Nearly 80,000 persons, the British rock group The Who and Pontiac Stadium combined to write a footnote in rock history over the weekend.

The story Saturday night in Pontiac was more than the excellent show of The Who but also how the crowd could enjoy the concert after long lines, mud-filled parking lots, the crush of people and traffic jams.

The last tour for The Who was in 1973. The Pontiac appearance came at a time when anxious rock fans needed to see something new from their idols. The group, together since 1964, is on the current tour under much-publicized rumors of intra-group problems.

Once the show began, the problems of the crowd seemed to melt away. The attention was on Who members Peter Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon. So that all in the stadium would have a view of the performers, closed-circuit television projected the images of the four on a 40-foot screen above the stage. The sound system, claimed to be the biggest indoor system, consisted of 72 speakers mounted on four tiers on both sides of the stage.

The nearly two-hour performance began with "Can't Explain." That seemed to be the question. Why would eager young fans spend the night in freezing weather to see The Who? Cary Jones, 16, of Toledo, summed it up: "I came to Pontiac on Thursday, slept in the car and waited in the cold so I could hear my favorite music. It is different than listening to the stereo because of all the nice people I met, the party mood and there were no adults."

The Who flew over the crowding. They used a helicopter to get in the stadium, do the show, pick up their share of the receipts. They left without answering the most-asked question: "Are they going to break up and go their separate ways?"

The performance was a night of Who nostalgia. They played only two new songs "Squeeze Box" and "Dreaming From The Waist" from their latest album, "Who By The Numbers."

Townshend appeared the most disturbed by the press of the crowd against the stage. He finally yelled for everyone on the floor to move back. Townshend accomplished what the security guards could not under a veiled threat of stopping the show. They called it "festival seating" but it was no picnic to see the show from the stadium carpet.

The sound and acoustics could not have been better. That appeared to work against what the group had expected. The loud crowd reaction was lost in the ceiling of the dome enclosure. Townshend also appeared to be disturbed by that seeming lack of audience approval.

The Who tick off their well-known songs, "Magic Bus," "Summertime Blues," "Beyond Blue Eyes," and from "Who's Next." The medley from the rock-opera "Tommy" was especially well done. Multiple rays of light projected from behind the screen and onto the audience created an effect usually found on Friday's "Midnight Special."

Toots and the Maytals was the warm-up act. Their Jamaican sound of reggae music was for the most part lost on an audience that came to hear only one thing he Who.

—T

The eight-piece band played 40 minutes of nonstop rock and roll Jamaican style. They featured a conga-organ sound combined with British accented vocals. It was refreshing to listen to a different version of "Country Road" and "What Did I Say."

An official in charge of security would not comment on the crowd control measures used Saturday vs. the measures employed during other events at the stadium such as Lions' football games.

Robert Rummel, a stadium administrator, was visibly encouraged by the crowd's behavior. "In some ways these kids conducted themselves much better than their parents at a Monday night football game. We will not have all reports in for a while from security, maintenance, and emergency personnel. What I have seen leads me to believe that this stadium will be used for other rock concerts. The promoters requested the festival seating arrangement," he said

The Who finished with "We Won't Get Fooled Again." Perhaps promoters of rock concerts at Pontiac Stadium should take heed of that message. Reserved seating would have eliminated much of the waste of time, long lines, injuries, and other problems that are a part of a massive crowd.

Skin diver attacked by 15-foot-long shark

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A 27-year-old skin diver hospitalized with leg lacerations says he was attacked by a 15-foot-long shark that was as wide as his hospital bed, a spokesman said Sunday.

Letterman Hospital spokesman George Provo said Robbin Buckley of San Francisco was in good condition after being attacked Saturday while spear fishing off the Farallon Islands, about 25 miles west of here.

"He's pretty sure it was a great white

"Who" member Peter Townshend performs at the Saturday night Pontiac Stadium concert, described at left. (Photo by Warren J. Wyatt. Photo of the 9Temptations" on Page B-9 Sunday also taken by Wyatt.)