Usher Says the USFL Probably Will Shrink by at Least Two Teams

The United States Football League probably will have two fewer teams when it switches to a fall schedule in 1986, Commissioner Harry Usher said Tuesday after meeting with league owners in Teaneck, N.J. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss such issues as mergers, club transfers, team rosters, television contracts and the possible reduction of the 14-team league to 12 teams. Usher mentioned San Antonio, Tampa Bay, Denver and Houston as teams that might be involved in a transfer or a merger.

He refused to say whether the financially ailing Los Angeles Express would be one of the teams that would be eliminated in a reshuffling.

Placekicker Mike Lansford signed a two-year contract with the Rams. The deal reportedly will pay Lansford about $150,000 a year. Lansford led the Rams in scoring with 112 points last season, connecting on 25 of 33 field goal attempts and making 37 of 38 extra point attempts.

Tony Zendejas, a placekicker for the Los Angeles Express, jumped from the United States Football League to the National Football League when he signed a series of one-year contracts with the Washington Redskins.

Bruce Sturgeon of Cadiz, Ohio, was arrested in Manhattan and charged with sports bribery in connection with race fixing at Toledo’s Raceway Park. According to FBI agent Doug Domin, Sturgeon (a former race driver at the harness track) was one of 15 people indicted last Friday in the investigation of race fixing at tracks in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and in Canada.

Don Casey, assistant coach of the Clippers under Jim Lynam in 1983-84, will return to the club as an assistant under new Coach Don Chaney. Casey had left the Clippers in June, 1984, to become a head coach in the Italian Professional League. Brad Greenberg, who joined the club last season, also was rehired.

Bernie Kosar officially became a member of the Cleveland Browns and said he had agreed to five, one-year contracts with the National Football League team. The University of Miami quarterback was selected in the NFL’s supplemental draft. The contract reportedly is worth $6 million.

Mary Decker Slaney and Zola Budd will meet for the first time since the Olympic Games when they run in a 3,000-meter race in London on July 20. The race originally was scheduled for July 19 but was moved, possibly for the sake of ABC, which will televise the race. Slaney and Budd have not met on the track since the 3,000-meter run in Los Angeles last summer when their legs tangled and Slaney fell.

The Missouri Valley Conference placed Creighton University’s basketball program on one-year probation without sanctions as a result of violations involving former Creighton center Benoit Benjamin who drove a “loaner car” from a local dealer for an extended period, and recruit Ken Moody who played a pickup basketball game with Creighton players while a coach watched during his campus visit.

Bill Elliott overcame rising heat and a slippery track to win the pole position for Thursday’s Pepsi Firecracker 400 Grand National stock car race. Elliott drove his Ford Thunderbird at an average speed of 201.523 m.p.h. around the Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile tri-oval in qualifying.

Names in the News

Larry O’Brien, former commissioner of the National Basketball Assn., has been elected president of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield, Mass. O’Brien succeeds Curt Gowdy.

Texas Christian University running back Kenneth Davis has paid for a $1-million insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London protecting him against a career-ending injury in his senior year. Davis, his sister and brother-in-law co-signed a $10,000 bank note to cover the cost of the premium, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.