Chargers Select Smith as Successor to Butler

Preparation for the NFL draft didn’t leave A.J. Smith much time to mourn the death of his friend and colleague John Butler.

“It’s a sensitive thing -- but business as usual,” said Smith, who succeeded Butler as general manager of the San Diego Chargers on Tuesday.

That’s how Butler ran things during the nine months he fought lung cancer and then lymphoma. Business as usual.

Hours after Butler was diagnosed with lung cancer on July 4, he gave Smith, then the team’s assistant general manager and pro personnel director, additional duties of scouting college players.

Just in case.

Butler didn’t live to see one of his favorite times of year, when he had a knack for plucking future stars out of no-name schools as well as traditional powers.

Shortly after Butler died April 11, team President Dean Spanos announced that Smith would direct the Chargers in this weekend’s draft. There was a quick trip to Sidney, Ill., for Butler’s funeral last Wednesday, and then it was back to long days and nights of watching videotape and meeting with scouts and coaches to evaluate college prospects.

On Tuesday, the Chargers took a short break from draft preparations to introduce Smith as Butler’s successor.

Golf

Hale Irwin, Tom Kite and Tom Watson, who have played the U.S. Open a total of 93 times, and won five, have accepted special exemptions to the 2003 tournament at Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago, June 12-15.

It will be the 34th U.S. Open appearance for Irwin, at 57 a three-time champion, the last 33 of them in succession. Kite, 53, will be playing his 32nd U.S. Open. He won it in 1992 at Pebble Beach. Watson, 53, the 1982 Open champion at Pebble Beach, will be playing his 29th consecutive U.S. Open.

Tennis

A change of surface presented no problem for Andre Agassi, who needed only 47 minutes to beat Croatian Zeljko Krajan in the first round of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships at Houston, 6-2, 6-0. Agassi has won three tournaments this year, among them the Australian Open, and his victory brought his record to 19-1.

Miscellany

Tom Crean signed a new contract to remain men’s basketball coach at Marquette, ending speculation that he was a leading contender to take the Illinois job vacated recently by Bill Self, who moved on to Kansas.

Crean, who led Marquette to its first Final Four appearance in 26 years, said that he’d signed a new deal. Terms were not disclosed.

The Ice Castle figure skating training center in Lake Arrowhead, the practice base for many Olympic skaters, has been sold to Australian Olympian Anthony Liu in a deal expected to close May 1, a spokeswoman for the Ice Castle complex said.

Liu, who intends to continue operating the facility for skaters, bought the property from Carol Probst. A separate portion of the property was sold as an educational camp for children.

Lawyers for the WNBA and its players’ union met to complete a new collective bargaining agreement.

Russell White, the career-rushing leader at California, and All-American offensive lineman Troy Auzenne will be inducted with five others into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame. White, an Encino Crespi graduate, rushed for 3,367 yards at Cal and played one year in the NFL.

Passings

Mike Larrabee, a former USC athlete who won gold medals in the 400 meters and 1,600-meter relay at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, died after battling pancreatic cancer at Santa Maria, Calif. He was 69.