Probe continues into gambling ring; Dawson back to Super preparation
By United Press International
Denials piled up yesterday against a report that four pro football quarterbacks and a top collegiate football coach are slated for questioning by a federal grand jury in the investigation of a $100,000-a-day nationwide gambling ring.
The top brass of the National Football League and one of the chief federal investigators in the case also sharply downgraded the report of National Broadcasting Company newsman Bill Matney.
In another development, an affidavit filed in Detroit Federal District Court quoted a bookmaker under arrest as saying that Hall of Fame pitcher Jerome "Dizzy" Dean fleeced a highbetting Lansing, Mich., businessman "out of a bundle last year."
man "out of a bundle last year." Matney Tuesday night reported that a federal grand jury in Detroit will issue subpoenas for Len Dawson, who will quarterback the Kansas City Chiefs in next Sunday's Super Bowl, as well as quarterbacks Joe Namath of the New York Jets, Bill Munson of the Detroit Lions and Karl Sweetan of the Los Angeles Rams.
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Matney said Bob Devaney, head football coach at the University of Nebraska, and Pete Lammons, tight end for the Jets, would also be summoned to the grand jury proceedings beginning Jan. 20. The newsman said the Subpoenas would not imply any of the sports figures were actually involved in gambling.
Dawson, Munson and Devaney promptly issued statements denying any knowledge that they were linked to the investigation. Pete Rozelle, commissioner of pro football, called the report "most unfortunate" and James E. Ritchie, head of the Detroit area federal task force against organized crime, said it was "poppycock."
The betting story broke New Year's Day when federal agents staged raids in Detroit, Lansing.
Las Vegas and Phoenix. Fourteen arrests were made and authorities said about 150 subpoenas would be issued by the grand jury investigating a nationwide sports betting ring.
Dean was the first prominent sports figure to be mentioned in
Len Dawson
the investigation. He was searched but not arrested in the Las Vegas raid and an affidavit Tuesday named him as the man who placed $6,000 in bets for Lansing businessman Howard Sober, 74.
Start a little fire of your own
Dean's name turned up again Wednesday in an affidavit filed by Herbert Hinchman, an intelligence agent for the Internal Revenue Service.
In this black soft knit, man's shirt-tailored dress. Sparked with yards of pearls and a treasure of rings
NEW ORLEANS (UPI) - Quarterback Len Dawson of the Kansas City Chiefs said yesterday he hoped his explanation of how he came to know a figure in the Michigan gambling investigation would "put an end to all this" and let him concentrate on Sunday's Super Bowl game against the Minnesota Vikings.
Dawson referred to a statement he issued Tuesday night in which he said a man under arrest in the scandal was only a "casual acquaintance" to whom he had talked "only occasionally" in the past few years.
"Now I'm going to block it out of my mind for the rest of the week." Dawson said in a midday news conference.
It quoted Donald J. Dawson of Birmingham, Mich., who is under arrest and described as "one of the largest bookmakers in the Middle West," as picturing Sober as a compulsive gambler who lost more than $100,000 a year in bets.
The affidavit said, "Dawson said that Howard Sober will bet on anything . . . everyone has been trying to get some of Howard's money . . . that Dizzy Dean fleeced Howard out of a bundle last year."
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The Chiefs' quarterback declined to amplify his statement Tuesday night in which he said he thought his name had come up in the Michigan inquiry be-
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