Gambling in the Garden

College basketball in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden has become a big business. Teams travel from all over the country to play there before crowds which last season averaged 15,657 a game. Last week a famed coach. University of Kansas' Dr. Forrest C. ("Phog") Allen, charged that it is also becoming a dirty business.

Predicting an imminent "scandal that would stink to high heaven," he declared: "Vadal Peterson, Utah University coach, knocked down a gambler who came to his room in New York last spring and asked how much it would cost to have Utah lose to Dartmouth in the N.C.A.A. finals. . . .* Professional gamblers already have caused two boys to throw basketball games."

Retorted the Garden's acting president, Ned Irish: "If Allen has any proof of dishonesty in basketball games at the Garden, he'd better come through with it." (Allen promptly wired the name of one player who had "sold out," had been expelled from college for it.) President Irish announced that he would have 36 uniformed policemen, almost as many plainclothesmen and private detectives on duty this season with express orders to prevent all known gamblers from entering the Garden.

At Rhode Island's Pascoag track near Providence last week, 40 racehorse owners and trainers issued an ultimatum to State racing officials: unless an immediate end was put to "race-fixing by a gambling ring," they would stop entering their horses at Pascoag.

* Said Coach Peterson last week, denying that he had struck the gambler: "I shut the door in his face, and that dosed the incident."

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