Cardinals Name Vince Tobin Head Coach

The Arizona Cardinals hired Vince Tobin as coach on Wednesday, the second time he’s been hired as a replacement for Buddy Ryan. Tobin, the Indianapolis Colts’ defensive coordinator last season, is the Cardinals’ fifth coach since the team moved to Arizona from St. Louis in 1988.

Tobin, 52, replaced Ryan, who was fired Dec. 26 after two seasons and a 12-20 record. Tobin replaced Ryan in 1986 as defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears when Ryan became coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The new coach said he was optimistic about putting together a winning team quickly.

“I think the nucleus of this team is such that we can put together an excellent team in a very short period,” he said.

Tobin demurred when asked if he was saying there was “a winner in town,” the now infamous way Ryan described himself when he was hired Feb. 3, 1994.

“I’ve never gone into a game or a season thinking we couldn’t win,” Tobin said. “Now, is that a goal? I don’t know, but the only purpose of coaching or playing in the National Football League is to win, is to want to get to the Super Bowl.”

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More than 125,000 screaming fans lined a downtown parade route to hail the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys, who glided by on silver and blue floats. With fans decked out in Cowboys colors and waving pompons, the players--including quarterback Troy Aikman, whose right arm was bandaged one day after arthroscopic elbow surgery--rode atop more than a half dozen floats along the 1 1/2-mile course.

Calgary Stampeder quarterback Doug Flutie has been given permission by the Canadian Football League to sign with the Toronto Argonauts.

Flutie’s contract with Calgary runs through 1999, but CFL commissioner Larry Smith has pressured the Stampeders into trading the 1984 Heisman Trophy winner to Toronto for the sake of the league.

Baseball

In what would be the first trade between American and Japanese major league teams, the Boston Red Sox are discussing a deal to acquire pitcher Robinson Checo from the Hiroshima Toyo Carp after the 1996 season for a player to be named later and perhaps some cash.

First baseman David Segui agreed to terms of a two-year deal with the Montreal Expos, avoiding a arbitration hearing scheduled earlier in the day in Chicago. Terms of the new contract weren’t disclosed, but the figures submitted for arbitration showed that the Expos offered $1.1 million a season while Segui had requested $2 million.

The Chicago Cubs came to terms with the last of their arbitration-eligible players, agreeing to a $1.6 million, one-year contract with pitcher Frank Castillo. Castillo, 27, asked for a salary of $2.18 million when he filed for arbitration. The Cubs countered with an offer of $1.2 million.

The New York Yankees signed reliever Jeff Nelson to a two-year contract, avoiding salary arbitration with the right-hander. He was acquired as part of the trade that sent first baseman Tino Martinez to New York in exchange for left-hander Sterling Hitchcock and third baseman Russell Davis. . . . The New York Mets signed utility man Jerry Browne to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training as a nonroster player. . . . The Kansas City Royals re-signed pitcher Dave Fleming to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training as a nonroster player.

Miscellany

Randall Evans won the 50-meter sprint at the World Class track and field meet in Moscow and fellow American, Andre Cason, finished third. Ukrainian Sergei Osovich was second.

Namibia’s Frank Fredericks won the 60-200 sprint double in 6.52 and 20.37 seconds at the Coke indoor track meet in Ghent, Belgium, and Russia’s Irina Privalova opened her winter season with a convincing victory in the 60-meter dash.

Europe’s most powerful soccer clubs backed away from a super league and threw their support behind the European governing body’s planned changes for three club competitions.

In a meeting with the owners of 33 clubs, including AC Milan, Ajax of Amsterdam, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United, UEFA president Lennart Johansson said the idea of a super league, suggested by Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein, wasn’t that warmly received.

Jeff Lukas, thoroughbred horse trainer who suffered severe head injuries in December of 1993 when run over in the barn area at Santa Anita by Tabasco Cat, will be honored Feb. 19 at the annual Casa Colina Tribute to Courage dinner at the Huntington Ritz Carlton Hotel in Pasadena. The dinner will be held for the benefit of Casa Colina, the hospital in Pomona where Lukas, son of trainer Wayne Lukas, did his rehabilitation.