Forbes Reader Wins $10,000 for Predictions

A Forbes magazine reader won $10,000 for predictions made in 1980 on such things as the cost of a Big Mac, the prime rate and the number of pro football teams at the end of the decade, the magazine said Tuesday.

Jack Rankin Jr. of Round Hill, Va., out-predicted 660 readers who entered the contest announced in the Oct. 27, 1980, issue of Forbes.

The magazine’s late editor, Malcolm Forbes, wrote in his Fact & Comment column that he would give $10,000 to the reader who most accurately forecast 35 items 10 years in the future. Forbes magazine established a point system for grading the entries, each receiving zero to 10 points per item based on nearness to the actual figure. Rankin, 59, had one perfect score, for his exact estimate of the number of pro football teams--unchanged from 1979 at 28.