Texas A&M; Joins Baylor in Accepting Big Eight Bid

Regents at Texas A&M; voted Thursday to join Baylor and accept a merger offer from the Big Eight Conference, paving the way for the Aggies to sever a nearly 80-year affiliation with the Southwest Conference.

The governing boards at Texas and Texas Tech are expected to take similar action at meetings scheduled today, moving the SWC, at least in its present form, another step closer to extinction.

Wally Groff, Texas A&M;’s athletic director, said he had mixed emotions about the vote because, while he believed it was good for his school, he was “sad for the schools not invited.”

Texas A&M;, Baylor and Texas are charter members of the SWC, which organized in 1914. Texas Tech joined in 1956.

Football

Howard Tippett resigned as the Rams’ special teams coach, the team announced. Wayne Sevier of the Washington Redskins, one of the NFL’s top special teams coaches, is the leading candidate to replace Tippett.

Two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Nate Odomes left the Buffalo Bills on Thursday and signed a four-year, $8.4 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks.

Carl (Red) Mayes, 63, a college track star at Texas during the 1950s who played one season with the Los Angeles Rams, died in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Joe Gibbs said he has decided not to return to NFL coaching. Gibbs withdrew his name from consideration to be the Carolina Panthers’ first coach.

Stanford’s athletic department recently received its largest cash gift ever, for $10 million, which will be used to renovate Stanford Stadium, from Los Angeles insurance executive Louis W. Foster.

College Sports

Maine admitted to more NCAA compliance violations and suspended Michael Ploszek, its athletic director, for a week.

Ploszek said ineligible players had competed on five Maine teams, including the defending national champion hockey team.

The ineligible players, all graduate students not carrying enough hours to compete, also played on the football, cross-country, field hockey and indoor track teams.

Basketball

The Milwaukee Bucks traded their leading scorer, forward-center Frank Brickowski, to the Charlotte Hornets for another veteran center, Mike Gminski, and a conditional first-round draft pick.

Brickowski, a 6-foot-9, 10-year veteran, was averaging 15.2 points and 6.5 rebounds in a team-high 33.5 minutes per game.

The 6-11 Gminski was averaging 12 minutes, 3.5 points and 2.8 rebounds.

Reggie Miller of Indiana and Anthony Bowie of Orlando were each fined $5,000 for fighting during Wednesday night’s game at Orlando. Scott Skiles was fined $2,500 for leaving the Magic bench during the incident.

Soccer

Brazilian legend Pele will not be invited by FIFA to the World Cup finals in the United States this summer, the world body’s President Joao Havelange said, but Alan Rothenberg, chairman of the U.S. World Cup organizing committee, extended Pele an invitation.

Havelange, 77-year-old head of the International Football Federation (FIFA), is involved in a personal dispute with Pele.

Baseball

Senate hearings aimed at stripping baseball of its antitrust exemption will resume March 21 during spring training in Florida, followed by hearings in Washington.

“Let the baseball owners come and try to explain how destroying the job of the commissioner is in the best interest of the fans,” Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) said.

The owners have been criticized since reducing the commissioner’s power.

Miscellany

Top-seeded Michael Stich rallied to beat Daniel Vacek, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the second round of the Rotterdam indoor tournament.

Second-seeded Goran Ivanisevic had an easier time, beating Kenneth Carlsen, 6-1, 6-2.

Names in the News

Norm Green, the former owner of the Minnesota North Stars, settled a lawsuit that accused him of sexually harassing female employees.

Ron Bertovich, commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference, resigned effective April 15. . . . The Harlem Globetrotters and Fred Snowden, former head of the Food 4 Less Foundation, will be inducted into the Black Sports Hall of Fame at the California Afro-American Museum next Thursday.