After Citing Burnout, Parkhill Decides to Resign at Penn State

Bruce Parkhill, who revitalized the Penn State basketball team when it joined the Big Ten Conference, resigned unexpectedly as coach Wednesday, saying he was burned out.

Parkhill, who guided the Nittany Lions to a 21-11 record last season and a third-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament, was replaced by long-time assistant Jerry Dunn. Parkhill will remain at the school as assistant athletic director.

“I just haven’t enjoyed coaching as much as I used to--it’s that simple,” he said. “This is not a sudden decision. I have contemplated getting out of coaching for seven or eight years. And then every summer, I would get rejuvenated.”

Parkhill, 46, said he couldn’t get excited about the upcoming season, despite Penn State’s new 15,000-seat arena opening in January.

“I always felt that coaching is not and cannot be a job, it has to be a passion,” he said. “It has to be something you have every bit as much enthusiasm about as you demand from players.”

Dunn, 42, has been at Penn State for Parkhill’s 12-year tenure. Before that, he was on the staff at George Mason for six seasons.

Parkhill, a native of State College, Pa., and a graduate of nearby Lock Haven University, had a 181-169 record at Penn State, with one trip to the NCAA tournament. He was 89-75 in six seasons as coach of William & Mary.

Penn State had four consecutive 20-victory seasons from 1988-89 to 1991-92, the season before the Nittany Lions began Big Ten play. They have improved each year in the conference, from 7-20 to 13-14 to 21-11 last season.

Basketball

NBA players return to voting booths around the country today for the second and final session to decide whether they will accept the pending six-year contract from the league or decertify the union and put the start of the season in jeopardy.

Today’s tabulation will be combined with Aug. 30 polling. The result will be announced Tuesday. A majority of those who voted--not of the approximately 420 players eligible--is needed to decide the outcome.

Boxing

Former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Oliver McCall denied he failed to take a drug test after losing his title to Great Britain’s Frank Bruno on Saturday and threatened to quit boxing if he is suspended permanently.

McCall was provisionally suspended by the WBC for allegedly refusing to submit to obligatory anti-doping tests after losing the 12-round decision in London.

“I think they have got the wrong information,” McCall said.

“If they suspend me [permanently], I am officially retired. I’ve made enough money. I’m a rich man and I don’t need this.”

Golf

European-team veteran Nick Faldo will play in the Ryder Cup in two weeks, Captain Bernard Gallacher said. Faldo, a three-time British Open and two-time Masters champion, pulled out of this week’s Lancome Trophy in Canada because of an injured right wrist.

Jurisprudence

Former Cleveland Brown linebacker Eddie Johnson was sentenced in Cleveland to 12 months on probation and 200 hours of community service for harboring his half-brother, Charles Henderson, a fugitive felon.

Johnson, 36, was convicted in June of hiding Henderson, who escaped from a Georgia prison last summer. Henderson, who has a long history of violent crimes, was serving two life sentences.

While in Cleveland, authorities said, Henderson committed several robberies, including one in which a 14-year-old was held hostage to force the boy’s grandfather to withdraw money from a bank.

The Oregon Court of Appeals overturned a damage award of $292,000 to former Oregon basketball coach Don Monson because the state did not break a contract agreement with him.

After Monson’s team went 6-21 in 1991-92, he left the job when former athletic director Bill Byrne told him that he was being reassigned as a golf coach. Monson, 60 at the time, had a contract through 1994.

The appeals court today sided with state lawyers who said no contractual rights were violated.

Hockey

The Buffalo Sabres were charged with trying to break the union representing ticket takers and sellers at Memorial Auditorium by hiring an outside company to handle those tasks.

The Service Employees International Union, Local 235, representing about 120 part-time workers at the auditorium, filed an unfair labor practice charge against the team’s owners with the National Labor Relations Board.

Union officials also threatened to picket Buffalo games and the home of Sabre Chairman Seymour Knox III and President Doug Moss.

Detroit goalie Mike Vernon will remain an unrestricted free agent after an arbitrator ruled that the Red Wings’ final contract offer was not accepted.

Vernon, who helped the Red Wings to the NHL’s best record and to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 29 years last season, said he agreed to a two-year, $5.45-million contract with the Red Wings on June 30. The Red Wings said they withdrew the offer.

Names in the News

Tim Leiweke, who stepped down as president of the Denver Nuggets six months ago, has been selected head of U.S. Skiing. . . . German Alanis, 12, of Watsonville, Calif., who died after heading a soccer ball, suffered from a malformed artery in his brain and would not have lived much longer in any case, according to doctors.