Sydney Ticket Chief Leaves Post

Paul Reading, responsible for the Sydney Olympics ticketing controversy, has left SOCOG, the organizing committee. A spokesman for SOCOG would not say if Reading was fired or quit.

Reading bore most of the public criticism after he put aside hundreds of thousands of prime tickets for sale in premium packages at up to three times face value.

The SOCOG board, led by Chief Executive Sandy Hollway and President Michael Knight, said they had not been informed of Reading’s move, which was made to help make up budget shortages.

The premium packages meant the tickets were not available in a public ticket sale as promised by SOCOG.

Reading was demoted last month after an internal review slammed the ticketing process. He was stripped of responsibility for ticketing and finance, leaving him in charge of only the marketing and hospitality programs.

*

One year after the IOC was thrown into turmoil by the biggest corruption scandal in its 105-year history, the organization opens its meetings in Lausanne, Switzerland, today with the focus on enacting a package of reforms to bring the crisis to a symbolic close.

“The crisis ends when we adopt the reforms,” IOC Vice President Dick Pound said. “We’ve just got to close the circle.”

IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch is urging committee members to put aside individual interests and approve the reforms for a greater cause.

College Football

Herschel Walker, the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner from Georgia, former UCLA quarterback Billy Kilmer and coaches Jerry Claiborne (Virginia Tech, Maryland and Kentucky) mand Jim Young (Purdue, Army and Arizona) were inducted into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, along with 10 other college stars.

Also inducted were ends Ross Browner (Notre Dame) and Chuck Dicus (Arkansas); guard John Hannah (Alabama); running backs Chris Gilbert (Texas), and Greg Pruitt (Oklahoma); defensive back Frank Loria (Virginia Tech); linebacker Steve Kiner (Tennessee); quarterback Chuck Long (Iowa); and defensive linemen Joe Palumbo (Virginia) and Ed White (California).

Ron Dayne of Wisconsin won the Associated Press’ award as college player of the year in balloting by AP member newspapers, TV and radio stations.

Dayne received 43 of the 82 votes. He beat out Virginia Tech redshirt freshman quarterback Michael Vick, who had 14 votes. Purdue quarterback Drew Brees was third with six votes.

Texas A&M; has rejected a $10,000 donation to a memorial fund from The Arizona Republic, which was criticized for an editorial cartoon about the deadly bonfire accident.

“Texas A&M; university will not allow itself to become an agent for The Arizona Republic as it tries to manage the public criticism it is receiving,” school President Ray Bowen wrote to the newspaper’s editorial page editor. “For this reason, and out of respect for the victims of the bonfire tragedy, Texas A&M; university will not accept money from The Arizona Republic.”

Twelve current or former students were killed Nov. 18 while building the bonfire pile. The next day, the newspaper ran an editorial cartoon comparing the accident to the 1993 Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Texas, and the 1998 dragging death of a black man from Jasper, Texas.

Defensive end Corey Moore of Virginia Tech and nose guard Corey Simon of Florida State join linebacker LaVar Arrington and defensive end Courtney Brown of Penn State as finalists for the 30th Lombardi Award as the nation’s top collegiate lineman.

Former Arkansas defensive coordinator Keith Burns was introduced as Tulsa’s coach, taking over a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 1991.

Offensive lineman Travis Claridge of USC was named third-team All-American by The Sporting News.

Florida State’s Sebastian Janikowski became the first repeat winner of the Lou Groza Award as college football’s top kicker.

UCLA and Oklahoma State have agreed to a home-and-home series in football. The teams will play in Stillwater in 2002 and at the Rose Bowl in 2004.

Motor Sports

The Meadowlands sports complex and a former airport in southern New Jersey are being considered as sites for a new stock car racing track that could seat 200,000 fans.

Robbie Loomis is the new crew chief for three-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon, and Brian Whitesell is the team manager, Hendrick Motorsports announced.

Shinji Nakano, a Formula One test driver for Honda in 1999, will drive for Walker Racing’s CART team in 2000. He replaces Gil de Ferran, who moved to Roger Penske’s team.

Miscellany

Casey Martin will make his debut as the first riding member of the PGA Tour in the Bob Hope Classic.

Martin, who successfully sued the tour to use a cart because of a circulatory disorder in his right leg that makes it difficult for him to walk 18 holes, earned his card by finishing 14th on the Nike Tour money list.

Bruce Fleisher, the first Senior Tour player to win his first two tournaments and the first rookie to lead the money list, swept the tour’s top two awards. He was voted player of the year and rookie of the year, becoming the first to win both awards since Lee Trevino in 1990.

Former Cincinnati Bengal running back James Brooks will enter a work-release program to complete his six-month jail sentence for failure to pay more than $110,000 in child support.

Former Texas baseball coach Cliff Gustafson insists he could not have violated school or NCAA rules by maintaining an outside account for money earned from summer camps. He says there were no rules in place at the time. Gustafson resigned as the winningest college baseball coach in Division I history in 1996. He has accused Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds of forcing him to resign by falsifying a document he submitted to report outside income for the 1995-96 school year.

Wayne Gretzky was selected as the greatest hockey player of the century by a six-member panel of experts assembled by the Associated Press. Gordie Howe was second with the same number of points as Gretzky but three fewer first-place votes, followed by Bobby Orr, who was only one point behind. Man o’ War and Secretariat, two mighty chestnut colts, ran 1-2 in the race for horse of the century in voting by a six-member panel of experts assembled by the AP.

Stan Wallace, who helped Illinois to a 40-7 victory over Stanford in the 1952 Rose Bowl game and went on to play for the Chicago Bears, has died in Urbana, Ill., after heart surgery. He was 68.

Wallace returned a pass interception 56 yards to set up the go-ahead touchdown against Stanford.