Coliseum Commissions Changes for Dodgers

On a day when the Dodgers signed a contract to play in the Coliseum, the Dodgers and Coliseum Commission members then grabbed a couple of shovels and walked down to the tunnel area of the stadium, near where home plate would be.

There, contractor Del Webb--who owned half of the New York Yankees--and Coliseum general manager Bill Nicholas turned over the first spadefuls of earth to begin a Coliseum revamping that would enable the Dodgers to play their first season in Los Angeles.

Lost would be several thousand seats in the left-field area, where a screen would be erected, 250 feet from home plate.

Webb and Nicholas predicted the Dodgers would draw 90,000 people for their April 18 opening game and 2 million for the season.

Opening day against the Giants drew 78,672. And for their first Los Angeles season, the Dodgers drew 1,845,556. Of their four Coliseum seasons, the biggest attendance year was 1960, 2,253,887.

Also on this date: In 1970, UCLA’s 46-game winning streak in men’s basketball ended at Oregon’s McArthur Court. UCLA trailed by three at halftime and by a point midway through the second half when Rusty Blair made four long jump shots and a hook, boosting Oregon into a 46-35 lead. UCLA guard Henry Bibby made four quick baskets to cut the gap to three with 8:32 to go, but UCLA had run out of gas and lost, 78-65. . . . In 1975, Dwight Stones set a world record with a high jump of 7-5 3/4 at Madison Square Garden.