Group Calls for Probe of School

A civil rights group is urging the U.S. Justice Department to investigate allegations of racism in the University of South Florida women’s basketball program and is warning prospective students not to enroll until the matter is resolved.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference approved a resolution at its board meeting last week in Montgomery, Ala., saying black athletes were subject to “Jim Crow and apartheid treatment” at South Florida.

The Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, SCLC’s founder, said the request for a formal inquiry would be made by the group’s president, Martin Luther King III.

The resolution tells prospective South Florida students that blacks are “disregarded and disrespected” by university administration and in state government, a reference to Gov. Jeb Bush’s “One Florida” plan, which ended racial preferences in university enrollment.

Eight former and current members of the women’s basketball team have filed a $10-million federal discrimination lawsuit against the university, school President Judy Genshaft and former basketball coach Jerry Ann Winters.

The suit contends that blacks on the team were segregated, demeaned and retaliated against by Winters, and accuses university officials of doing nothing to remedy the situation. Winters has denied the allegations.

Soccer

Kasey Keller, the U.S. national team goalkeeper has joined Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League.

Miami Fusion Coach Ray Hudson, 46, was released from a Boston hospital. Hudson was admitted Saturday for tests after complaining of dizziness during the Fusion’s game against New England.

Jurisprudence

The man who killed the daughter of former Raider star Fred Biletnikoff was sentenced in Redwood City to 55 years to life in prison. Mohammed Haroon Ali, who had been dating Tracey Biletnikoff, admitted strangling her on Feb. 15, 1999. She was 20.

Former boxing champion Pernell Whitaker was released from jail in Virginia Beach, Va., on $5,000 bond. Whitaker was arrested on Friday on suspicion of possession of cocaine.

Federal prosecutors served noticed they might appeal U.S. District Judge David Sam’s dismissal of the most serious charges in the Olympic corruption case.

Prosecutors think Sam’s racketeering dismissal is vulnerable on appeal, based on a series of opinions by a federal magistrate who upheld all of the Olympic charges. Sam did not follow Magistrate Ronald Boyce’s recommendations.

Sam ruled last week that Olympic lobbying isn’t organized crime and that prosecutors can’t use a state commercial bribery law to leverage racketeering charges.

Miscellany

Andy Roddick outlasted Australian Wayne Arthurs, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (4), to advance to the second round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic at Washington.

Kentucky has until Oct. 5 to respond to an official letter of inquiry from the NCAA regarding violations in its football program. .... An arbitrator awarded Phoenix Coyote center Daymond Langkow a two-year, $4.2-million contract.... The USC women’s volleyball team is ranked second in the preseason coaches’ poll. UCLA is seventh.