NBA to Consider Franchise Bid Made by Team From West Coast; Leahy May Head NFL Next Year

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 20--At least one new franchise application, problems presented by the admission of Chicago, and the shaky status of the Minneapolis club will confront the National Basketball Association at its annual meeting tomorrow.

Officially all that's on the agenda is the Chicago matter, setting up a playoff schedule and picking a date for the league draft.

But the league owners also will hear from Len Corbosiero who plans to ask for a franchise for the Los Angeles Jets. The league also must reckon with the possibility that owner Bob Short may want to switch the Minneapolis club to another locale.

Short said last week this is a possibility. His Lakers are drawing only half as many people per game as needed to break even.

Regarding Chicago, NBA President Maurice Podoloff said today in New York that present plans are to staff the team with players on a poll basis. Each of the eight other NBA clubs would put three players into the poll, from which Chicago could choose a maximum of one from each team.

The rest of its personnel would come from the NBA draft or wherever else the Chicago team could find them. The new entry was admitted to the league for the 1960-61 season last September.

The entry of Chicago will give the league a five-team Western Division, including the St. Louis Hawks, Minneapolis, Cincinnati Royals and Detroit Pistons.

Balloting Takes Four Hours

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Jan. 20--Marshall Leahy of San Francisco was within one vote of becoming the sixth commissioner of the National Football League tonight after four hours and four ballots by club owners.

The 12 owners adjourned at 6:45 p.m. (EST) for a two-hour dinner break with Leahy leading acting commissioner Austin H. Gunsel 8-3. One vote was cast for Paul Schissler, special events director of the Los Angeles Times. It takes nine votes to elect a $50,000-a-year successor to the late Bert Bell as NFL head.

Leahy was nominated by Victor Morabito, a co-owner of the San Francisco 49ers. Gunsel was offered by Frank Mc-Namee, president of the Philadelphia Eagles. Washington's George Preston Marshall placed Schissler's name before the meeting.

The NFL owners postponed a decision on expansion to first elect a commissioner.

The owners want their new head man to run the expansion discussion, and probably more important, to arbitrate divergent viewpoints.