Cosell dies of heart embolism at 77> Shifting wind forces Young America to face Stars & Stripes another day

Controversial sportscaster Howard Cosell, who underwent cancer surgery in 1991, died Sunday at New York University’s Hospital for Joint Diseases. He was 77. His grandson, Justin Cohane, said Cosell died of a heart embolism after a long illness.

Sunday’s America’s Cup defender finals race between Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes and PACT 95’s Young America was abandoned because of wildly shifting wind. The race will be sailed on Monday, weather permitting.

Conner needs to win only one of his two remaining races in the three-boat defender finals to reach the 29th America’s Cup match against Team New Zealand beginning May 6. If he loses to Young America on Monday, Conner can advance by beating America3’s Mighty Mary on Tuesday.

Closer to home, Ken Cushman of Hampden and Fred Ludwig of Houlton won Saturday’s 29th annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 38 seconds, beating 10-time champion Robert Lang by nearly 8 minutes.

Racing in his 11th Kenduskeag, Lang was outpowered by Cushman and Ludwig who teamed up in a two-man kayak to beat the man from Renforth, New Brunswick.

Cosell was the strident, colorful voice of ABC radio and television from 1953 to 1992. It was a period of phenomenal growth and change in America’s pastimes, spurred by television’s cascading millions and increased greed among both athletes and promoters.

“Howard Cosell was one of the most original people ever to appear on American television,” said ABC News President Roone Arledge.

Cosell stood up for Muhammad Ali when the heavyweight champion refused to enter military service during the Vietnam War and was stripped of his title.