The political wing of the I.R.A. voted to end its long-standing boycott of the Irish Parliament and take part in mainstream politics. Opponents said Irish nationalism had been betrayed. Sinn Fein, the political wing of Northern Ireland’s outlawed Irish Republican Army, voted 429 to 161 to lift its 65-year boycott of the Irish Republic’s Parliament and allow elected members to take their seats. Opponents of the move later said they will form a new party, Republican Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein members elected to Parliament have not taken their seats because they believed it would legitimize the 1921 partition of Ireland. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams argued in favor of ending the boycott, telling delegates they are being isolated from the public at a time when they need support for their goal of a united Ireland.
Lech Walesa, founder of the outlawed Solidarity labor union, warned in an interview published here today that time is running out for Poland’s Government to solve severe economic and social problems. The latest edition of Der Spiegel, a weekly magazine, quoted Mr. Walesa as saying Poland’s Government must give a voice to pluralist, non-official groups to achieve broad reforms.
An industrialist being held in a cave by Basque separatists was freed in a gun battle near the northern Spanish city of Vitoria. Regional spokesman Emilio Alfaro said that Basque police freed Lucio Aguinalde unharmed but that the policeman who led the raid was killed. Alfaro said one of the guerrillas was critically injured in the gun battle while another was captured and a third escaped. Aguinalde, who is a member of the moderate Basque Nationalist Party, was abducted October 15 for refusing to pay a “revolutionary tax” the guerrillas levy on businessmen.
The Swedish Embassy building in Moscow has been bugged since it opened in 1972, the Foreign Ministry says. “Hidden electronic surveillance installations were discovered in connection with a rebuilding of the embassy,” a Foreign Ministry statement said on Saturday. Surveillance equipment had been there since the embassy was built between 1968 and 1972 and “could not have been installed without the knowledge of the Soviet authorities,” it said. The national news agency said Sweden’s Social Democratic Government has sent a strongly worded protest to the Kremlin.
David P. Jacobsen, an American held hostage in Lebanon for nearly 18 months, was released Sunday and stopped here briefly today on his way to West Germany. Islamic Holy War, the pro-Iranian Muslim fundamentalist group that had held Mr. Jacobsen, did not say specifically why it released him. It said the United States had made moves that could lead to the release of other captives, but it gave no details. In California, President Reagan hailed the release but warned that the captors would be held responsible for the safety of the six other Americans missing in Lebanon. Officials said the Administration had made no concessions to gain the hostages’ freedom. Two United States Navy helicopters arrived in Larnaca this morning from Beirut, about 100 miles east of here, carrying Mr. Jacobsen and Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy.
President Reagan hailed the release of David P. Jacobsen in Lebanon today and warned that the captors of the remaining American hostages would be held responsible for their safety. Mr. Reagan’s announcement of Mr. Jacobsen’s release was made in an early-morning statement here. The President was resting at his ranch near Santa Barbara during a final campaign swing for Republican candidates in the elections on Tuesday. White House officials said the Administration had made no concessions to gain the freedom of Mr. Jacobsen, who was the director of the American University Hospital in Beirut when he was captured nearly 18 months ago.
The family of David P. Jacobsen celebrated his release today, but relatives said their joy was tempered by thoughts of the six Americans who are still missing and their lack of confidence that the Reagan Administration has done all it could to obtain their release. Mr. Jacobsen’s son Eric told a group of reporters in front of his home: “I think we have to look at how long it takes to get the other hostages out. We want to make sure that people just don’t celebrate my father’s homecoming and then forget about those other men.” Eric Jacobsen, 30 years old, has previously accused Washington of a lack of effort in obtaining his father’s release. Even when he was notified by the State Department at 1:30 A.M. today that his father had been released, Mr. Jacobsen said he was not confident the information was correct.
The Tunisian government of President Habib Bourguiba won another five-year term in parliamentary elections boycotted by all opposition parties. Official results. of the balloting, essentially a referendum to reconfirm the ailing, 83-year-old president, were to be announced by the Interior Ministry today. Bourguiba has led the North African nation without interruption for 30 years.
Muslim rebels fighting the Afghan government have received the first shipment of U.S. anti-aircraft Stinger missiles that could tip the balance of the war against Kabul, the Sunday Telegraph of London reported. It said U.S. military experts are training rebels to use the shoulder-fired missiles in a secret camp near Islamabad, in Pakistan. A Sunday Telegraph correspondent said he saw the missiles in the hands of Islamic Party guerrillas in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. He said the guerrillas used the missiles last month to shoot down three Soviet helicopters and a jet fighter.
Clashes between Bangladeshi demonstrators and security forces during a protest against purported police brutality in the northern town of Jaipurhat have left at least 200 people wounded, the police said today. The police in Jaipurhat, north of Dhaka, said security forces fired tear gas Saturday to disperse demonstrators protesting the treatment of a woman and her son after their arrest last Tuesday on charges of stealing. The two were said to have been severely beaten. A senior opposition leader in the area said five people sustained serious injuries in the protest.
U.S. military officials trying to trace American servicemen listed as missing in action inspected a site where a U.S. warplane may have crashed during the Vietnam War, officials said. Lieutenant Colonel Joe Harvey, head of the Hawaii-based Joint Casualty Resolution Center, said in Bangkok, Thailand, that the possible crash site is a few miles outside of Haiphong, the major seaport in northern Vietnam. Harvey said: “We did not see much, just a crater. The Vietnamese had correlated the site with one of the MIA [missing in action] case files that we presented earlier, and we will have to see if the correlation is correct.” He refused to provide details and said there was no visible wreckage.
Philippine moderates are ‘too quiet’ and must make themselves heard, said supporters of Corazon C. Aquino. They are determined to counter the opposition led by Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile. Yellow balloons rose against a gray sky the other day as supporters of President Corazon C. Aquino gathered in the rain for a rally meant to revive the popular support that forms her political base. Huddled under umbrellas in the city’s financial district, middle-class women in yellow T-shirts joined in the chant from the election campaign last winter: “Cory! Cory! Cory!” And they added a new slogan, “Give peace a chance.” These women, who formed the core of Mrs. Aquino’s support in ousting the former President, Ferdinand E. Marcos, faced a new challenge in a growing agitation against her Government from the right wing.
Philippine Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile today denied accusations that he had diverted American military aid to the Philippines for his personal use, and he accused his critics of trying to blackmail him into stopping his agitation against the Government. “Needless to say, I shall not be silenced or intimidated,” he said. “I never expected that ill-meaning quarters would stoop so low in their partisan efforts to besmirch not only my name but that of my family.” The opening last week of a Justice Department investigation of the accusations against Mr. Enrile, coming at this sensitive moment in Philippine politics, was taken by some Filipinos as a new involvement of the United States Government in their affairs. As Mr. Enrile’s challenge has grown, the United States has emphatically restated its support for President Corazon C. Aquino.
Nicaraguan soldiers who had pursued contras across the border into Honduras have withdrawn, rebel and Honduran military sources said. They said heavy fighting continued inside Nicaragua. In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed guerrillas said they had killed at least 370 soldiers since the Sandinistas entered Honduras on Friday. “There are also hundreds of wounded among the Sandinistas,” he said. He did not give the number of rebel casualties. Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinistas offered no new information on the fighting, which they insist has been strictly within Nicaragua, but President Daniel Ortega said a day earlier that 80 contras had been killed.
Eugene Hasenfus, an American air-cargo specialist who was shot down in a rebel supply plane over Nicaragua last month, acted today to distance himself from earlier remarks that seemed to implicate the Central Intelligence Agency. Appearing before a people’s tribunal in Managua, Mr. Hasenfus said he did not know whether two of his co-workers were employed by the C.I.A. He had asserted earlier that the two men, Cuban Americans named Max Gomez and Ramon Medina, were C.I.A. agents. The two were identified as having helped arrange clandestine arms shipments to anti-Government rebels in Nicaragua in a period when the C.I.A. was legally banned from assisting in such operations.
The 82nd Airborne is ready. After two weeks of training for combat in Central America, a senior officer said, “We hope Danny Ortega gets the message.” The 82nd Airborne Division, the Army’s only division equipped to invade hostile territory, has just completed a large-scale field maneuver to train its paratroopers for combat in Central America. In their most extensive exercise in 15 years, the division’s 14,000 paratroopers spent two weeks in parachute jumps, airdrops of heavy weapons, helicopter movements and tactical drills that included live fire. Their mission was to help defend the mythical nation of San Lorenzo from aggression by Macapa and La Palmera. All through the maneuver, code-named Market Square, the division was supported by logistical elements from the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, Air Force transport and attack planes, Navy fighters, Marine Corps attack planes and simulated naval gunfire from the battleship New Jersey.
Leftist guerrillas fighting in Guatemala say they are willing to open peace talks with the new civilian Government. They also say the election of a civilian President is “an exceptional opportunity” to end the civil strife that has convulsed Guatemala for more than a quarter of a century. In an open letter to President Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo last week, guerrilla leaders suggested that the talks be held in Guatemala City, under the auspices of the Spanish or Mexican Embassy. In Madrid, a Government spokesman said Spain would be prepared to facilitate such talks.
Former Uruguayan guerrillas seek to justify their role in past violence and to find a niche for themselves in the new democracy. The first among them are on the far side of middle age now, quiet men who recall the years in jail and the guerrilla underground in near monotones, their mystique enveloping them like comfortable old sweaters. They are the survivors of the Tupamaros, the urban guerrilla organization that President Julio Maria Sanguinetti has said was an “accident” in Uruguayan life, born of the “radicalization of a typical bourgeois sector — pseudo-intellectual — that one day said let’s have a revolution here.” In response to that, the President contends, came the years of repression by military forces unprepared for political warfare. The Tupamaros challenge that assertion. Today, from their well-marked headquarters near downtown Montevideo, they seek to justify their role in the violence of the past and to find a political space for themselves in the democracy that returned to Uruguay with the inauguration of Mr. Sanguinetti in March 1985.
The Brazilian Government, citing both national security and development objectives, has decided to set up small army bases along the country’s borders with Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana as a way of drawing settlers to those remote regions. The plan’s basic document argues that this vast country’s strategic interests are best served if its frontiers are occupied by Brazilians, as is already the case with regions bordering on Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and, increasingly, Peru. Although its northern neighbors have no land disputes with Brazil, the document notes that they do have with each other. It warns that Brazil should be ready for “the possibility of border conflicts between some neighboring countries allied to the present situation in the Caribbean.” This, it says, would increase the possibility of “projection of East-West antagonism in the northern part of South America.”
President Reagan tonight portrayed the election Tuesday as “one of choice and direction,” as he urged the electorate to vote Republican for a “better future.” Winding down his campaigning with a five-minute political commercial for the Republican Party, Mr. Reagan told viewers that he needed their help Tuesday to “realize the dreams our critics said were not possible.” Mr. Reagan’s plea came as White House political advisers predicted Republican successes on Tuesday, including the retention of a Senate majority. Mitchell E. Daniel Jr., the Presidential assistant for political and intergovernmental affairs, said he expected the party to emerge with a one- or two-member majority in the Senate. The Republicans now hold a majority of 53 to 47.
On the campaign trail around the nation yesterday, there were exchanges between football players over who should be Senator from Wisconsin, arguments over transcendental meditation in Pennsylvania, impassioned speeches at Sunday morning church services. There were, as well, the debuts of some new negative political commercials. Approaching the elections Tuesday, some underdogs continued harsh attacks on front-runners, while others turned sweetly positive. Republicans beamed a raft of messages from President Reagan, while some Democrats sought to firm up their political base by appealing to the old values of compassion and fairness. Seeking to stave off a Democratic takeover of the Senate, Mr. Reagan took to the airwaves last night, urging voters to reject “Democratic candidates who would return us to the failed policies of the past.”
Republican officials are predicting gains of six or more governorships in this Tuesday’s elections, a significant expansion of their party’s power in a realm where the Democrats have long held sway. A total of 36 states will elect governors Tuesday, including 27 where the office is now held by Democrats. With so many Democratic seats at stake, even Paul G. Kirk Jr., the Democratic chairman, expects the Republicans to make gains. If the Republicans pick up six governorships, which several political experts described as a reasonable expectation, they would still be outnumbered, 28 to 22. If they gain 10, which some Republicans describe as their “best case scenario,” they would hold a majority of the governors’ seats for the first time since 1970.
The President and First Lady enjoy a horseback ride around the grounds at Rancho del Cielo.
With some lucky breaks, real accomplishments and a push to make the most of the power of the Presidency, the Reagan Administration is attempting to blunt efforts by Democratic candidates to turn the performance of the economy in their favor. The biggest break came Friday with Japan’s agreement, after months of cajoling by Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d, to lower its interest rates and take other action to speed up its economy. Such policy changes in Japan, even Democrats agreed, could help reduce the record American trade deficit, which has taken a toll in the jobs of American factory workers, and improve chances that this country’s interest rates might once again be cut. Coming four days before the elections, the news could have limited political impact.
As United States Senate campaigns enter the final stretch, Republican candidates in several key races continued to outpace Democrats in raising money and had more cash available for final blitzes. A survey of 13 closely-watched Senate races showed that Republicans led $5.1 million to $3.4 million in cash on hand as of October 15, and outraised the Democrats by a similar margin. These latest Federal Election Commission reports were the last on campaign finance activities in the crucial period before the election Tuesday. The next such reports are not due until after the election.
The Dakotas may play a central role in Tuesday’s elections. There are volatile contests in both states, where Republican Senators face fierce challenges from accomplished Democratic campaigners.
Plans to add 100 bolts to a crucial joint in space shuttle booster rockets carry a “potential for disaster” by introducing 100 new locations for dangerous flame leaks, according to internal space agency documents. National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineers have questioned a proposal to add the bolts to the nozzle joint, near the base of the boosters between the rocket exhaust nozzle and the solid fuel segments, to prevent leakage of hot gases, The Orlando Sentinel reported in its issue for Monday. The shuttle Challenger broke apart January 28, killing the seven crew members, and O ring gaskets that allowed hot gases to leak through a joint between solid fuel segments were identified as a prime culprit.
Illegal aliens seek legal status. Under the new immigration legislation, those who can prove they have lived in the U.S. since January 1, 1982 may claim permanent legal residency.
Pension plans will change drastically in the next few years under the new tax law. The way pension benefits are taxed will also change, causing employees to reassess how to limit the tax bite.
Negotiators for Armco Inc. and the United Steelworkers union reached a tentative agreement today on a contract for workers in steel plants in three states, a company spokesman said. The agreement covers 6,800 working and laid-off employees at plants in Ashland, Kentucky, Kansas City, Missouri, and Baltimore, according to the spokesman, Ted Taylor.
About 2,000 people joined hands across the Columbia River to support plutonium processing and other nuclear projects at the Hanford Reservation in Washington state. The rally was organized by scientists and local business people, and speakers warned that jobs could be lost unless nuclear power projects continue at the federal installation, site of a reactor similar to the crippled Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. Also at Hanford are a pair of plutonium processing plants shut recently because of safety problems. A similar rally was staged last week by opponents of a possible high-level nuclear waste repository at Hanford.
Uranium fuel loading began at the nation’s most expensive nuclear power plant near Oswego, New York, after scuba divers helped repair a mechanical problem that caused a one-day delay, officials said. The loading at the $5.8-billion Nine Mile Point 2 plant had been delayed by a problem with placing key neutron-emitting devices in the reactor vessel, said a spokesman for Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., owner of the plant. The devices, rods that emit neutrons that collide with the uranium fuel, were to be fitted into a grid mechanically by an underwater spring-loaded device, the spokesman said.
Most mothers with children under 18 stay at home, despite the influx of women into the labor force over the years, according to an American Enterprise Institute study. Using statistics from the Census Bureau and the Labor Department, the survey found that 41% of women — married or unmarried — with children younger than 18 were employed full-time at least one week during 1985. The findings, said Douglas J. Besharov and Michelle M. Dally of the AEI, a policy research group, run contrary to a widespread public belief that almost all mothers work full-time.
A killer who apparently stalks the most vulnerable of Los Angeles’s large homeless population has shot 10 people to death in the last two months, according to the police. It is the third time in a decade that someone who kills a series of people has preyed on those who live on the city’s streets, but social workers report little fear among the thousands whose rough daily existence on the streets makes them familiar with death in many forms. “Guys die down here on a regular basis — that’s the reality,” said Mark Holthaus, communications director at the Union Rescue Mission, the city’s largest Skid Row refuge. “They die here for a nickel. They are killed for a piece of change or because somebody looks at somebody wrong.”
The city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, sent a 17-member delegation to Nicaragua with medical supplies and a message of condemnation for U.S. support of the contras, who are seeking to overthrow the Sandinista government in Managua. The group, headed by Mayor Edward Pierce, departed for Ann Arbor’s sister city of Juigalpa, a regional capital of about 25,000 residents. A citywide ballot in April was approved 10,190 to 6,544, developing the sister-city tie and enabling Ann Arbor, with a population of 107,300, to voice its disapproval of U.S. backing for the rebels.
A report on colleges by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching signals that the school improvement movement is taking aim at higher education. The report called for major changes.
More than half of nearly 1,000 students polled at four colleges said they are creationists who believe God created Adam and Eve, researchers at the University of Texas in Arlington said. About one-third of the students, at the Arlington campus, Central Connecticut State College, USC and Occidental College, believe in aliens from outer space, Big Foot, a hairy man-like creature reputed to live in the mountains of northwest America, and Atlantis, showing a need for better science instruction in high school, researchers said. They said students who believe in creationism are less likely to read books, tend to be more politically conservative and have lower grades than those who dispute the creationism theory.
Amid predictions from the National Academy of Sciences that the current AIDS epidemic could become a “catastrophe,” the first of five blood-testing centers is to open in New York City. The new centers, in a change of policy, will offer antibody tests on an anonymous basis, first at the Baumgartner Health Center in Manhattan and later at sites in Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. Officials estimate that some 500,000 New Yorkers already carry the AIDS virus and that between 20 and 50 percent of those will develop the deadly disease.
Columbus’s first landfall is at issue. Some historians and geographers who are meeting to ponder Columbus’s travels disputed a new theory about where he first landed in the New World.
Colgate-Palmolive is making gains under the leadership of Reuben Mark, its new chairman. Finally, the company is scoring some coups of its own, such as liquid detergent for automatic dishwashers.
Colorado was blanketed by up to two feet of snow as frigid air moving east brought freezing temperatures to the Great Lakes and dumped snow and freezing rain over the Rockies and Plains. Temperatures dropped into the teens in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. Snow fell over Arizona, New Mexico and southern Colorado, where storms overnight dumped 24 inches at Nathrop and 20 inches at Fairplay. Flagstaff, Arizona, got four inches of snow. Freezing rain fell across the Texas Panhandle, with temperatures dropping into the 30s and low 40s, and was scattered over north-central Kansas and southern Nebraska.
Fewer than half of the women engaging in sexual intercourse for the first time use contraceptives, according to a study recently published by the Government. Forty-five percent of women 15 to 44 years old said they had used contraceptives the first time they had sex, the National Center for Health Statistics reported. But the report added that 95 percent of the women reported using contraceptives in at some time.
German tennis star Boris Becker wins his third tournament in 3 weeks in different continents; beats Sergio Casal of Spain 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 in the final of the Paris Open after victories in Japan and Australia.
New York City Marathon: Grete Waitz of Norway wins her 8th NYC event in 2:28:06; Gianni Poli of Italy, men’s champion in 2:11:06.
NFL Football:
The New England Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 25–17. New England rallied in the second half on Irving Fryar’s 59-yard punt return for a touchdown and three field goals by Tony Franklin, who kicked four in the game. It was the third straight victory for the Patriots (6–3). Atlanta (5–3–1), which had allowed just 34 second-half points all season and none in the last two games, led by 10–9 at halftime. Gerald Riggs, who rushed for 97 yards on 26 carries and scored two touchdowns, gained 81 yards in the first half. The Patriots went on top to stay at 12–10 when Franklin kicked a 33-yard field goal on New England’s first possession of the third quarter. With 1:24 left in the period, Fryar scored on his third career punt return for a touchdown, a club record, to give New England a 19–10 lead. In the first half, Joe Gardi, the replay official, reversed the on-field officials’ decision to give Arthur Cox of Atlanta a touchdown on a 16-yard pass from David Archer. The score would have given Atlanta a 10–0 lead, but Gardi ruled that only one of Cox’s feet had landed in the end zone before the ball was jarred loose by Fred Marion, the Patriots’ free safety. Andre Tippett, the Patriots’ All-Pro linebacker, was scheduled to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Monday. Tippett, who suffered what was described as a sprain in the first quarter, was one of five Patriots, three of them starters, hurt in the game.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Buffalo Bills, 34–28. Pat Franklin recovered a fumbled kickoff return for a touchdown and Rod Jones, his teammate, pounced on another fumbled kickoff to set up another touchdown for Tampa Bay (2–7). Both fumble recoveries came on kickoffs that followed first-half field goals by Donald Igwebuike. The Bucs led by 20–0 at the half and the Bills (2–7), despite three second-half touchdown passes by Jim Kelly, were not able to overcome their poor start. The game ended with the Bills at the Tampa Bay 3-yard line. Kelly’s fourth-down pass skipped through Robb Riddick’s hands in the end zone as the Bucs held on to stop a five-game losing streak. Kelly, whose 9-yard pass to Jerry Butler had cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 34–28 with 3:20 left, finished with 28 completions in 39 attempts for 343 yards. The loss was Buffalo’s 21st in a row on the road, two short of the National Football League record set by the Houston Oilers between 1981 and 1984.
The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Detroit Lions, 24–17. A 49-yard pass-interference penalty against Demetrious Johnson set up the winning 1-yard touchdown run by Larry Kinnebrew, who scored with 40 seconds left to play. The Bengals (6–3) had a second-and-20 situation at their 40-yard line when Boomer Esiason lofted a long pass intended for Cris Collinsworth. Johnson bumped Collinsworth at the 11-yard line of Detroit (3–6), giving the Bengals a first down. Four plays later, Kinnebrew plowed over left tackle for the winning score, capping a 77-yard, nine-play drive that lasted 4 minutes 10 seconds. Eddie Murray, who kicked an 18-yard field goal, became the Lions’ career scoring leader with 637 points, 1 better than the club mark set by Errol Mann, another kicker. James Brooks gained 120 yards on 15 carries for Cincinnati.
The Cleveland Browns crushed the Indianapolis Colts, 24–0. Bernie Kosar threw three touchdowns passes, including a 72-yarder to Herman Fontenot, as the Browns (6–3) remained tied with Cincinnati for first place in the American Conference Central Division. The Colts fell to 0–9 for the first time in the history of the franchise. Indianapolis held Cleveland to just 46 yards rushing on 26 carries, but Kosar completed 15 of 25 passes for 238 yards. Kosar hit Brian Brennan and Fontenot for touchdowns within a two-minute span in the first quarter. The long touchdown to Fontenot came when Kosar lofted the football high and the Browns’ halfback caught it behind Tate Randall, a safety, who had the pass go through his outstretched arms. Fontenot trotted into the end zone after catching the ball at the 30 with no other defender near him. Ozzie Newsome, the Cleveland tight end, moved past Bobby Mitchell into 11th place on the league’s career list for receptions with his third catch of the day, a diving grab in the end zone for a 9-yard scoring play in the third quarter. Newsome also extended his streak of consecutive games with at least one catch to 107, the fourth-longest in league history.
The defense won it for the Giants. Joe Morris’s running won it for the Giants. Even the crowd won it for the Giants. In the last two minutes today, when the Dallas Cowboys threatened on play after play, the Giants hung on for a 17–14 victory. One reason was George Martin’s sack, the biggest play in the game, said Coach Bill Parcells of the Giants. Another reason was the constant crowd noise that prevented the Cowboys from hearing the signals from Steve Pelluer, their quarterback. That led to penalties against Phil Pozderac of the Cowboys that wiped out two 30-yard gains. The outcome snapped the Cowboys’ streak of three straight victories this season, three straight over the Giants and nine straight over division rivals. The Giants raised their record to 7–2 and dropped the Cowboys to 6–3.
John Elway completed 11 of 12 passes and Mike Harden returned an interception for the clinching score with 1 minute 49 seconds remaining today as the Denver Broncos defeated the Los Angeles Raiders, 21–10. The Broncos raised their record to 8–1 while ending a five-game Los Angeles winning streak. The Raiders, 5–4, fell three games behind Denver in the American Conference West Division. Denver’s points came on an 8-yard run by Steve Sewell in the second quarter, a 3-yard pass from Elway to Sammy Winder in the third period and Harden’s 40-yard interception return.
The Pittsburgh Steelers stomped the Green Bay Packers, 27–3. Mark Malone threw three touchdown passes to Weegie Thompson and Pittsburgh (3–6) turned two fumbles by Gary Ellerson in the first four minutes into scores. Thompson, who played in place of the injured Louis Lipps, caught an 18-yard touchdown pass after Ellerson’s second fumble and a 9-yarder in the third period to make it 20–3. He also made a diving catch for a 6-yard touchdown play after Mike Merriweather had intercepted a pass by Randy Wright. Over all, Thompson caught six passes for 78 yards after making eight catches and scoring one touchdown in the Steelers’ first eight games. It was the second straight victory for the Steelers, who scored three times after turnovers by Green Bay (1–8). Malone, whose quarterback rating of 48.5 entering the game was one of the lowest in the league, completed 20 of 31 passes for 195 yards and did not throw an interception.
The Miami Dolphins topped the Houston Oilers, 28–7. Dan Marino threw four touchdown passes, three in a 4-minute-29-second span of the second period. Marino’s scoring tosses covered 8, 38, 3 and 85 yards as the Dolphins (4–5) won their second game in a row for the first time this year. Marino finished with 12 completions in 29 attempts for 220 yards with two interceptions. The defeat was the eighth in a row for Houston (1–8). Marino hit only 3 of his first 10 passes for 5 yards before suddenly catching fire in the second period. John Offerdahl, a rookie linebacker for Miami, recorded 10 tackles. He left the game early in the second half to rest his injured ankle. The Oilers suffered two major injuries. Bo Eason, a defensive back and Ernest Givins, a wide receiver, had to be taken off the field on stretchers, Eason with a knee injury and Givins with a neck problem. Warren Moon, the Houston quarterback, was replaced at the start of the second half by Oliver Luck. Moon was 5 for 8 for 45 yards and Luck completed 9 of 19 passes for 119 yards. Each was intercepted once.
The Kansas City Chiefs edged the San Diego Chargers, 24–23. Nick Lowery kicked a 37-yard field goal with 7 seconds remaining as Kansas City (6–3) spoiled the debut of Al Saunders, the Chargers’ new head coach. Saunders had replaced Don Coryell, who resigned last week. The Chiefs needed only 46 seconds to march 50 yards in six plays to the Chargers’ 19-yard line and set up Lowery’s winning kick, which sent San Diego (1–8) to its eighth consecutive defeat. A last-ditch effort by the Chargers, who had led by 16–0 at halftime, ended when Tom Flick, playing for the injured Dan Fouts, was intercepted on game’s final play. The Chiefs had four interceptions in the game.
Gary Clark caught a 38-yard touchdown pass from Jay Schroeder 1 minute 46 seconds into overtime today to give the Washington Redskins a 44–38 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Clark caught the ball on the left sideline at the Minnesota 30, spun out of the grasp of Carl Lee, a defensive back, and then ran into the end zone untouched. The Redskins won the toss in overtime and drove 63 yards in four plays for the winning score. Clark’s catch came after an exceptional performance by Tommy Kramer, the Minnesota quarterback. Kramer completed 20 of 35 passes for four touchdowns and a team-record 490 yards. The Redskins sent the game into overtime on George Rogers’s third touchdown of the game, a 2-yard run with 63 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Max Zendejas had a chance to put Washington ahead, but missed a conversion for the third time in the game. Three of Kramer’s scoring tosses came in the second half, including two after Washington had taken a 26–24 lead late in the third quarter. Behind Kramer, Minnesota moved to a 38–26 lead with seven minutes left. But the Redskins cut the margin to 38–32 on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Schroeder to Art Monk and sent the game into overtime when Rogers scored one play after Schroeder had hit Clint Didier for a 44-yard completion.
The New York Jets won again to make their record 8–1 on the season. In the Jets’ wonderous season, the quarterback woke up this morning with an upset stomach. But this is no ordinary quarterback on what, obviously, is no ordinary team. So Ken O’Brien simply produced one of the most efficient days any quarterback has ever enjoyed in the National Football League as the Jets allowed no second-half threat and left no question of a late weakening. The Jets handed the Seahawks their worst defeat of the Chuck Knox era today, 38–7, and set a club record with a seventh straight victory.
The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 13–10. Cliff Stoudt left the bench to throw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Roy Green with 5:04 remaining and Stump Mitchell ran 1 yard for a score with 36 seconds left as St. Louis (2–7) rallied. Stoudt, who replaced an ineffective Neil Lomax at the start of the second half, completed 7 of 10 passes for 54 yards and directed St. Louis to its winning score. His 8-yard completion to J. T. Smith set up Mitchell’s winning plunge. Philadelphia (3–6) almost pulled out a victory on the last play of the game but Gregg Garrity was dragged down by Cedric Mack at the Cardinals’ 2 after taking a 34-yard pass from Ron Jaworski. Lomax, booed vociferously late in the first half by a slim Busch Stadium crowd of 33,051, completed 7 of 16 passes for 47 yards and missed open receivers four times.
The New Orleans Saints rolled over the San Francisco 49ers, 23–10. Rueben Mayes ran for two touchdowns, Morten Andersen kicked three field goals and Rickey Jackson led a strong defensive effort by New Orleans (4–5). Mayes, who gained 128 yards on 28 carries, scored in the first quarter on runs of 4 and 27 yards. Andersen kicked a 45-yard field goal in the third quarter and added a 50-yarder and a 23-yard kick in the final period. San Francisco (5–3–1) moved deep into New Orleans territory three times but came away with only one field goal. San Francisco’s touchdown was set up by a 46-yard interception return by Jim Fahnhorst. Joe Cribbs and Roger Craig, the 49ers’ starting running backs, had rough afternoons. Cribbs gained 9 yards on 7 carries and Craig had 9 yards on 6 carries.
Atlanta Falcons 17, New England Patriots 25
Buffalo Bills 28, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34
Cincinnati Bengals 24, Detroit Lions 17
Cleveland Browns 24, Indianapolis Colts 0
Dallas Cowboys 14, New York Giants 17
Denver Broncos 21, Los Angeles Raiders 10
Green Bay Packers 3, Pittsburgh Steelers 27
Houston Oilers 7, Miami Dolphins 28
Kansas City Chiefs 24, San Diego Chargers 23
Minnesota Vikings 38, Washington Redskins 44
New York Jets 38, Seattle Seahawks 7
Philadelphia Eagles 10, St. Louis Cardinals 13
San Francisco 49ers 10, New Orleans Saints 23
Born:
Erika Jo [Heriges], American country music singer (Nashville Star, 2005; “I Break Things”), in Angleton, Texas.
Lara Sacher, Australian actress (“Neighbours”), in Australia.
Taylor Green, Canadian MLB pinch hitter, third baseman, and first baseman (Milwaukee Brewers), in Comox, British Columbia, Canada.
Andy Rautins, NBA shooting guard (New York Knicks), in Syracuse, New York.
Died:
Paul Frees [Solomon Hersh Frees], American voice actor (voice of Boris Badenov in “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show”).
