BCA Expected to Accept Offer

The Black Coaches Assn. probably will follow the NCAA in accepting a government offer to mediate their dispute, director Rudy Washington said Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa.

While noting that his group had not made a final decision, Washington, the coach at Drake, said: “We expect to go along. It’s just a matter of setting up a meeting and getting everyone together.”

The NCAA on Friday accepted the mediation offer from the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Justice Department.

The department’s offer headed off a threatened BCA-led boycott of college basketball games. The BCA made the threat after delegates at the NCAA convention rejected a proposal to increase men’s basketball scholarships from 13 to 14.

Jurisprudence

Ron Gant of the Atlanta Braves and a friend are named in a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to have sex with two teen-age girls Dec. 24, a newspaper reported.

Gant, 28, and Stephen Gaskin, 27, are also under criminal investigation in connection with the alleged incident with the girls, aged 15 and 16, Victoria County District Attorney George Filley III told the Victoria (Tex.) Advocate in a copyright story.

Bernard Klimist, a Victoria attorney representing Gant, released a statement denying the allegations.

Hockey

A former aide’s sexual harassment claims against Norm Green were the main reason the owner of the Minnesota North Stars moved his NHL team to Dallas, former team executive Pat Forciea said in a deposition.

Green has publicly blamed the team’s financial fortunes for last year’s move.

After the harassment allegations by Kari Dziedzic became public, Forciea says, he concluded that it would be only a matter of time before the team left because Green would not tolerate the publicity.

Forciea said Green ordered him to concentrate publicly on the financial reasons for moving, including providing overly pessimistic numbers to the NHL and Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission.

Baseball

The Baltimore Orioles signed free-agent reliever Lee Smith to a one-year contract, a move that virtually guarantees that closer Gregg Olson will not return to the team for the 1994 season.

Smith, 36, is baseball’s all-time save leader with 401 and has a 2.91 earned-run average over 14 seasons. He will receive $1.5 million plus incentives for the 1994 season.

Olson, the Orioles’ all-time save leader, developed elbow problems last season and pitched only eight innings after the All-Star break. He became a free agent when the Orioles, concerned over his elbow, refused to offer him a contract by the Dec. 20 deadline.

Boxing

Former British heavyweight champion Gary Mason returned to the ring for the first time since losing to Lennox Lewis in 1991 and stopped journeyman K.P. Porter with two seconds remaining in the second round at Grand Forks, N.D.

Also on the card, Virgil Hill pulled out of his WBA light-heavyweight title defense against Drake Thadzi of Canada because of a viral illness.

Leeonzer Barber of the United States floored Nicky Piper with a left hook that led to a ninth-round knockout at Cardiff, Wales, allowing Barber to retain his World Boxing Assn. light-heavyweight title for the fourth time.

Winter Sports

Todd Lodwick, 17, a member of the Olympic Nordic combined ski team, won the large hill event in the national ski jumping championships at Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Lodwick, competing on his home hill, went 121 and 118.5 meters for 255.9 points and the gold medal. In doing so, he denied runner-up Jim Holland of Norwich, Vt., a chance to tie a career record with a seventh national title.

Bonnie Blair swept the 500- and 1,000-meter races on the opening day of the World Speedskating Sprint Championships at Calgary.

Blair, the two-time defending 500-meter Olympic champion, won her specialty in 39.29 seconds and then won the 1,000 in 1:18.88, her fastest time at that distance since the 1988 Winter Olympics on the same ice.

World-record holder Dan Jansen of Greenfield, Wis., won the men’s 500 in 35.96.

Team Canada overcame a 4-1 deficit with five consecutive goals to beat Team USA, 6-5, in Uniondale, N.Y., and close out their pre-Olympic series.

The Americans finished with an 8-2-1 record against the Canadians in the series. The teams will meet on Feb. 17 when each plays its third Olympic game.

Markus Prock of Austria won the overall World Cup luge title for the fourth consecutive year, winning the final race of the season at Altenberg, Germany, while a disappointing showing ruined American Duncan Kennedy’s shot at the title.

Prock won four of five World Cup events he entered this season, skipping the Winterberg race.

Kennedy, who led Prock by a point going into the race, finished ninth and failed in a bid to become the first American luger to win an overall World Cup title.

Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway earned his first World Cup downhill victory at Chamonix, France.

The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation dismissed a complaint that a Terre Haute, Ind., native missed a spot on the Olympic bobsledding team because a competitor used an injured athlete’s runners.

Bruce Rosselli’s grievance alleged that James Herberich, whose team finished second during last week’s U.S. trials in Calgary, used runners that belonged to Chuck Leonowicz. Leonowicz, a 1992 Olympian, did not compete in the trials because of an abdominal injury.