Cardinal Owner Goes On the Record, Fires Ryan

Two seasons after telling Arizona fans “you’ve got a winner in town,” Buddy Ryan was fired as coach on Tuesday, a day after another loss.

Ryan, whose team wrapped up a 4-12 season by losing to the Dallas Cowboys, 37-13, was dismissed during a brief meeting with Cardinal owner Bill Bidwill after compiling a 12-20 record over two seasons.

Though some people were alienated by Ryan, 61, many Cardinals were loyal to the end.

Larry Centers, who set a record for catches by a running back (101), said he would like to be traded.

“I’m a Buddy man, and I didn’t want to see him go,” Centers said.

“He’s an honest guy, a guy who treats players fair, a guy who tells it to you like it is and not somebody who’s going to sugar-coat things.”

Linebacker Eric Hill said the issue was as much politics as the Cardinals’ seven losses in the last eight games.

Bidwill is trying to marshal support for a $200-million domed stadium, which would need some public funding.

“The decision was based on his record,” Bidwill said. “We made the decision as quickly as possible so we can begin to go forward.”

Dissension between the defense--Ryan’s pride and joy--and offense also led to Ryan’s dismissal. Before Monday night’s game, Hill and an unidentified offensive player got into a fistfight.

Ryan was not available for comment Tuesday, but he had said all season he believed Bidwill would give him one more year.

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The New York Giants announced that 75 season tickets will be canceled because of a snowball barrage Saturday at the Giant-San Diego Charger game that left 15 injured and nearly resulted in the first forfeit in NFL history.

Fifteen people were arrested and 175 were ejected from the stadium, including a retired police chief.

“People pay good money to come to Giants Stadium to enjoy a football game,” Giant owner Wellington Mara said in a statement released by the team. “They do not pay to subject themselves to possible physical harm or verbal abuse.”

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After taking the Philadelphia Eagles to a 10-6 record in his first season, Ray Rhodes was named the NFL’s coach of the year, edging Carolina’s Dom Capers and Kansas City’s Marty Schottenheimer in balloting conducted by the Associated Press.

Colleges

North Alabama, which this season won its third Division II football championship in a row, will lose the equivalent of 23 football scholarships over four years and 15 baseball scholarships over eight years as part of a self-imposed penalty for violations of NCAA rules involving scholarship limits.

Jurisprudence

Mary Gain, 66, was charged with shooting her husband, former Cleveland Brown defensive tackle Bob Gain, 66, during an argument at their home in Cleveland.

Miscellany

Libya is reviving its athletic teams, banned more than a decade ago by Col. Moammar Kadafi, to show the country can function despite United Nations sanctions that make it difficult to get in and out of the country.

The Chicago Cubs signed free-agent third baseman Dave Magadan to a one-year contract. Magadan, 33, hit .313 in 127 games for Houston last season with 24 doubles, two home runs and 51 runs batted in.

Right-hander Armando Reynoso, who went 7-7 with a 5.32 earned-run average last season in a comeback from elbow surgery, signed a one-year contract with the Colorado Rockies.

Three-time defending champion Canada defeated the United States, 6-1, on the opening day of the World Junior Hockey Championship in Worcester, Mass. The annual tournament brings together the world’s best hockey players under 20 years old. In other games, the Czech Republic beat Russia, 5-3; Finland defeated Switzerland, 5-1; and Sweden beat Slovakia, 6-0.