Olympic Ticket Favoritism Criticized

Consumer groups and others are questioning the propriety of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games offering hundreds of top state, federal and local officials preferential treatment for coveted tickets to prime events.

While others will depend on luck in a lottery for tickets to opening and closing ceremonies, swimming and gymnastics, the officials can buy two tickets, at $636 each, to either ceremony and to marquee events and up to 50 tickets to other competitions.

“I make no apology for this,” said Dick Yarbrough, the committee’s managing director of communications. “These are our tickets and these are people who, like our sponsors, are essential to our ability to put on the Games.”

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The Utah Supreme Court rejected a petition seeking to curb Salt Lake City’s spending on its 2002 Winter Games bid.

Basketball

University of Utah assistant Donny Daniels said he made a mistake and was put on probation after suggesting that Richie Parker, a New York high school guard and a prospective recruit convicted of sex abuse involving a 15-year-old girl, has suffered more than his victim.

Dave Twardzik, player personnel director for the Charlotte Hornets, apparently was hired as general manager of the Golden State Warriors. . . . Arkansas, which lost to UCLA in the NCAA title game; Fresno State, with new Coach Jerry Tarkanian; Arizona and Long Beach State are among the 16 teams that will make up the field of the Preseason NIT.

Football

Lawrence Taylor says that “there’s probably a 30% chance I’ll play” in the NFL again, but his former coach, Bill Parcells, says there is a 100% chance that it won’t be for him in New England, and his former team, the New York Giants, agrees.

The president of the University of Miami, Edward Foote, and the school’s former compliance director, Doug Johnson, say they were unaware of changes in the athletic department’s drug policy until it came under recent scrutiny.

The school is investigating its drug policy after allegations that positive test results involving football players were hidden.

Former Nevada Las Vegas players Frederick Sowerby, 19, and William Yates, 18, are to plead guilty to charges stemming from a purse snatching in which a 66-year-old woman was knocked down.

Miscellany

Mohamed Nayim lobbed in a 40-yard shot in the last minute of overtime to give Real Zaragoza of Spain a 2-1 victory over defending champion Arsenal of England in the Cup Winners Cup soccer final in Paris several hours after fans and French riot police clashed near the Eiffel Tower.

An air-conditioning system that was not set properly led to the deaths of 20 greyhounds at Jacksonville Kennel Club. Temperatures in the kennel reached the mid-90s Tuesday but none of the heat detector alarms went off.

Historians, scholars, athletes and journalists will gather in Long Beach on May 26-29 for the 23rd annual conference of the North American Society for Sport History.

Auto Racing

Rookie Davey Hamilton became the first driver to hit the wall at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month, suffering a mild concussion and severe bruise on his left knee when his Reynard-Ford crashed in the fourth turn when his right rear suspension failed during practice. . . . Weldon Adams, a former driver and NASCAR pioneer, died in McCormick, S.C., at 66.

Boxing

Led by defending champions Felix Savon, a heavyweight, and Ariel Hernandez, a middleweight, five Cubans clinched medals at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Berlin, and Carlos Navarro, a bantamweight from Los Angeles, lost a 9-2 decision to Poland’s Robert Ciba in the semifinals.

A federal judge in Nashville, Tenn., dismissed most of a $150-million libel suit filed by former boxer Randall (Tex) Cobb against Sports Illustrated.

Names in the News

Veteran ABC sportscaster Jim McKay, 74, will undergo elective heart surgery next week at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. . . . Golfer Ben Hogan, 82, remained in fair and stable condition after undergoing emergency tumor surgery in Ft. Worth.