Court Hears a Challenge to Drug Testing

The California Supreme Court showed little enthusiasm Monday for a challenge to the NCAA’s drug-testing program by Stanford University athletes.

A ruling is due within 90 days.

“You’re proposing to allow a cheater. . . to get a competitive edge,” Justice Armand Arabian told a lawyer for the students, who claimed that mandatory drug testing violated their privacy rights.

When attorney Robert Van Nest complained that athletes not suspected of wrongdoing were forced to disrobe and submit to urine testing in the presence of a monitor, Justice Ronald George asked whether athletes weren’t benefiting by the creation of a “level playing field.” And Justice Joyce Kennard noted that participation in sports is voluntary.

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Finalists for NCAA executive director are involved in closed-door interviews with a 12-person search committee that are expected to end today.

The finalists are William Cobey Jr., former athletic director at North Carolina; Cedric Dempsey, athletic director at Arizona; Judy Sweet, athletic director at UC San Diego, and Gerald Turner, chancellor at the Mississippi and former chairman of the NCAA Presidents Commission. A replacement for Dick Schultz, who resigned amid allegations he was involved in an improper loan program at the University of Virginia, will be chosen by mid-November.

Baseball

Barry Bonds, who led the San Francisco Giants to their most victories since 1962, became the first player to be voted Associated Press baseball player of the year in consecutive seasons.

Tim Raines, Eddie Murray and Harold Baines were among 17 players that filed for free agency. Former Minnesota Twin Brian Harper became a free agent when the club decided not to exercise its $2.6-million option for 1994.

Luge

German prosecutors began investigating a weekend attack by skinhead youths against members of the U.S. Luge team.

Hein-Juergen Nebel, a prosecutor in the eastern German state of Thuringia, said he will consider charges of “grievous bodily harm” or even attempted murder against those who attacked team members late Friday night.

Boxing

The Riddick Bowe camp caused a bubble of controversy when it decided to keep his four-hour afternoon workout closed to the public and media five days before Bowe’s heavyweight title rematch with former champion Evander Holyfield at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

Bowe’s trainer, Eddie Futch, said he closed the workout because of his close connections to several of Holyfield’s current cornermen and because of strategic adjustments he has made to Bowe’s style.

Names in the News

Dr. George Sheehan, the running guru and writer who was called “Mark Twain in sneakers,” died of prostate cancer. He was 74. . . . Jimmy Williams, 76, the riding master at Flintridge Riding Club and an internationally known trainer of world-class and Olympic-level show horses, died Sunday of complications from a respiratory infection. . . . Ray Bourque, Boston Bruin All-Star defenseman, agreed to a five-year contract, ending months of negotiations.