consider accomplishments, points as St. Vincent routed St. Rose, in -non-league Catholic basketball Sunday. SHELBY STATE I 1 MACK MOROSS WOODWARD AT MONTCALM NORTHLAND EASTLAND GRAND RIVEk GREENFIELD I WONDERLAND WESTBORN LINCOLN PARK ARBORLAND PONTIAC MALL Turn to Page 3D, Column 1 i.o ir.