Housley’s Deal Makes Him Richest Capital

Free agent defenseman Phil Housley signed a three-year contract with the Washington Capitals Monday, saying the team might give him his last strong chance for a playoff run.

Housley, a six-time all-star, split last season between Calgary and New Jersey. Terms of his deal were not disclosed, but he reportedly will become the highest-paid player in the club’s history.

Housley, a native of St. Paul, Minn., last season surpassed Bobby Orr to rank fourth in career goals scored by a defenseman, with 274. With 950 points in 990 games, the 15-year veteran is sixth on the career list for defensemen. Traded mid-season to the Devils in a five-player deal, he collected 17 goals and 51 assists.

Housley joins a team that finished fourth in the Atlantic Division last season with a 39-32-11 record and scored 234 goals, the NHL’s sixth-lowest total.

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The San Jose Sharks re-signed free agent forward Chris Tancill. Terms of the contract weren’t disclosed. In 45 games with San Jose last season, Tancill had seven goals and 16 assists.

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The Dallas Stars signed goaltender Arturs Irbe after the San Jose Sharks declined to match a one-year contract offer worth a reported $400,000. Irbe, 29, lost his starting job last season to Chris Terreri and Wade Flaherty, and the Sharks recently signed free-agent goalie Kelly Hrudey, formerly of the Kings.

Tennis

Prosecutors wouldn’t say if they will end a tax evasion investigation of Steffi Graf if she pays $2 million, which the Hamburg-based news weekly Der Spiegel reported she will pay in back taxes.

Spaniard Emilio Sanchez defeated local favorite Thomas Schiessling, 6-3, 6-4, at the Generali Open at Kitzbuehl, Austria. In another first-round match, Italy’s Omar Camporese beat Youness El Aynaoui of Morocco, 6-4, 6-4.

College Football

The NCAA cut one scholarship from Tennessee’s allotment next year for a secondary rules violation involving former assistant Steve Marshall, now the line coach at UCLA.

Athletic Director Doug Dickey said Tennessee will have 24 initial grants-in-aid available when the next football signing period begins in February.

The NCAA has been investigating the case involving Marshall and former offensive tackle Leslie Ratliffe since early last season, when reports surfaced that Ratliffe may have accepted gifts from a booster. Ratliffe was held out of competition after playing the first two of Tennessee’s 12 games, and eventually was suspended from the team for an undisclosed violation of team rules, reportedly failing a drug test.

The NCAA found that Ratliffe got money, car repairs and a motel room from booster Charles Walling of Nashville and that Marshall did not report it.

College Basketball

DePaul rejected Chicago high school player Ronnie Fields’ admission application, citing academic reasons. Fields, a 6-foot-4 guard, qualified under the NCAA’s Proposition 48 and was expected to sit out his freshman year. He averaged 32.5 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and four blocked shots per game as a senior at Chicago’s Farragut Academy and was named Illinois’ Mr. Basketball.

Coach Joey Meyer said he was disappointed but that he has no role in deciding admissions.

“Talk about an athlete,” Meyer said. “He’s an NBA athlete right now. This isn’t to say he doesn’t need to work on his game. He does. But Ronnie is one of the most explosive basketball players I’ve seen in 26 years of recruiting.”

Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn., is upgrading its athletic program to the NCAA Division I level. The announcement was accompanied by the hiring of former St. John’s assistant Joe Santis as the new men’s basketball coach.

Southland Report

The Aug. 3 Sports Award Roast honoring ailing Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda was postponed indefinitely, according to Ed Handler, president of the Apparel Industries for the City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute.

Hector Quiroz stopped Marlon Thomas at 2:59 of the second round in a disputed knockout in a North American Boxing Organization junior welterweight fight at the Forum. Thomas’ handlers said that the decisive punch, a right hand to the temple, was thrown after the bell, but referee Larry Rozadilla counted Thomas out, after which Thomas was taken from the ring on a stretcher to Westside Community Hospital for tests.

A hospital spokesman said Thomas appeared to have no serious injuries.

Driver Jeff Krosnoff, killed in a crash at the Toronto Molson-Indy, was remembered at a memorial service in La Canada Flintridge attended by 1,100.