NFL to Try Electronic Helmets in Exhibition Games

National Football League owners have decided to experiment with radio transmitters and receivers in helmets during some exhibition games this year.

They emphasized, however, that the venture into high technology would not carry over into the regular 1985 season.

The owners agreed, on the final day of their weeklong winter meetings, to let eight teams try the electronic helmets in an effort to combat the noise problem prevalent in many stadiums.

Two of the teams will be the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. The six other clubs will be picked later, as will the games in which the experiment will be used.

Experimenting teams will not necessarily be playing one another, and the experiment will be limited to offensive units, the owners said.

Tickets for UCLA’s next home game in the National Invitation Tournament, Tuesday night at Pauley Pavilion against Nebraska, are on sale at the the UCLA central ticket office, as well as at Ticketron and Ticketmaster outlets.

The Kansas City Royals have reached a handshake agreement on a lifetime contract with relief pitcher Dan Quisenberry, and the basic points have been settled on a similar deal with outfielder Willie Wilson, according to Avron Fogelman, the team’s co-owner.

Although nothing has been signed, Fogelman said: “There is no doubt in my mind that we have reached a complete understanding of Quiz receiving a lifetime contract.”

Quisenberry, who has two years left on his current contract, would receive a guaranteed extension through 1990, with the Royals holding options on five more years. Wilson, in the final year of his contract, would receive four additional guaranteed years, taking him through 1989.

There was speculation that the packages offered the two players will pay them about $40 million each over a 40-year period.

Defending champion Kenny Bernstein, 40, set a Gainesville Raceway record in qualifying for Sunday’s 16th annual Motorcraft Gatornationals drag races in Florida.

Bernstein pushed his Ford Tempo to a record quarter-mile time of 5.67 seconds, reaching 258.17 m.p.h.

Finland’s Matti Nykaenen set a world ski-flying record with a jump of 630 feet at Planica, Yugoslavia, during practice for the world championships this weekend, breaking his own record of 617 feet set earlier in the day.

Names in the News

Patrick Ewing of Georgetown and Cheryl Miller of USC were each named a winner of the Atlanta Tipoff Club’s Naismith Trophy as the nation’s top college men’s and women’s basketball players in voting by coaches and the media. Miller was also named Most Valuable Player in the Western Collegiate Athletic Assn. Billie Moore, UCLA women’s basketball coach, was named Coach of the Year in the WCAA.

Tom Lewis, 6-7 forward from Mater Dei High School, was chosen to play in the 1985 McDonald’s All-American basketball game April 13 at Southern Methodist University.

Don Smith was fired as basketball coach at the University of New Orleans after finishing the season with an 11-19 record. He had a six-year mark of 84-83.