Four in Tulane Case Plead Innocent

Two Tulane University basketball players and two other suspects in a point-shaving scandal pleaded innocent Monday in New Orleans to sports bribery charges and were forbidden by a judge to discuss the case.

NBA prospect John (Hot Rod) Williams and sophomore David Dominique, accused of accepting cash and cocaine to fix results of two Metro Conference games in February, each pleaded not guilty to two counts of sports bribery and three counts of conspiracy to commit sports bribery.

Also appearing before Judge Alvin Oser were convicted bookie Roland Ruiz, 48, and Craig Bourgeois, 23. Each pleaded innocent to five counts of sports bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit sports bribery.

Oser gave defense lawyers 30 days to file motions in the case and granted a request by Williams’ attorney that a gag order be placed in effect for all parties.

Player Bobby Thompson and student David Rothenberg last week entered guilty pleas in the point-shaving scandal.

The Tulane University Senate, meanwhile, voted 42-5 to ratify President Eamon Kelly’s recommendation to abolish the school’s basketball program.

The senate also voted to establish a blue-ribbon panel to study Tulane’s continued participation in intercollegiate athletics. The final step in the process to end the basketball program will be a vote by the school’s board of directors on Thursday--and Kelly said he expects the board to endorse his recommendation.

Louisiana Gov. Edward Edwards told lawmakers that “the best deal he could make” to keep the NFL Saints in New Orleans would cost Louisiana $2.8 million.

But the governor told a joint session of the 1985 legislature that if a deal to sell the team to auto dealer Tom Benson falls through the state’s loss would be even more.

“If we lose the team, we lose $4 million in sales and other taxes that now go into the general revenues of Louisiana,” he said.

Favored Another Reef won the $50,000 Oaklawn Stakes for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park. Advice finished second, a half-length behind. Huddle Up, who was making his first start, was another half length back in the six-furlong race.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks was involved in a disturbance at a Las Vegas bar before dawn Monday, but a woman he allegedly struck refused to press charges, police said. Jeff Leopold, general manager of the bar, said the altercation followed a shouting match between Spinks and the woman.

Winnipeg Jets captain Dale Hawerchuk probably won’t play in the first two games of the Smythe Division final series against the Edmonton Oilers. He has a cracked rib.

Hawerchuk was injured in the third game of the Jets’ semifinal series against the Calgary Flames last week. The Jets won the series, 3-1.

Scott Skiles, the most valuable player in the 1982 Indiana high school basketball tournament and now a starting guard at Michigan State, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana in Plymouth, Ind.

Skiles said he decided to plead guilty because “there’s no way I could get a fair trail.”

A judge gave Skiles a suspended one-year prison term and a one-year probation period, fined him $100 and costs, and ordered him to perform 120 hours of community service.

“I’ve made a mistake,” Skiles said, “but I don’t see any reason to keep paying for it.”

Jim Gallagher scored a sudden-death victory in the $150,000 Magnolia Golf Classic at Hattiesburgh, Miss. Gallagher of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., got a birdie on the first hole of the playoff with Paul Azinger of La Place, La.

A new soccer competition between the winners of the European and South American championships is being introduced this summer. The competition, to be known as the European-South American Nations Cup, will be contested for the Artemio Franchi trophy, especially created in memory of the late Italian president of UEFA, the European soccer body, who died two yeas ago.

Names in the News

Charles (Chick) Davies, 84, a former Duquesne University basketball coach (1925-1948), who had the 12th-best won-loss record in NCAA history, died in Pittsburgh after a long illness.

Tony Fuller, a former Pepperdine player, has been named an assistant men’s basketball coach at the school. A part-time assistant the past two seasons, Fuller will fill the vacancy created when Dan Davis resigned to pursue studies in theology.