The Michigan Daily-Saturday, July 28, 1979-Page 19
SPOR TS OF THE DAILY
Pistons sign Detroiter McElroy

By The Associated Press
PONTIAC - The Detroit Pistons an-
nounced yesterday they have signed
free agent guard James McElroy to a
multi-year contract.
McElroy, a 6-foot-3, 190-pounder who
became a free agent at the end of the
last National Basketball Association
season with the New Orleans Jazz, said.
he was happy he was coming home.
McELROY WAS raised in Detroit..
He was an all-city player at Murray-
Wright High School and played two
seasons at Central Michigan Univer-
sity.
He was the Jazz's third-round draft
choice in 1975 and averaged 11.5 points
per game in his four NBA seasons, with
his best season's average 16.9 in 79
games last year.
He was a starter for most games with
the Jazz last year.
McElroy, 25, said that in the past few
months, "I had made up my mind that
I wanted to be an Atlanta Hawk, but
every time my head turned toward
Atlanta, Will Robinson, community
relations director for the Pistons, would
yank it back."
McElroy told a news conference:
"I TOLD my agent I think I want to
go home. This is the place for me. They
sent flowers, phone calls, letters - yod
name it, they did it."
* * *
Skiainy has surgery
PONTIAC - Tom Skladany's back
surgery went "very well" yesterday
morning, according to doctors who
operated on the Detroit Lions' punter.
It's "very realistic" that Skladany
should be able to return to the National

Football League team this season, ac-
cording to the doctors.
"DOCTORS TELL us that with an ex-
cellent recovery, Tom should be able to
return within six to eight weeks," Lions
spokesman Brian Muir said.
Skladany led the National Football
Conference in his rookie season last
year with a 42.5-yard average. He suf-
fered a ruptured disk in May while
working in his yard.
Doctors at Detroit's Henry Ford
Hospital removed the disk to take
pressure off a pinched nerve, Muir said.
"THE DOCTORS tell us it's too early
for any definite judgment," Muir said.
"They tell us that they'll know in the
next few weeks exactly how long Tom
will be out."
* * *
Unitas a 'Famer'
BALTIMORE - Johnny Unitas, the
crew-cut Pied Piper in high-topped
shoes who led pro football into its glory
years, joins the game's elite today in
the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The honor was a foregone conclusion
for the spindly legged quarterback
rescued from the $9-a-game semi-pro
ranks after being released by the Pit-
tsburgh Steelers in 1955.
IN 17 SEASONS with the Baltimore
Colts and one with the San Diego
Chargers, Unitas completed 2,830
passes for 40,239 yards and 290 touch-
downs. During one stretch, he threw at
least one TD pass in 47 consecutive
games.
But the competition itself, and its
camaraderie, meant amore to Unitas
than records.

"I HATE TO quit playing football,"
he said upon retirement in 1974. "The
mind is willing but your body wears out.
I would like to play another 30 years if I
could."
Unitas was known for his poise under
pressure, a mental toughness which
enabled him to hold the ball until the
last possible moment as opposing
players closed in for the tackle.
* * *
A writer-athlete
MOSCOW - Cable to the editor of
Sport muvtrati: Kenny Moore will be
sending his Spartacade story on Satur-
day instead of Sunday. He's tied up
Sunday running the marathon.
Moore, on assignment from Sporis
Ilustrated to cover these Soviet national
games, is officially listed as laate entry
in Sunday's marathon. As a matter of
fact, he was dragooned for the event by
American officials after many other
U.S. trackmen opted out of these
games.
"I CAME over and sort of backed into
this, but I'm guaranteeing a 2:20 time if
the weather's right," Moore said in an
interview while he was trying to inter-
view someone else. He said it was a bit
disconcerting to be asking questions
and answering them at the same time.
"If I have a lucky day I'll go faster. I

was coming over anyway and they
grabbed me."
He toured the course earlier in the
week and pronounced it "a world
record course if the weather is right.
There's no faster course in the world,
The fastest has been considered to be
Fukuoka, because of its flatness."
But the Moscow course is flat, too,
and probably one of the most scenic in
the world. Here is the way Moore
describes it:
"You leave the stadium and run left
up to the Kremlin. Then you cross the
bridge over the Moscow River and go
right alongside that green park and
turn around when you get past the
university."
"THE ROAD is so smooth that you
don't have to watch your feet," he said.
"I run faster if I can tear down the road
and make sure of my feet." Moscow
streets, unlike those in many American
cities, are relatively free of potholes,
street crews work daily filling any new
crevasses.
"And the cool weather could help,"
Moore added. Temperatures have been
in the 60s and 70s all week, perfect for
distance runners, especially at this
time of year.
Moore estimated the hills of Boston
cost marathon runners in that city two
minutes more time than the Moscow
course will cost.

Smiling money, pet
snakes and garbage
Ky The Associated Press
Some notable quotes from the world of sports this week:
"When we lost a few games, that's when the garbage started. Before
that, they wrote it was great I could rock-and-roll and still play football.
Then the more games we lost, the older. fatter and drunker I got." - Ken
Stabler, quarterback of the Oakland Raiders.
"It's got me smiling." - M. L. Carr, when asked for details of the free
agent contract he signed with the Boston Celtics.
"Samson can be very protective. I had him in my locker at
mini-camp, and one of the other players started popping me with his towel.
Samson came out of the locker and went after him. The guy almost fainted."
- Jeff McIntyre, a rookie linebacker trying out with the Denver Broncos.
about his pet - a six-foot-long, 47-pound garter snake.
"It really doesn't bother me I'm very v " known - in roller skating
circles." - Tom Peterson, America's premi -r roller skater. on being a star
in a sport that receives little public attention.

J. C. SNEAD, wearing his familiar southern straw hat, blasts out of the
sand in yesterday's second round of the Philadelphia Classic at Whitemarsh
Valley Country Club. Snead fired a course record 64 to take a two stroke
lead.

J. C.'s blistering 64 leads Classic

PHILADELPHIA (AP)-J. C. Snead,
a real live golfer like his Uncle Sam,
played Whitemarsh Country Club's
course with its high rough and tree-
lined narrow fairways in a record-tying
7-under-par 64 yesterday to take a
stroke lead after two rounds of the
$250,000 Philadelphia Golf Classic.
Snead, who long ago emerged from
the shadow of uncle Sam Snead,
charged into the lead the hard way. He
had to get up before dawn to complete

four holes of his first round-washed
out by an early evening rain storm.
HE CARDED a birdie and three pars
for a 3-under-par 68, just 3 strokes off
co-leaders David Graham and Bill
Rogers. Then, he opened his eyes.
Another storm struck Whitemarsh,
but it wasn't rain. It was Snead, the
tour's 28th leading money winner with
$76,717. He sloshed pass the scrambling
Graham, and steady Rogers to open his
, hole, stroke advantage.

HE OPENED a 10-stroke lead over
defending champion Jack Nicklaus,
who is at par 142 for two rounds.
Like his uncle Sam, one of the game's
legendary figures, Snead is a smooth-
talking Southerner from Hot Spring,
Va. Snead realizes that Nicklaus is here
only because Jack is the defending
champion. So, J. C. became the devil's
advocate.
"A TOURNAMENT is a tour-
nament, whatever you call it," said

Snead. "This is just as important as
next week (the PGA).
"Of course I'd trade a victory for next
week, but this is important. After all
we're not playing for a trophy," Snead
exclaimed.
Snead rolled in a six-footer for birdie
on one, hit a wedge six feet into the
third hole for bird, two-putted from 15
feet for a bird on a par 5 on the fifth,
bogeyed six, knocked ina six-footer for
bird at seven and made the turn-in 3-
under 33