Boy from Trinidad Junior

Early last year, when U.S. Olympic Basketball Coach Hank Iba was trying to round up a team for Mexico City, he learned to his dismay that Lew Alcindor, the U.C.L.A. skyscraper, and several other Negro stars were planning to skip the Games. The best Iba could do for center was Spencer Haywood, 19, a 6-ft. 8-in. player from Colorado's Trinidad State Junior College.

As it turned out, Haywood was more than good enough. With the agility and speed of a backcourt guard, he un nerved opponents by blocking numerous shots, scoring 145 points and leading the team in rebounds. "He's the best amateur basketball player I've ever seen," exclaimed the Yugoslav coach after the U.S. had defeated his team for the gold medal.

Now playing for the University of Detroit, Haywood has many a U.S. coach talking like the awed Yugoslav. Last week his average of 23.8 rebounds per game was best among major college players; he stood third in scoring (31 average) and ninth in field-goal percentage (62%), which places him ahead of Alcindor in the first two categories. In Detroit's 71-68 victory over then undefeated St. Bonaventure, Haywood bagged 15 points and 16 rebounds. His only apparent weaknesses: he can be forced into an occasional bad pass or haphazard shot.

Always Playing. Haywood was born in Silver City, Miss., the second youngest of six brothers who kept the family's backyard basket always in use. "Not one of them was less than 6 ft. 4 in.," Haywood says of his brothers. "I can't remember not playing basketball. If you didn't play, you got beat up." At 15, Haywood went to live with relatives in Detroit, where he came under the tutelage of Will Robinson, coach of Pershing High, who has since become his legal guardian. After leading Pershing to the state championship in his senior year, Haywood received more than 300 offers of college scholarships. He enrolled at Trinidad State but, after the Olympics, returned home to play for Detroit, where he can also study radio-TV in hopes of becoming a newscaster.

He is confident that he could have starred in the Olympics even if Alcindor and the boycotters had played. "I think I'm just as good as they are," says Haywood, who is hoping to prove it in a confrontation with Alcindor at the post-season N.C.A.A. tournament.

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