Doak Walker Paralyzed By Fall

Doak Walker, a Heisman Trophy winner and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, suffered a paralyzing injury when he fell while skiing at a resort in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and his prospects for recovery are uncertain, doctors reported Saturday.

There’s no sign of fracture, but the injury has left him paralyzed indefinitely, said Dr. Jay Law, neurosurgeon at Columbia Swedish Medical Center in Denver.

Trauma surgeon Dr. John Wolz said it’s too early to tell whether Walker, 71, will recover.

Pro Football

Mike Holmgren, coach of the Green Bay Packers, will not be joining the Seattle Seahawks as coach and general manager next season, but his agent intimated he might not remain with the Packers longer than one more year.

Holmgren is miffed at the turn of events in which he dropped out of being a prime candidate for the Seattle job, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Baseball

Shawn Estes, a 19-game winner with the San Francisco Giants last year, signed a three-year contract with the team. . . . The Arizona Diamondbacks signed free-agent pitcher Gregg Olson, 31, to a minor league contract.

Olympics

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee opened the way for athletes to contest decades-old Olympic results, including those involving East German champions of the 1970s and 1980s if there is proof they used performance-enhancing drugs.

The IOC also absolved China of systematic doping allegations.

While ruling out a wholesale stripping of East German medals, IOC officials meeting in Nagano, Japan, said they were willing to investigate individual cases.

The IOC had been expected to approve a new rule that all challenges to Olympic results must be made within three years after the games and settled by the time the next games begin. But the executive board said it needed more time to study the issue.

China has recorded 27 positive drug tests in swimming since 1990--more than all other countries combined.

Miscellany

International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins retained his crown, stopping former two-time champion Simon Brown in the sixth round of their scheduled 12-rounder at Atlantic City, N.J.

William Joppy reclaimed the World Boxing Assn. middleweight championship with an unanimous decision in a rematch with Julio Cesar Green at Tampa, Fla.

Joppy (25-1-1) got off to a fast start, staggering Green (22-3) in the first round with a straight left.

Led by last year’s winning team, four cars were bunched within three laps of the top as the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona neared its halfway point.

A Dyson Riley & Scott MK III Ford, virtually identical to the car that won in 1997, held a one-lap lead over the pole-winning Team Scandia Ferrari 11 hours into America’s premier sports car endurance race.

Stanford’s Misty Hyman won the 100- and 200-meter butterfly and the 200 backstroke as the top-ranked Cardinal women’s swim team defeated No. 2 USC, 161-139.

Names in the News

Former Dodger Kirk Gibson was suspended for three games from an over-30, no-checking hockey league in Detroit for smacking another player in the back with his hockey stick. The incident, which occurred in December, broke Gibson’s stick and left Mike Albrecht bruised and sore, the Detroit Free Press reported. Gibson conceded he swung at Albrecht, but only after he “got chopped big-time” in the back of the legs. . . . The Los Angeles Galaxy selected South Carolina midfielder Clint Mathis with the sixth pick of Major League Soccer’s college draft. . . . Ricky Ward won the Professional Bowlers Assn.’s Long John Silver’s Classic at Albuquerque, defeating Butch Soper, 279-226. . . . Don Browne of Boulder, Colo., won the men’s 4,000-meter race and Nnenna Lynch of Chapel Hill, N.C., won the women’s 8,000-meter race at the USA Track & Field Cross-Country trials at Lake Buena Vista, Fla.