Dodds Mumped

For the first time in six years, the Iron Deacon failed to show up for a workout. His coach, Boston College's Jack Ryder, bought a newspaper on his way home from the gym and found out what had happened to the greatest U.S. miler--he was in the hospital, with mumps.

Reluctantly, Coach Ryder canceled three of Gil Dodds's races, including the New York Athletic Club's Baxter Mile, and sadly told reporters that the Iron Deacon had probably "run the last indoor race" of his career. But Ryder hoped to get Dodds back in shape to win the outdoor 1,500-meter Olympic championship at London this summer, before he retires to take up preaching fulltime.

Five days later, most of the nation's other top milers, who had never come close enough to Dodds to be exposed, joyfully rushed for the Baxter Mile starting line in Madison Square Garden. In 32 previous races, it had been Dodds against a stopwatch (his recent Wanamaker Mile world's indoor record: 4:05.3). This time the Baxter was more of a contest but less of a race. Penn State's 24-year-old Gerry Karver, who ran last in the Wanamaker, won the Baxter in 4:15.

Other winners:

P: For the third time in a month, New Jersey's 18-year-old Dick Button out-darted Switzerland's Hans Gerschweiler to win the men's world figure-skating championship. He had already won the European and Olympic titles at Prague and St. Moritz. Defending Champion Gerschweiler did a pratfall during an Axel Paulsen in the free-skating. Three of the nine judges rated Button's performance 5.9 (perfect: 6).

P: Canada's Barbara Ann Scott won the women's world championship for the second year in a row, making it all three for her too. Several outclassed rivals, including overtrained U.S. Champion Gretchen Merrill, didn't bother to compete. But Barbara Ann practiced with unflagging zeal, cautiously observing that "anything can happen." Nothing out of the ordinary did.

P: The nation's only two undefeated college basketball teams kept their slates clean. New York University won its 16th straight and Columbia made it 14 in a row. Though both are New York City teams, they are not on each other's schedules, and until last week had no victims in common. But last week, partisans who wondered how N.Y.U.'s fast-break game would fare against Columbia's slow, deliberate attack had something to argue about. Cornell, which had dropped two games (by 61 to 48 and 58 to 53) to N.Y.U. earlier in the season, lost a closer one to Columbia, 40 to 37.

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