Ex-Villanova Basketball Coach Dies of Apparent Heart Attack

Alexander G. Severance, former Villanova basketball coach, died of an apparent heart attack at Lexington, Ky., Monday, just hours before the Wildcats faced Georgetown in the NCAA championship game. He was 80.

While coach at Villanova from 1936 through 1961, Severance led the Wildcats to four appearances in the NCAA tournament, including a third-place finish in 1939. That was the best finish by a Villanova team in the NCAA until the Wildcats finished second to UCLA in 1971, although that ’71 team later was declared ineligible.

Nicknamed Mr. Villanova, Severance’s Wildcats had a 413-202 record, which made him the school’s winningest coach. Among the players he coached were Paul Arizin and Larry Hennessey.

Severance was in Lexington as a guest of Villanova and was staying at the team hotel.

An investigation into point shaving by Tulane University basketball players is almost complete, and indictments probably will be returned by a New Orleans grand jury when it meets again Thursday, according to Dist. Atty. Harry Connick.

Connick said he expects two or three more arrests, involving at least one bookmaker and one student. Three players, among them NBA prospect John (Hot Rod) Williams, and three other Tulane students were arrested last week on charges that they fixed two Metro Conference games in February in return for money and drugs. A bookmaker also was charged.

Coach Gene Bartow of Alabama Birmingham denied that his interest in the basketball coaching vacancy at the University of Kentucky has been rekindled. He further said he had asked officials at Kentucky to remove his name from the list of prospects to replace Joe B. Hall.

Bartow told ABC radio in a telephone interview that he had considered the job at one time and had met with Kentucky Athletic Director Cliff Hagan. “But I have since withdrawn my name from consideration,” he said. “At one time I thought I wanted it, but I have an awfully good job at UAB and I started the program. From an emotional standpoint, I’m attached to UAB.”

The coach of a touring Australian baseball team, whose son died in a boating accident off Oxnard last week, helped his squad to a comeback victory in Camarillo a day after his son’s funeral.

David Cosh, coach of the New Castle Colts, who are in Ventura County on a baseball tour, arrived midway through the Colts’ game Saturday against a Ventura squad and directed them from an 8-1 deficit to a 14-13 victory.

He had attended his 13-year-old son’s funeral Friday.

Cosh, his son, Daryl, and 10 other people were returning from a cruise to Anacapa Island last Monday when their 25-foot boat was capsized by a freak wave about 200 feet offshore. Daryl died after being pulled from under the capsized boat. Cosh and others on the boat were injured.

The Supreme Court refused to block an attempt by former NBA player Ron Behagen to resume playing in an Italian league. The court let stand a ruling that Behagen may sue, in a federal court in Colorado, an international organization that banned him from playing in Italy.

Behagen, 35, now an insurance salesman in Atlanta, played professionally from 1973 to 1979 in the NBA before playing amateur basketball in Italy during the 1979-80 season.

He was banned by the Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur after he had returned to the United States and played two weeks at the end of the 1980 season with the Washington Bullets. The federation said it had a rule prohibiting reinstatement to amateur status more than once for any player.

First baseman Len Matuszek was traded by the Philadelphia Phillies to the Toronto Blue Jays for three rookies.

The Phillies received shortstop Jose Escobar, 24, outfielder Ken Kinnard, 23, and right-handed relief pitcher Dave Shipanoff, 25.

Matuszek, 30, batted .248 in 101 games with the Phillies last season, hitting 12 home runs and driving in 43. He was scheduled to platoon at first base this season with John Wockenfuss.

Matuszek led the National League in pinch hitting last season with a .417 average.

The Race of Angels, a three-day women’s international bicycle stage race scheduled to begin Thursday in Griffith Park, has been canceled because of lack of sponsorship, it was announced by co-directors Joe Kossack and Pat Hines.

Names in the News

Ran Railey, 36, formerly of Colorado State, was named director of athletic promotions at Cal State Northridge.

Rich Corso, assistant water polo and swimming coach at UCLA for the last eight years, has been named head coach of the U. S. national junior men’s water polo team.

Ken Hammond, a 21-year-old defenseman, has been signed by the Kings. In 36 games, he helped lead RPI to the NCAA hockey championship, with 11 goals and 28 assists. He will report to the club immediately.