Apollo crew heads home
A BO A R D U S S GUADALCANAL (UPI) Three Apollo 9 astronauts, fine despite 10 spectacular days in space and 48 soggy minutes on the Atlantic, head home today from their flight that this summer could turn into reality man's age-old dream of exploring the moon.
James L. McDivitt, David R. Scott and Russell L. Schweickart dined yesterday by candelight on steak and strawberry shortcake, their first night on earth after the flight which proved the U.S. lunar landing craft is ready for moonflight.
After breakfast with Guadalcanal skipper Roy M. Sudduth, they planned to leave at 9:30 a.m. EST from the flight deck of this carrier, about 800 miles east of Cape Kennedy.
They planned to go to the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas, change to a space agency turbo-prop airplane there at about 10:30 a.m. and fly to the Cape, where their flight started March 3.
Fly to Houston
Plans called for the astronauts to fly on to Ellington Air Force Base near Houston, arriving at about 3 p.m. CST to a big
The astronauts ate with the ship's officers yesterday and then met the crew to cut with a Navy sword a 350-pound vanilla welcoming cake.
welcome from their families friends, and fellow Manned Spacecraft Center workers.
The cake had been one of their favorite topics of conversation in space ever since ground controllers had told about it.
McDivitt told the crew it "kent us going."
"Every night when we went to bed the food was worse and worse and the cake in our minds became better and better," he said.
Fit and rested
The astronauts were fit and rested in their blue NASA coveralls and appeared none the worse for their spaceflight and the slambang recovery from the Atlantic.
The splash down yesterday—unlike those of Apollo 7 and 8—was "stable" and right side up. But the recovery was a wild affair which looked like a slapstick comedy.
As the spacecraft, glinting silver in the ocean rolled on the
swells, Scott emerged from the hatch, stepped carefully out into a liferaft—and then fell headlong when it pitched in the waves. Schweickart was next out, then McDivitt.
But it took several tries for frogmen to snare the pickup basket lowered from a hovering helicopter and when they did, Schweickart almost hit the spacecraft in the swinging basket and Scott and McDivitt were both dragged through the water.
KU confronting Cousy's squad
McDivitt was earlier dumped into the ocean when his liferaft turned over.
(Continued from page 13) 90, before being ousted by Villa-nova, 86-85.
Kansas, making its second NIT journey, ranked runner-up to Dayton in last year's meet. Playing the deliberate style that has marked the Ted Owens era, KU will present a striking contrast to Boston College.
In his five seasons as head coach, Owens has compiled a 105-30 record for a 778 winning percentage. His clubs have won 20 or more games four straight years, winning two Big Eight titles and three times ranking second.
The Jayhawks, like Boston College, blended sophomores with proven talent. Dave Robisch, the 6'9" rookie southpawk pivot, was paced the scoring with an 18.6 average. His soft touch jumpers from close range along with a 125-of-186 harvest at the line made Robisch the fourth-leading sophomore scorer in KU history.
But when opposing defenses have thwarted Robisch, the Jayhawks had had troubles. Another sophomore, '63" Pierre Russell, and '63" senior Rich Bradshaw picked up some of the slack.
New Playmaker
Russell has inherited the playmaking role left by the mid-season departure of All-American Jo Jo White. Before his eligibility ran out, White scored at an 18.1 clip through 18 games and helped the Jayhawks to a 15-3 mark.
Sharing with Robisch the other half of the KU double-post have been sophomore Roger Brown and senior Dave Nash-both measuring 6'10". Brown has started all but three games and trails only Robisch in rebounding (196-174), but Nash came through with an encouraging 12-point effort in
Since rejoining the starting line-up, Bradshaw has averaged 15.0 in the last five KU outings, including a 22-point volley against Colorado. Russell has contributed 10.5 per game since Jo Jo's exit.
Bruce Sloan, a 6'5" senior, has been more a cog in KU's 1-3-1 zone defense than a scoring threat. Sloan does own a second-best 6.9 point average with 141 rebounds.
20 KANSAN Mar. 14
1969
the season finale with Kansas State.
Senior Phil Harmon, a 6'4" sharpshooter, has lost his starting position to Bradshaw. But his outside shooting has consistently been tough on zone defenses.
The NIT trips marks the 13th post-season venture of all varieties for a Kansas basketball team, dating back to 1936 when irrepressible Phog Allen sent his Jayhawks into the first Olympic playoffs ever staged.
Big questions...
Another of the critical points has to be whose style of basketball will prevail. Kansas ran into a St. Peter's (N.J.) quintet in last year's NIT semifinals that had averaged 95.6 points during the regular season and scored 102 and 100 points in NIT triumphs.
The question of KU's containing Driscoll looms as important as Boston College's stopping the inside attack of the Jayhawks. Big Eight clubs gradually discovered the formula—but not until the second time around.
But the Jayhawks cooled the pace a la Iba and captured a 58-46 triumph.
It would be a cruel ending to the "Mr. Basketball" legend, but the Jayhawks would like nothing better than to redeem their late-season misfortunes.
Bob Cousy or not.
Confusion on Carlos eligibility
DETROIT (UPI) A three-way battle is shaping up between uefending champion Villanova, San Jose State and Kansas as the National Collegiate Athletic Association opens its two-day indoor track championship today with seven titles determined the first night.
Confusion arose late yesterday when the NCAA office in Kansas City reportedly said San Jose sprinter John Carlos would be ineligible for the meet because he was not carrying enough credits.
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