Page 10-Tuesday, July 14,1981-The Michigan Daily
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SPOR TS OF THE DAILY
Brown wants Allen at Kentucky
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP)-Kentucky Gov. John
Y. Brown Jr. said yesterday he would like to see for-
mer National Football League Coach George Allen
take over the University of Kentucky football
program because "we've lost long enough."
"You can ask whether I'vi got any business getting
involved, and that's a good question," Brown said. "I
just want to get a job done."
Conceding that replacing a football coach is a
decision for the Wildcats Athletic.Board, Brown said,
"That's one of those academic things. We'll see what
happens."
A Lexington, Ky. sports magazine reported last
week that Brown had been trying for several months
to replace Kentucky coach Fran Curci, apparently
because of his poor record in recent years.
"We've had some problems up there-disciplinary
problems, problems that I think are related to our
football program," Brown said.
"Sometimes these establishments like to prolong
the inevitable," he said. "I brought Fran there and
introduced him to Dr. Singletary, and he had some
good years, but our program has fallen on hard
times, and I want to see us turned around. Nothing
personal with Fran, but when something is not going
in the right direction, change it."
Allen, 59, who coached NFL teams in Los Angeles,
Washington and Chicago, is now a sportscaster for
CBS television. Brown's wife has been a sportscaster
for CBS for several years.
"I've talked with him (Allen)," Brown said. "He
thinks we can compete with the Penn States, the
Alabamas, the Georgias, the Tennessees. But you've
got to have a recruiting program. You've got to have
the talent there.
"I think someone like George Allen can give us an
advantage in recruiting because every outstanding
high school player is going to want to someday go to
the pros."
Allen said in a copyright story yesterday in The
Courier-Journal in Louisville that he is interested in
becoming head coach at Kentucky.
"Anybody, whether he's in college football or
professional football, would have to be interested in
the potential of a great school like Kentucky," Allen
was quoted as saying in a telephone interview from
his home in Palos Verdes, Calif.
The potential is there to turn Kentucky, a perennial
loser, into a football power, Allen said.
"They've got such great facilities," he said. "I
know there's lots of enthusiasm and pride, and I know
they've supported the program. All you have to do is
look at those attendance figures at 57,000-seat Com-
monwealth Stadium. That's unusual to get that kind
of support when you haven't won alot."
More George Allen
BALTIMORE (AP) - Owner Robert Irsay of the
Baltimore Colts said yesterday that he had rejected a
$50 million bid for the National Football League
team.
According to a story in the Baltimore Evening Sun,
Irsay was asked about a bid from a syndicate which
included former Washington Redskins Coach George
Allen.
"SURE, THE ALLEN offer is true," Irsay said in a
telephone interview with Evening Sun sports writer
Jim Miller, "but I told him 'no.' He has been talking
to me for several weeks."
Irsay, who is finding it difficult to convince people
he is not interested in moving the Colts, also noted
that he was buying a condominium in Baltimore.
"I'll be in town tomorrow to close that and to sign
my first-round draft choice," Irsay said. "If I was
going to sell the Colts, I doubt if I would spend a
couple hundred thousand dollars on a condominium."
IRSAY SAID "quite a few" people have tried to buy
the Colts, including Edgar Kaiser Jr. before he pur-
chased the Denver Broncos last February.
"I was very happy to get these offers," Irsay said,
"but I talked to (NFL Commissioner) Pete Rozelle
last week and told him I didn't need any more. These
are all unsolicited, but they stem from several years
ago."
Sayers resigns
CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP)-Gale Sayers, the for-
mer All-Pro Chicago Bears running back, resigned
his post yesterday as men's athletic director at
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
SAYERS, 38, who assumed his SIU-C post in 1676,
said he was resigning because he "wished to pursue a
number of opportunities in private business." The
resignation is effective Sept. 1.
Bruce Swinburne, vice president for student affairs
at SIU-C and the coordinator for intercollegiate
athletics, said he has accepted the resignation "with
deepest reluctance but with wishes for continued suc-
cess in whatever he undertakes." Swinburne said
there are no immediate plans for a successor.
I
I
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U.S. discus thrower banned rom
international athletics or life
LONDON (AP)-Discus world record-holder Ben Plucknett of the United States
yesterday was banned for life from international athletics after a test for anabolic
steroids proved positive.
Plucknett was barred along with Australian woman discus thrower and shot-
putter Gael Mulhall, a former Commonwealth Games champion.
THE DISCIPLINARY action was announced by John Holt, general secretary of
the International Athletic Federation, and followed routine tests made on the two
during the Pacific Conference Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, in January.
Plucknett had denied using anabolic steroids, which add weight and strength, af-
ter bettering his own world mark with a throw of 237 feet, 4 inches in Stockholm
last Tuesday. The 27-year-old former bouncer from Nebraska, now based in San
Jose, Calif., eclipsed his previous world mark of 233-7, which was set in Modesto,
Calif., May 16.
The ban robs Plucknett of the record, which now reverts to Wolfgang Schmidt of
East Germany, who threw 233-5on Aug. 9, 1978.
PLUCKNETT AND MULHALL both won their events in Christchurch, but those
victories and all subsequent achievements now are scratched from the record
books.
A short statement issued by the IAAF in London said that samples taken from
the two athletes in Christchurch revealed that "a measure of anabolic steroids
were present."
It pointed out that the tests had been confirmed at a European laboratory in the
presence of representatives from the two nations involved.
HOLT SAID: "The Athletics Congress of the United States and the Amateur
Athletic Union of Australia have also been informed that the athletes are ineligible
to take part in competition under IAAF rules from the date of the competition in
question.
"In addition, all performances set by the two athletes since the Pacific Con-
ference Games are null and void."
Although the bans imposed on Plucknett and Mulhall both are for life, the
athletes' national associations can appeal the decision after 18 months.
PLUCKNETT WAS unavailable for comment on the IAAF ban.
In Indianapolis, Pete Cava, a TAC spokesman, said the organization was "un-
certain as to what our next step would be."
"You hate to see anything like this happen ... What really hurts is the kind of
year that Ben was having," said Cava. "With Plucknett on the American team, we
stood an excellent chance of winning the discus at this year's World Cup in Rome
(Sept. 4-6).
AP Photo "I'm sure that our officials will be in contact with the IAAF," he continued. "We
THE DISCUS-HEAVING form of world record-holder Ben Plucknett will no should be getting a Telex soon with the official notification. We can't do anything
longer be seen on the international circuit, as he was banned for life from until then."
such competition after tests revealed that he used anabolic steroids during Several other athletes, including a number of discus throwers, have been
the Pacific ConferenceGames in Christchurch, New Zealand last January. suspended for using anabolic steroids:
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