Dolphins Trade Jackson to Packers for a No. 2 Pick

Keith Jackson, a five-time Pro Bowl player, has been traded by the Miami Dolphins to the Green Bay Packers for a second-round choice in the April draft.

Jackson, 29, has caught 388 passes for 4,636 yards and 38 touchdowns in his nine-year career, but he was deemed expendable by the Dolphins after they signed free-agent tight end Eric Green.

Jackson had 59 receptions for 673 yards and seven touchdown in 1994, but he was criticized by Coach Don Shula and teammates for several dropped passes.

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The Rams have matched Seattle’s contract offer for wide receiver Jessie Hester and will sign him to a two-year, $1.1-million deal.

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The Raiders signed cornerback Bruce Pickens, a free agent who has played three seasons after being the third player selected in the 1991 NFL draft.

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James Stewart, a former star running back for the University of Miami, sued the New York Times for libel, saying the newspaper falsely reported he failed a marijuana test at the NFL combine.

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Notre Dame receiver Mike Miller has been cleared by a Ft. Bend County, Tex., grand jury of charges of participation in a hot-check scheme, and his lawyer said Miller will return to college, where he is out of eligibility, and try to play in the NFL.

Boxing

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson reportedly will dump promoter Don King at a news conference today in Cleveland, where he will read a prepared statement but answer no questions from reporters.

“It’s a done deal,” one source in contact with Tyson told Newsday of King’s impending ouster. Not only is Tyson cutting King loose, but he also may seek to recover some of the $30-million fortune that vanished during his three years in prison for rape.

Jurisprudence

The prosecution demanded a prison sentence in its closing argument of the Hamburg, Germany, retrial of Guenther Parche, who idolized Steffi Graf so much that he stabbed Monica Seles in the back during a tennis tournament in 1993.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Pettine ruled in Providence, R.I., that Brown University discriminated against female athletes and gave the school 120 days to come up with a plan to comply with Title IX of the Civil Rights Act.

A teen-ager in Melrose, Mass., accused of stealing the banner bearing the numbers of Reggie Lewis and other Celtic stars from Boston Garden, is to be arraigned in juvenile court on charges of larceny and stolen property.

Tennis

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the world’s top-ranked woman, overcame a shaky beginning to her clay-court season and defeated Ruxandra Dragomir, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, in the Family Circle Magazine Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

No. 3 Gabriela Sabatini lost to Lea Ghirardi, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.

Miscellany

Polish runner Antoni Niemczak was suspended pending a hearing and faces a two-year ban after testing positive for the stimulant ephedrine after finishing second at the Tokyo Marathon on Feb. 12. It was his second positive test, the first coming at the 1986 New York Marathon for steroid use.

A search is on for 185 former players in the old World Hockey Assn. who are due benefits from the defunct league’s pension plan, which is being held by a life insurance company in Toronto.

A Quincy, Mass., high school hockey player died because an opponent struck his chest at the wrong moment, the state medical examiner’s office said. Matthew Messing, 16, collapsed Jan. 18 after being legally checked by a player for North Quincy High, and the autopsy showed he suffered a cardiac concussion.

High school teams will shoot two free throws for each common foul beginning with the 10th in a half under changes the National Federation rules committee has announced for next season.

Names in the News

The Cleveland Indians traded infielder Edgar Diaz, a replacement player, to the Toronto Blue Jays for future considerations. . . . Dick Gallagher, former director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died at 85 in Canton, Ohio. . . . Chet Nichols, the Boston Brave pitcher who as a rookie in 1951 had the National League’s lowest earned-run average, died in Lincoln, R.I., at 64.