Thanks to the company he keeps—Jacqueline Onassis, Shirley MacLaine and other certifiably beautiful people—Pete Hamill has become something of a celebrity-by-association, popping up in the gossip...

An outdoorsman's vivid recall of an early Christmas in the depth of the Depression evokes the essence of family life: the parents capable and loving, the child secure

PRO BASKETBALL—Fans at the Los Angeles Forum began to wonder if the event they were watching didn't belong at the Coliseum. Just four days following Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's return after missing 20...

OPHIDIAOAKLANDUnraced as a 2-year-old, Ophidia, 3, won three straight 10-foot heats to take the annual St. Patrick's Day snake race in San Francisco. The yard-long black Florida racer slithered...

15—Drawing by SQW20, 21—Walter Iooss Jr (left), Heinz Kluetmeier (center), John Iacono22—Heinz Kluetmeier23—Walter Iooss Jr.39—Barton Silverman40, 41—(clockwise from top right) Barton Silverman...

HOT SHOTS BY THE NUMBERSSir:Kent Hannon's article An Idea That's Gotten Way Off the Ground (Nov. 28) on improved field-goal percentages in college basketball was read with great interest by the...

SOME YEAR

•Pete Gent, former Dallas wide receiver, telling a rookie about Coach Tom Landry's massive playbook: "Don't bother reading it, kid—everybody gets killed in the end."

With only one weekend remaining in the NFL's regular season, it would take an MIT Ph. D. to compute all of the potential playoff matchups

In 1977 B.C. (Before Cunningham), the 76ers couldn't hold a lead against the Trail Blazers and had dropped five in a row to them. Last week they sent in an emergency unit that totally defused Portland

Somehow the bowl selections turned out fine—dandy, in fact—despite PSP and the poker politics that forced a few hands

Among the sports celebrities of 1977 were schoolboys and girls, a ninth-grader who was the toast of Forest Hills, an 8-year-old who made Frank Shorter blink, a playground star who led grown men a...

By now Pelé seems more demigod than man: unique genius of soccer, messiah of the game in North America, goodwill ambassador extraordinary (the man for whom they interrupted the Biafran war). When...

While Steve Cauthen was tall in the saddle, a number of other young athletes were making their marks in what proved to be a vintage year for youth. Smallest of them all was 8-year-old, 70-pound...

Eric Heiden wasn't pushed into his sport; he just kept going when all the others quit, and in one stunning season against the best speed skaters of Europe the 18-year-old coolly slashed his way to...

Because Senior Writer Frank Deford and Special Contributor Bil Gilbert have between them written so much of this issue (When All the World Is Young, page 38; A Christmas Gift for Fort Zack, page...

Pro basketball superstar 'Double T' Townsend injures his hand on Santa Claus Night. Thereafter, in this fictional tale of a holiday miracle, he and his team are transformed

The three major television networks produced the equivalent of 50 full days of sporting events during 1977, some real, others imagined. More and more of them appeared in prime time, while rights...

Roger Phegley went to Bradley to play baseball, but he has been a hit at hoops

MIDEAST

JOHN LOWENHAUPT: With the 6'5" senior hitting 19 of 30 shots and scoring a total of 61 points, William & Mary upset North Carolina 78-75 and won the Cougar Classic by beating Cal...

If you have ever wondered what it is like to play in a world championship, you are about to find out. The 10 hands shown here were taken from the 1977 Bermuda Bowl, which was played in Manila and...

Old Brandy, the stray mare found out on Kentucky Rt. 53, charmed a steamfitter's family, which never suspected she was Fanfreluche, the $500,000 champion