Arizona State Fires Weinhauer; Patterson Named Interim Coach

Arizona State President J. Russell Nelson announced that the school will not renew the contract of head basketball Coach Bob Weinhauer, whose program has suffered back-to-back losing seasons and currently is under Pacific 10 Conference investigation for alleged violations.

Assistant coach Steve Patterson, 37, who played on three national championship teams at UCLA, will serve as interim coach.

Nelson said Weinhauer, 45, will remain on the school payroll for 90 days. Nelson also said he is authorizing Athletic Director Charles Harris to proceed with the recruitment of a new coach.

Harris, who was hired away from Penn and officially assumed the Arizona State athletic director’s job Monday, said that the school has agreed to retain Patterson as an assistant coach through at least June 30, 1986, and that assistant coach Henry Bibby, another former UCLA star, has been offered a new six-month contract from July to December.

Weinhauer, like Harris, also came from Penn. He was hired in April, 1982, and compiled a 44-45 record in his three years. However, the Sun Devils were 13-15 and 12-16 the past two seasons.

Arizona law limits the contracts of all state employees, including coaches, to one year. Weinhauer’s pact was up for renewal on July 1. However, Weinhauer said he had an oral agreement to coach at Arizona State for five years and has threatened legal action.

Sentencing was postponed for a former Tulane basketball player and another former student who have pleaded guilty in the Tulane point-shaving scandal.

Criminal District Judge Alvin V. Oser agreed to push back sentencing for former basketball player Bobby Thompson, 21, of New Orleans, to Sept. 20. Former student David Rothenberg, 22, of Wilton, Conn., will be sentenced Aug. 13.

Green Bay Packers James Lofton and Eddie Lee Ivery, involved in the alleged sexual assault of an exotic dancer, will ask the Wisconsin state Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling that hearings on the case must be open to the public.

Stephen M. Glynn, an attorney for one of the players, said the decision was made because of the complex legal issues involved, not to stall the hearing itself.

Oakland Invader Coach Charlie Sumner, upset over the way his team has been ignored by officials in its home city, said he would have nothing to do with a victory parade planned by Mayor Lionel Wilson should the Invaders win the United States Football League championship Sunday.

“I’m not interested in anything the mayor has to do with,” Sumner said before catching a plane to New York City. “He hasn’t supported us and I’m not interested in supporting something he’s involved in.”

Oakland faces the Baltimore Stars in the championship game at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Finnish runner Martti Vainio, who was stripped of his Olympic silver medal after failing a drug test, has admitted he used banned drugs for more than a year before the Los Angeles Games.

In an interview published in London’s Daily Mail, Vainio is quoted as saying: “I was never the only one taking drugs. I think there are others. I am just the only one who was found guilty. That’s the unfair part.”

Vainio, 34, won the silver medal in the 10,000-meter run. He was banned from athletics after the Olympics and lost his lucrative advertising endorsements.

“It is right that I am punished, but many other athletes should be in the same boat, I only hope they have all given it up now because of what’s happened to me,” he said.

Names in the News

Mary Decker Slaney warmed up for her long-awaited rematch with Britain’s Zola Budd by storming to victory in an 800-meter race at the Cork City Games at Cork, Ireland. She was clocked in 1 minute, 57.68 seconds.

Herschel Walker of the New Jersey Generals, who rushed for 2,411 yards this season, was the Pro Football Writers of America’s unanimous choice as the United States Football League’s Most Valuable Player.