Miami Officials Cite Erickson for Failure of Policy

A report by Paul Dee, Miami’s athletic director, points the finger at former football coach Dennis Erickson for the school’s failed drug policy.

In a closed-door meeting with school trustees, Dee and university President Edward T. Foote accepted partial blame for Hurricane athletes playing in games despite testing positive for drug use.

“It is clear from the report that [Dee] made to us that there were results of certain drug tests that were not reported to him by Coach Erickson which should have been reported to him,” said Ron Stone, chairman of the athletic affairs committee of the Board of Trustees.

Dee “accepts responsibility, but the perpetrator of the non-communication is Coach Erickson,” Stone added.

Said another trustee, who didn’t want to be identified: “The way it was explained, there was no question that the intent was to blame it on Erickson and his staff.”

Foote declined comment, and Dee said he wasn’t trying to make Erickson the scapegoat. In Seattle, Erickson, now coach of the Seahawks, also declined to comment Saturday. But he has said that he was not responsible for drug-positive athletes playing and has threatened to sue anyone who accuses him of wrongdoing.

On Thursday, Dee said three athletes in the past five years played though they should have been suspended for multiple positive tests.

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Los Angeles police say no report was filed on the May 12 shooting of Deon Figures, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ cornerback who told the team he was the victim of a random accident.

The Steelers described the incident variously as a random shooting and “a shooting drive-by,” but offered no substantiation for the statement. Figures told the club he was shot in South Central Los Angeles while he was taking friends home.

Figures underwent surgery to repair a damaged left knee tendon and could be out until midseason.

Tennis

Trailing, 2-3, in the final set and down, 0-40, on his serve, Thomas Muster won 17 of the last 20 points to defeat Wayne Ferreira, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, and reach the final of the Italian Open in Rome. Muster extended his clay-court winning streak to 27 matches, four short of Mats Wilander’s record.

In today’s final, Muster will play eighth-seeded Sergi Bruguera, who defeated No. 3 Goran Ivanisevic, 6-4, 6-4.

Top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario was down, 4-6, 1-3, before rallying for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over unseeded Irina Spirlea in the semifinals of the German Open in Berlin. Sanchez Vicario’s opponent in the final will be Magdalena Maleeva, who defeated Natasha Zvereva, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).

In a mixture of something old and something new, John McEnroe chipped and sliced his way to a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Bjorn Borg in the Challenge tournament at Pebble Beach. The two have competed against each other many times, but this was their first match on clay. McEnroe plays Jimmy Connors in the final today.

Motor Racing

Jeff Gordon pulled away from Sterling Marlin over the final 10 laps to win the Winston Select at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. It was a $300,000 payday for the 23-year-old Gordon, who became the youngest winner of the event.

Ricky Rudd was third, and Rusty Wallace and 1994 Select winner Geoff Bodine rounded out the top five.

Warren Johnson defeated Larry Morgan to win the DuPont Pro Stock Challenge at Englishtown, N.J. Johnson drove his Oldsmobile Cutlass to a pass of 7.033 seconds at 196.33 m.p.h.

Larry Dixon (top fuel), Al Hofmann (funny cars), Johnson (pro stock) and John Myers (pro stock motorcycles) were the No. 1 qualifiers heading into today’s final eliminations for the Mopar Parts Nationals competition.

Hockey

Former King player Steve Kasper, who coached Boston’s top farm club at Providence, R.I., this season, reportedly was near an agreement to become the new coach of the Bruins, replacing the fired Brian Sutter.

Denver City Atty. Dan Muse says his office has been informed by COMSAT Video Enterprises that it hopes to make an announcement about the purchase of the Quebec Nordiques as soon as Monday.

However, Nordique majority owner Marcel Aubut reportedly hasn’t given up on making a deal with the provincial government to keep the team in Quebec.

Soccer

Paul Rideout’s breakaway goal in the 30th minute, when he headed in a rebound of Graham Stuart’s shot, and goalkeeper Neville Southall’s two big saves led Everton to a 1-0 upset of Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley, England.

Names in the News

ABC sports broadcaster Jim McKay, who is recovering from heart bypass surgery in Baltimore, was upgraded from critical to good condition. . . . Sports artist and photographer Robert Riger, whose work in illustration, still photography and film spanned nearly five decades and won numerous awards, has died at 70 in Huntington Beach.