49ers Extend Seifert to $1.4 Million

George Seifert, who led the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl victory, was given a two-year contract extension that will keep him with the team through the 1997 season at an average of $1.4 million.

Seifert, who also won the Super Bowl in 1989, his first year as Bill Walsh’s successor, has a record of 85-23 in six seasons and a winning percentage of .801 that’s by far the best in NFL history for a coach who has coached more than 100 games.

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A $1.8-million signing bonus prompted Dallas tight end Jay Novacek to agree to a three-year, $4.8-million contract with the Cowboys and reject a strong bid from Green Bay. Dallas earlier had lost wide receiver Alvin Harper to Tampa Bay and center Mark Stepnoski to the Houston Oilers. On defense, Dallas has lost pass-rush specialist Jim Jeffcoat to Buffalo and free safety James Washington to the Washington Redskins. Novacek will receive base salaries of $800,000, $1 million and $1.2 million and will count $1.4 million against the 1995 salary cap.

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The Raiders took their first step into the 1995 free-agent market, signing tight end Kerry Cash, a four-year veteran who had spent his career with the Indianapolis Colts. . . . Former Dallas Cowboy star Charlie Waters has been named defensive coordinator for the Oregon Ducks. Coach Mike Bellotti said Waters, defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos the last two seasons, would replace Nick Aliotti, one of three members of former Oregon coach Rich Brooks’ staff to join Brooks with the Rams. . . . The expansion Jacksonville Jaguars signed former New York Jet defensive end Jeff Lagemanto for $5.4 million, and another former Jet, guard Dwayne White, signed a five-year, $10-million contract with the Rams, $3 million of which was a signing bonus. . . . Winning the Super Bowl earned each of the 49ers an additional $80,000 from postseason play, the NFL said.

Basketball

UCLA (25-2) kept the No. 1 position for the third consecutive week with 1,624 points, 72 more than Kentucky (25-4), which moved up one place in the rankings in the final Associated Press poll of the regular season.

Connecticut was No. 1 in the final AP women’s poll for the first time.

UCLA assistant coach Lorenzo Romar, on the verge of being offered the job, canceled his scheduled trip to Las Vegas to interview for the vacant Nevada Las Vegas head-coaching position and has no further meetings with UNLV officials planned.

Senior forward Lorenzo Orr, who led USC in scoring the last two seasons and finished his career as the school’s leading shot-blocker, was named the Trojans’ most valuable player. . . . Glenn McDonald, coach of the Long Beach State women’s basketball team, has been reassigned to new duties within the athletic department. . . . Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will not renew the contracts of men’s basketball coach Steve Beason, whose team went 1-26, and women’s coach Jill Orrock, whose team was 6-20.

Boxing

Riddick Bowe met Mike Tyson in an Indiana prison, and the two boxers talked for 45 minutes about a possible $120 million fight after the former heavyweight champion is released. Tyson is scheduled for release March 25.

Names in the News

The International Ski Federation canceled results of last Saturday’s men’s World Cup downhill race at Kvitfjell, Norway because it was completed by only 37 skiers. By annulling the race won by Italy’s Pietro Vitalini ahead of Austrians Josef Strobl and Armin Assinger, the FIS conformed to its decision to cancel the men’s downhill at Aspen, where only 31 skiers finished. American AJ Kitt “won” that race before it was cut short.

Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakhstan, skiing barehanded because of unusually warm weather, won his third 15-kilometer cross-country skiing gold medal of the Nordic World Championships at Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Assuming no sudden weather change, Doug Swingley of Simms, Mont., is expected to cross the finish line in Nome, Alaska, this afternoon and become the first non-Alaskan to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Jeff Gillooly, ex-husband of figure skater Tonya Harding, was released from prison after serving six months of a two-year sentence for racketeering. Gillooly, who changed his name to Jeff Stone last week, finished his sentence early by going through an Oregon boot camp program. . . . The Chilean Navy joined the search for 70-year-old British sailor Henry Mitchell, lost for 11 days while competing in the BOC singles round-the-world challenge race.

Miscellany

A new scoring system in use by the Educational Testing Service will require prospective athletes to score 820 on the Scholastic Assessment Test to be eligible to compete as freshmen at Division I and II schools this fall. The higher score does not mean students will have to do better on the SAT in most cases, but is a near equivalent to a combined math and verbal score of 700 under the old system.