Dice Dawson's Luck

INVESTIGATIONS Dice Dawson's Luck Ask any dedicated crapshooter in a garbage-strewn alley or a carpeted casino and he will admit it: sooner or later the cubes turn cold and hostile in the most gifted fist. The streak of Donald ("Dice") Dawson, versatile gambler and fashionable bookmaker, lasted for many years. When his luck finally sank as a result of a federal investigation centered in Detroit, the ensuing ripples knocked over 13 other gamblers and threatened to implicate a number of prominent athletes around the country.

Dapper of dress, genial of manner, loud of voice, Dawson, 48, seems to have patterned his career on some undiscovered Damon Runyon manuscript.

Craps, of course, was an early accomplishment. He often won; he sometimes used loaded dice. He gained a reputation as a "mechanic," or dealer of stacked decks in card games. His skill with golf clubs opened up a sideline as a links hustler. As a bookie, he cultivated the country-club set around Detroit and Miami Beach.

Ink Supply. To prosper in such a trade requires the proper sort of acquaintances, and Dice Dawson made them. The Fox & Hounds Inn, an expensive restaurant he operated until last October in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., attracted prominent representatives of the sports world as well as the flush, sedentary set. While Jerome Cavanagh was mayor of Detroit, Dice occasionally dined at the mayoral residence. All the while, he seemed impervious to the normal hazards of his line of work. Local authorities were no problem, explained one federal official. "A policeman would see the people around Dawson--sports celebrities, the mayor, millionaires--and back off." La Cosa Nostra, which normally imposes a tax on gamblers outside its own organization, seemed as puzzled as the police about Dawson's activities, and left him alone.

A prime source of Dawson's black ink in the last couple of years was Howard W. Sober, 74, a Lansing trucker and a manic bettor. Sober is the kind of plunger who, while rushing to catch a plane at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, tipped an airline clerk $50 to phone a $2,000 bet to a bookie. It was altogether typical of Sober's luck that the horse lost and Internal Revenue Service agents who were following him acquired the note left with the clerk. Since Sportscaster and Hall of Fame Pitcher-Dizzy Dean introduced Sober to Dawson in 1967, the trucker has lost roughly $1,000,000.

National Scheme. Last year the victim turned into a hex for Dawson. An IRS investigation into Sober's financial affairs turned up information on Dawson, and soon a Department of Justice S strike force targeted on organized crime in Detroit became interested. The agents H were particularly curious about Dawson's telephone calls, many of which were charged to Sober's credit card. On the list of 1,900 calls were hundreds to horse owners, jockeys and trainers, some to bookies and mobsters, others to universities. Among them:

> Three calls to the Kansas City home of Len Dawson (no relation), quarterback of this year's American Football League champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.

> Three to the Long Beach, Calif., home of Bill Munson, quarterback of the Detroit Lions.

> Three to the Detroit home of Karl Sweetan, a reserve quarterback of the Los Angeles Rams. There was also a call to Sweetan in Dallas, another to a bar in Harahan, La., in which Sweetan has an interest.

>About 60 calls to Frank Kush, head football coach of the University of Arizona, some to his home.

The investigators did not learn what was said in any of these calls, though they requested authorization to tap Dice Dawson's telephone. The Justice Department sought and obtained court permission for taps in other gambling cases last year, but the department's top echelon pigeonholed the request in the Dice Dawson investigation.

The strike force in Detroit pressed its inquiry anyway. On New Year's Day, federal agents arrested Dice Dawson and eight others in Michigan. The haul included $450,000 worth of checks in Dice's possession and $171,000 in cash held by an associate. Subsequent arrests in Las Vegas, New York and Biloxi, Miss., brought the catch to 14. All were charged with violating interstate gambling laws. Said U.S. Attorney James Ritchie: "Statements made by some of those arrested and seized records indicate a national scheme involving famous figures in baseball and football and hundreds of trainers and jockeys."

Notorious Characters. Last week, five days before the Super Bowl game in New Orleans matching Len Dawson's Kansas City Chiefs against the Minnesota Vikings, NBC's Huntley-Brinkley

Report obtained and broadcast the names of five prominent professional players and one university coach expected to be called as witnesses when a federal grand jury in Detroit begins hearing evidence in the Dice Dawson case. Len Dawson, Munson and Sweetan were among them.

No athlete or coach has been charged with anything illegal or improper. Football Commissioner Pete Rozelle rushed to the defense of the players, insisting that there were no grounds for disciplinary action by the professional leagues. The players disclaimed knowledge of any funny business.

Nevertheless, Rozelle's staff undertook its own investigation. Players are barred from betting on games, and Rule 3 of the players' contract says that athletes must not "associate with gamblers or other notorious characters." The reason for the rule is obvious: bookies need inside information on the teams.

They also need the players' cooperation if they are to toy with the results of games--a caper rarely accomplished but always feared.

Lie Detectors. When Munson and Sweetan talked to league investigators in Detroit last week, they said that they had become acquainted with Dawson at his Fox & Hounds Inn and that he occasionally called them to chat about nothing much. Both agreed to submit to lie-detector tests. Len Dawson volunteered to sit for a polygraph examination last year when the Chiefs were the subject of dark rumors. Last week Len Dawson acknowledged knowing Donald Dawson "for about ten years." Said the quarterback: "My only conversations with him in recent years concerned my knee injuries and the death of my father." The condition of a quarterback's knees can be highly relevant in sports betting, but whether Dice Dawson qualified as a "notorious character" is uncertain. Despite his reputation in Detroit, Dice's luck until this month was such that he had never even been arrested.

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