Advertisement

Bramble Fined $15,000 for Using Stimulant

Share

Livingstone Bramble was fined $15,000 and his manager $5,000 Tuesday because the fighter used a stimulant before successfully defending his World Boxing Assn. lightweight title against Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini on Feb. 16 at Reno.

The Nevada Athletic Commission decided, however, against suspending Bramble’s license after finding the drug Ephedrine was taken inadvertently.

“I do not believe Mr. Bramble acted knowingly to take a stimulant,” commission Chairman Sig Rogich said. “But I don’t think anyone takes this lightly and I think the commission has to set some strong standards.”

Advertisement

Mancini’s manager, Dave Wolf, said he would take the commission’s actions to the WBA and ask the organization to disqualify Bramble and strip him of the title. The WBA’s executive committee put off action last month while awaiting the Nevada decision.

“We’ve won and now we can go to the WBA,” Wolf said. “This proves he was cheating.”

Ephedrine is a common medication for colds. Bramble, a vegetarian, ingested it in capsule form. The drug was contained in Chi powder pills, an over-the-counter herb sold in health-food stores.

Rick Mears, winner of last year’s Indianapolis 500, and Mario Andretti, defending national driving champion, head the entries for the May 26 Indy race.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway released the complete list of entries for this year’s race. Mears, still mending from a serious crash in Canada last September, and Andretti, who won at Long Beach in the season opener last Sunday, are among seven former Indy 500 winners entered.

The others are four-time winner A.J. Foyt, three-time winners Al Unser and Johnny Rutherford, two-time champion Gordon Johncock and one-time winner Tom Sneva. Also among the 79 entries--the lowest total in nine years--are cars for 26 other veterans and 10 rookies.

In the wake of turmoil in Tulane’s basketball program, Atlantic Coast Conference athletic directors have asked newspapers to stop publishing “betting lines” on college sporting events, the conference said Tuesday.

Advertisement

“We feel the publication of any information on intercollegiate athletic contests which assists the bettor or bookie has no place in the sports sections of our newspapers,” the athletic directors said at a two-day seminar in Greensboro.

Tulane is considering dropping its men’s basketball program after alleged point shavings, cocaine dealings and payoffs to athletes.

The statement added: “The undersigned (all eight athletic directors), therefore, respectively request the publishers of the newspapers in our geographic area to discontinue the publication of “odds,” “point spreads,” and any other such references on teams and athletic contests involving Atlantic Coast Conference teams. A similar request is also directed to radio and television stations in our area.”

North Carolina Athletic Director John Swofford said the eight athletic directors had discussed the issue briefly before, but that the Tulane situation “sort of brought things to light.”

“We (the athletic directors) felt strongly about it and we felt that this was one way that we could try to get some help from a social and public point of view,” Swofford said.

The United States opens play in the eight-country World Hockey Championships today at Prague, Czechoslovakia, against the Soviet Union, which despite the absence of star forward Helmut Balderis is still a commanding favorite.

Advertisement

The United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland are at a distinct disadvantage, since many of their best players are still involved in the National Hockey League playoffs. Czechoslovakia is expected to provide the Soviets with their toughest competition.

A bill to require professional boxers in California to get frequent brain examinations was approved by a state Assembly committee.

The bill, AB240, would require professional boxers to be examined by a neurologist at least once a year with license renewal. They would also have to have a brain examination if they fought more than 12 times a year or were knocked out in two successive fights. The cost of the exams would be paid from assessments charged to professional boxing promoters.

Agnos had a similar bill last year, but it was vetoed by Gov. George Deukmejian, who said boxers should pay for the exams since they enter the profession voluntarily.

Names in the News

Darrell Christian, deputy sports editor of the Associated Press for 3 1/2 years, was named sports editor of the news cooperative, succeeding D. Byron Hake, who was named assistant to the president.

The Hartford Whalers acquired veteran left wing Jorgen Pettersson from the St. Louis Blues, completing an earlier trade in which the two National Hockey League teams exchanged goalies.

Advertisement

Notre Dame quarterback Steve Beuerlein underwent surgery in Los Angeles to repair a painful chipped collarbone that bothered him last season, a university spokesman said.

Advertisement