
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 8, 1995                   TAG: 9509080102
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

IN SPORTS

Thirty conferences - one more than last year - will receive automatic bids to the 1996 NCAA men's Division I basketball tournament.

Joining the field for 1996 are the Mid-Continent and Big South conferences. The old Metro Conference, which combined with the Great Midwest to form the new Conference USA, will not receive an automatic bid to the 1996 field.

\ Buster Mathis, who unsuccessfully challenged Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship in 1968, died Wednesday of heart failure in Grand Rapids, Mich. He was 51.

Mathis, the father of heavyweight contender Buster Mathis Jr., was found unconscious by his wife at their home. Family members and emergency workers tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at Butterworth Hospital.

His death comes less than two months before his son is to fight former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. The younger Mathis said his father's death will not affect plans for the Nov.4 bout in Las Vegas.

In 1968, Mathis challenged for the heavyweight championship, losing to Frazier on an 11th-round knockout. He also lost a non-title decision to Muhammad Ali in a 1971 comeback bout.

by CNB