Streamlined USOC Expected to Emerge

A new era of sports in America will be ushered in here today by George Steinbrenner, and it will have almost nothing to do with baseball.

The United States Olympic Committee is gathered here this weekend for its annual House of Delegates meeting, and the main event is expected to be the House of Delegates doing away with itself. That sort of group suicide, more properly referred to in USOC circles as a reorganization, is part of the reaction to a report filed a year ago by an overview commission headed by Steinbrenner.

The report was as outspoken as the New York Yankees’ owner himself. It’s most quoted line is: “Winning medals must always be the primary goal.”

Written against a backdrop of less-than-stunning medal success by U.S. Olympians in Seoul, the report challenged the bulky decision-making process that involved the 400-member House of Delegates.

Steinbrenner and his 10-member overview commission recommended that it be pared to a 97-member Board of Directors that would do the spadework for a 16-member Executive Committee, which would do the board’s bidding. That new structure is what will be voted on today, and it is expected to sail through.

Riding at the front of the posse of new USOC ways and thinking, Steinbrenner style, is the equally outspoken Harvey Schiller, the USOC’s recently appointed executive director.

Schiller, 50, has been involved in the U.S. Olympic movement for years but really made a name for himself when he became commissioner of the Southeast Conference and led universities such as Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana State into a new age of marketing for college athletics.

Schiller will make his first report today, a report that is expected to echo the Steinbrenner Commission.

“Our priority is to have a smooth-working organization,” Schiller said Friday. “And we have some fine-tuning to do to that end. Since Congress passed the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, we have been fine-tuning. Now, what we are doing might be called a course correction.”

Also today, USOC’s SportsWoman and SportsMan of the year will be announced.

The women nominated: Speed skater Bonnie Blair, swimmer Janet Evans, hurdler Sandra Farmer-Patrick, gymnast Brandy Johnson, rower Kris Karlson, skier Tamara McKinney, pentathlete Lori Norwood, shooter Deena Wigger, diver Wendy Williams and skater Kristi Yamaguchi.

The men: Swimmer Mike Barrowman, tennis player Michael Chang, diver Kent Ferguson, boxer Eric Griffin, hurdler Roger Kingdom, canoeist Jon Lugbill, baseball player Ben McDonald, judo competitor Mike Swain, wrestler John Smith and soccer player Mike Windischmann.