Bockrath Gets Texas Tech Job

Bob Bockrath, athletic director at the University of California for two years, left the post Tuesday to take a similar job at Texas Tech.

Bockrath, 50, replaces T. Jones, who announced in June that he would step down. Bockrath said he hopes to assume his new duties Sept. 3.

Robert Lawless, Texas Tech president, said Bockrath agreed to a five-year contract at $125,000 a year.

“I see this as a new opportunity for me, a new challenge,” Bockrath said.

Judith Holland, senior associate athletic director at UCLA, was among the finalists for the position.

Golf

Scotland’s Raymond Russell beat the steamy heat with an early tee time, shooting a four-under-par 67 for the first-round lead in the 93rd U.S. Amateur Championship at Houston. Russell, a member of the 1993 European Walker Cup team, shot 35-32 on the Cypress Creek course at Champions Golf Club to top the field of 315. Tiger Woods of Cypress shot a 72.

Pro Football

John Ayers, a starting guard on the San Francisco 49ers’ first two Super Bowl teams of the 1980s, was resting comfortably in Amarillo, Tex., after surgery to remove cancerous from his liver, officials at High Plains Baptist Hospital said.

Jurisprudence

A federal judge in Lansing, Mich., has ruled on what damages can be pursued by the 5-year-old daughter of a woman who says she got the AIDS virus from Magic Johnson. U.S. Judge Richard A. Enslen ruled the child cannot claim damages for emotional distress because she wasn’t present when her mother, Waymer Moore, had a one-night sexual liaison in June, 1990.

But the judge ruled the child can sue for loss of companionship due the possibility of her mother’s illness, disability or death from AIDS, the Detroit News reported. Moore filed a lawsuit last fall claiming she contracted the HIV virus from Johnson, the former Laker star.

Miscellany

A convenience store clerk said she would “bet my life” she saw Michael Jordan’s father and the two suspects accused of his murder in her store more than three days after James Jordan was believed to have been shot and killed.

The Wilmington Morning Star reported that Helen Norris, 52, a clerk at the DJ Mini Mart on U.S. 17 in Winnabow, N.C., told her account to a Brunswick County detective. Detective Mark Locklear of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Department, which is handling the case, said he planned to interview Norris. But he said authorities still believe Jordan, 56, was shot in his Lexus early July 23 near Lumberton after he had pulled off U.S. 74 to rest. The store is about 50 miles from Lumberton.

The Anaheim Bullfrogs defeated Connecticut, 15-8, in roller hockey’s International League playoffs. On Tuesday, Anaheim will play the winner of Friday’s Toronto-L.A. Blades game at the Forum.

Boxing

James Toney, International Boxing Federation super-middleweight champion, celebrated his 25th birthday with a unanimous 10-round decision over Larry Prather at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.

There were no knockdowns, but Toney (39-0-2) had Prather (10-11) in trouble in the eighth with a flurry started by a left hook to the body.

Names in the News

Right wing Gary Shuchuk, 26, who helped the Kings reach the Stanley Cup finals last spring, has signed a three-year contract with the team, King General Manager Nick Beverley announced.

Monte Marcaccini, 18, former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High basketball standout, will forgo his scholarship to Indiana this fall and instead play for the Benetton junior club team in Italy, his mother Alicia said. Marcaccini’s older brother G.C. signed to play with the Benetton professional team last month.

Ronny Thompson, son of Georgetown Coach John Thompson, has been hired as an assistant basketball coach at Oregon. . . . Jami Yonekura, 25, has been hired as women’s tennis coach at Cal State Long Beach.