Tennessee Professor Calls for Reforms

A University of Tennessee professor, Linda Bensel-Meyers, petitioned the school’s Faculty Senate to take a bigger part in monitoring academic fraud in the athletic department Monday.

Bensel-Meyers came forward in the fall of 1999 with allegations that, among other things, tutors wrote papers for athletes--particularly football players--and that athletes were steered toward easy classes and had low grades raised after they completed courses.

The university and the NCAA have found no wrongdoing, but have continued their investigations.

“As faculty at the University of Tennessee, we are charged with defending the educational mission of the institution, not with protecting the business of college athletics, a business that depends foremost on recruiting the best athletes who would not be admitted as qualified for college work if they were not athletes,” Bensel-Meyers told the Senate.

Football

Joel Blankenship, a high school football coach at Detroit Murray-Wright accused of hitting a player with a wooden paddle because of poor grades, was suspended.

The Detroit Lions retained Richard Selcer as coach of defensive backs but fired three other assistants: assistant strength and conditioning coach Rob Graf, offensive line coach Pat Ruel and quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn.

The Lions said that former Buffalo Bill assistant Carl Mauck will coach the offensive line and former New York Jet assistant Maurice Carthon will be the running backs coach.

A judge in Los Angeles denied the NFL’s request to dismiss the Oakland Raiders’ suit claiming the league owes the team money for losing the L.A. market. The trial is scheduled to begin March 7.

Baseball

The New York Mets hired Edgar Alfonzo, older brother of second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo, to manage their minor-league affiliate in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Cyclones, of the Class A New York-Penn League, will be the first professional baseball team to play in Brooklyn since the Dodgers left for Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

Relief pitcher Esteban Yan and outfielder Jose Guillen avoided arbitration by agreeing to one-year contracts with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Winter Sports

Alois Lipburger, the coach of Austria’s ski jumping team, was killed in a car accident while returning home from a World Cup competition at Willingen, Germany. Two members of the team, Andreas Widhoelzl and Martin Hoellwarth, suffered bruises in the crash. . . . Kjetil-Andre Aamodt of Norway held a narrow lead after the two slalom runs of the combined World Cup event at St. Anton, Austria. Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., was fourth after recording the fastest second heat of the slalom.

Every figure skating session at the Salt Lake City Winter Games has sold out, the Salt Lake organizing committee said.

Miscellany

The Los Angeles Xtreme’s first XFL game, Sunday at Pacific Bell Park against the San Francisco Demons, drew a 5.0 rating and a 13 share on UPN, beating all other sports programming that day in L.A., except the Lakers.

The Lakers’ game against the Sacramento Kings drew a 6.8 rating in L.A. with an 18 share, even though NBC missed the entire first quarter because the earlier NBA game ran long.

The NFL’s Pro Bowl on Channel 7 got 4.7-11, and the Pebble Beach golf on Channel 2 got 4.5-12.

Saturday, NBC’s first XFL telecast, the New York/New Jersey Hitmen against the Las Vegas Outlaws, got an impressive 10.3 national overnight rating and a 9.4 in Los Angeles. UCLA’s upset of top-ranked Stanford on Channel 7 earlier Saturday got a 2.4 in L.A.

Bruce Simon, who led the Creighton men’s soccer team to the national championship game, resigned to become Stanford’s coach.