Kuhn slaps Denny with half-season suspension
By VIETO STELLINO UPI Sports Writer
NEW YORK (UPI) — Painting a picture of star pitcher Denny McLain as a man who was duped "by his own gullibility and avarice" into thinking he was buying into a bookmaking operation, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn Wednesday slapped the Detroit Tigers' star with a half-season suspension.
McLain, said Kuhn after a two-month investigation of gambling charges against McLain, was guilty of "conduct not in the best interests of baseball."
The ruling by the baseball commissioner was revealed by him to President Nixon on Tuesday, and Kuhn said the President had called the action "very fair."
McLain, who won 31 games for the Tigers in 1968 when they won baseball's world championship, was at home in Lakeland, Fla., when the decision was announced. He has been under indefinite suspension since Feb. 19 while Kuhn conducted an investigation of charges made against him in a magazine.
In general, Kuhn, himself a lawyer, found McLain guilty of two items of conduct in 1967: First, he bet on college basketball] games on at least two occasions. The commissioner stressed that "there is no evidence to indicate that McLain ever bet on a baseball game involving the Detroit Tigers or any other team," and that "there is no evidence to indicate that McLain gave less than his best effort at any time
Jayhawks to entertain Cowpokes
Kansas starts Big Eight baseball play this weekend against defending champion Oklahoma State in a three-game series at Lawrence. A doubleheader Friday at 1:30 p.m. at KU's Quigley Field opens conference play for both teams. The series concludes with a single game Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Jayhawks take a 5-1 record into the league race. The Cowboys are 3-3 after splitting six games at Houston last week.
Kansas hopes to continue its climb in Big Eight play. The Jayhawks were sixth with a 7-12 mark a year ago after a cellar finish in 1968.
6 KANSAN Apr. 2
1970
while performing for the Detroit Tigers."
Arthur C. "Dutch" Lonborg, former Kansas athletic director, today was named one of the recipients of a newly created Helms Athletic Hall of Fame Award for retired athletic directors who have made a great contribution to collegiate athletics.
Flint, Mich., bookmaking operation as a partner. Actually, said the commissioner, the deeply-in-debt Detroit pitcher was being played for a sucker by the gamblers.
More serious was the second count—that McLain had turned over $5,700 to gamblers in the belief that he was buying into a
Although required to retire from the KU directorship six years ago when he reached 65, Lonborg continues to fill an important role in the Jayhawk athletic program as director of events.
This is the second time Helms Foundation has honored Lonborg. He is already enshrined in the Los Angeles athletic group's Basketball Hall of Fame.
A three-sport star at Kansas immediately before and after World War I, Lonborg was an All-America guard in basketball, an all-conference end and quarterback in football and the baseball team's regular third baseman for three years.
Lonborg will receive the award June 23 in Houston at the annual banquet of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
Honor to 'Dutch'
The Horton native graduated from the KU law school in 1921, but never practiced a day. Instead he spent 29 years in the coaching ranks before returning
to his alma mater in 1950 as athletic director.
Lonborg's first coaching job was at McPherson College, starting in the fall of 1921 as the Bulldogs' first full-time coach. He handled all sports, but his basketball teams were the most successful, winning 23 of 27 games over two seasons.
In 1923 he-moved to Washburn where he put together his famous 1925 team which won the National AAU championship, the last collegiate undergraduate unit to bag that tournament.
Northwestern beckoned in 1927, following a four-year stand at Washburn, and Lonborm moved up to the Big Ten where he remained 23 years to fashion a record of 237 victories against 198 losses.
Lonbong severed as chairman of the NCAA basketball tournament committee from 1947 to 1960 and it was under his direction that the cage championship grew from an eight-team event to its present 25-team format.
He also served as chairman of the U.S. Olympic Basketball Committee for the 1959 Pan American Games and the 1960 Olympics.
Lonborg was manager of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team that won the world title at Rome.
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