Regent Says Maxson Lied About Contract

Robert Maxson, former president of Nevada Las Vegas, lied when he told university regents that a $511,000 annual contract was all that was promised Rollie Massimino to coach the Rebels, university regent Shelley Berkley charged Thursday.

Berkley said minutes of a 1992 meeting in which Massimino’s five-year contract was approved by regents showed Maxson giving “absolute assurances” that the contract was Massimino’s sole income.

In fact, she said, the former university president had already signed a secret supplemental contract guaranteeing Massimino $375,000 more a year.

“Maxson looked us in the eyes and lied,” Berkley charged. “It’s my understanding that the supplemental contract was signed the following day. There is no way at the time Bob Maxson made those representations to his employers that he had not already orchestrated the supplemental agreement.”

Massimino was told this week that the university will not pay him much of nearly $2 million secretly promised him by former university officials who lured him from Villanova two years ago.

Interim president Kenny Guinn said that because the contract was never approved by the regents, as required by law, Massimino is not entitled to the extra money.

Massimino is out of town and has been unavailable for comment.

Maxson, who left UNLV in May to become president at Long Beach State, has declined comment on the contract, other than to issue a statement saying it was “handled in an appropriate and ethical manner.”

Tennis

Top-seeded Michael Stich of Germany defeated 15th-seeded Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-2, in the Volvo International at New Haven, Conn.

In other matches, 11th-seeded MaliVai Washington upset fifth-seeded Petr Korda of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-3, and No. 7 Marc Rosset of Switzerland defeated Ivan Lendl, 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, 6-4.

Unseeded Bernd Karbacher of Germany advanced to the quarterfinals of the RCA Championships at Indianapolis with a 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3) upset of second-seeded Sergi Bruguera of Spain.

Jurisprudence

The State Supreme Court cleared the way for a Los Angeles court to hear a suit by the mother of Oregon State basketball player Earnest Killum, blaming the university for his death in 1992.

Killum, a sophomore guard from Lynwood High, died in a Los Angeles hospital in January 1992, three days after suffering his second stroke in six months. He had been cleared to play in December of 1991 by university doctors, who reduced his dosage of an anti-clotting medication that had increased his susceptibility to bleeding.

Basketball

Former Laker Kurt Rambis, 36, has been hired by the Lakers as a special assistant coach.

Rambis’ duties will include special assignment coaching and scouting as well as involvement with community relations and other areas with the team.

Former Boston Celtic player Kevin McHale, a collegiate star at Minnesota, was named as assistant general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The announcement came one day after coach Sidney Lowe and two assistants were fired as part of new owner Glen Taylor’s housecleaning.

Olden Polynice was re-signed by the Sacramento Kings, who had failed to sign free agents Horace Grant, Danny Manning and Michael Cage.

Monte Marcaccini, a former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High standout who spurned Indiana’s Bob Knight to play in Italy, has signed to play at Pepperdine.

UCLA forward Ed O’Bannon and Duke center Cherokee Parks are among the list of top 25 preseason favorites for the John R. Wooden Award, given to the nation’s top college basketball player.

Miscellany

The South African team drew a rousing welcome back from the crowd of more than 33,000 as Queen Elizabeth II opened the 15th Commonwealth Games at Victoria, Canada.

South Africa had been banned from the Games since 1958 because of its apartheid policies but rejoined after the country’s majority blacks were granted equal status.

Spectators stood and waved to the beaming South African athletes and officials, who waved tiny flags of their newly integrated nation.

It was the first time the South Africans have marched under the new, united flag for an international multi-sport event. They marched with the Olympic flag when they returned to the Olympic Games after a 32-year absence in 1992.

Leroy Burrell, who set a world 100-meter record of 9.85 seconds last month, will sit out the rest of the track season because of a foot injury, according to Wilfried Meert, director of the Van Damme Memorial meet. Burrell was scheduled to run in the meet today at Brussels.

Contract talks between the NHL and its players went nowhere, but players say training camps will open in less than three weeks despite their differences.

A six-man delegation led by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman met for three hours in Toronto with members of the NHL Players Assn. bargaining committee, led by Executive Director Bob Goodenow.