Report Says Notre Dame Bracing for Sanctions

Notre Dame officials anticipate a ruling from the NCAA that the school’s football program has committed a major violation of the organization’s rules, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

School officials expect the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions to determine that members of the athletic department should have done more to learn of gifts football players received from convicted embezzler Kim Dunbar, the newspaper reported.

Dunbar was sentenced to four years in prison last September after she embezzled more than $1.2 million from the South Bend, Ind., firm where she worked as a bookkeeper, providing players, their families and friends with more than $35,000 in gifts and trips. Her admission that she gave money to players led to the investigation.

A person familiar with the university’s interests, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the committee was expected to maintain that Dunbar’s gifts could have been discovered earlier had members of then-Coach Lou Holtz’s staff brought information to Notre Dame officials in charge of NCAA compliance.

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Less than one year after a fatal alcohol-related truck crash involving two Kentucky football players, Tennessee and Kentucky have discontinued using a beer barrel as the trophy for their football rivalry, according to Kentucky Athletic Director C.M. Newton.

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Arizona State wide receivers Justin Taplin and Joey Graves were suspended for the upcoming season for breaking unspecified team rules, Coach Bruce Snyder announced. . . . Oregon State freshman receiver James Newson broke his left leg in an automobile accident and will sit out the season. According to Oregon State Police, Newson apparently fell asleep while driving at about 6:30 a.m. on Friday, causing his car to shoot across two lanes of traffic and collide with another car.

Motor Racing

Rookie and CART FedEx Series points leader Juan Montoya of Colombia earned his fifth pole of the season with a lap of 114.773 mph during qualifying for the Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit at the 2.3-mile temporary road course on Belle Isle.

Also on Bell Isle, Oriol Servia of Spain set a course record with a 102.554-mph average to earn his third PPG-Dayton Indy Lights pole of the year in qualifying for the Detroit News Challenge.

Whit Bazemore set a funny car track record for elapsed time (4.931 seconds at 305.77 mph) in the 12th annual Autolite Nationals at Sonoma, Calif., to earn his second No. 1 qualifying effort of the season.

Boxing

Former super-featherweight champion Gabriel Ruelas (46-5) used a seventh-round knockdown to win a unanimous decision over Miami’s Jose Rodriguez in a 10-round bout at Miami. . . . Heavyweights Francois Botha and Shannon Briggs fought to a 10-round majority decision draw at Atlantic City, N.J. . . . At Le Cannet, France, Italian Stefano Zoff won a split decision over Julien Lorcy to win the World Boxing Assn. lightweight title.

Miscellany

Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia upset Andre Agassi, 6-1, 6-4, to advance to the final of the $2.45-million du Maurier Open tennis tournament at Montreal. He will face Thomas Johansson of Sweden, who defeated Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Marion Jones tied her fastest time of the year in the 100 meters, 10.80 seconds, and men’s 100 world-record holder Maurice Greene cruised to victory with a 9.97 at London in a tune-up for this month’s World Championship.

The English soccer season got off to a violent start as 14 people were hurt when fans of second-division clubs Cardiff City and Millwall fought in Cardiff, Wales, after apparently arranging the clashes via the Internet.

Retired Temple basketball coach Harry Litwack, whose 21-year reign included the 1969 NIT championship, which led to his induction the Basketball Hall of Fame, died at his home in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. He was 91.

A Houston jury has ordered Rocket forward Charles Barkley to pay $12,900 for injuring another man in a 1996 car accident.

Lenny Krayzelburg of Studio City broke his American record in the 200-meter backstroke at the National Swimming Championships at Minneapolis. Krayzelburg was on pace to snap the world mark, held by Spain’s Martin Zubero (1 minute 56.57 seconds), but he finished in 1:56.68 to win his ninth national title.

At the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Canada:

* In 32 swimming events, the Americans won only 10 gold medals, three by men, seven by women. Not since 1963, when there were only eight events for men and eight for women, had either of the U.S. teams won fewer than 10 golds.

* Janette Piesczynski of Cheektowaga, N.Y., defeated Venezuela’s Alicia Marcano, 216-205, to win the women’s bowling gold medal.

* UCLA’s Stacey Nuveman homered and former Bruin Lisa Fernandez struck out 17 as the women’s U.S. softball team defeated Canada, 5-0, to advance to the gold medal game. The U.S. men lost to Canada, 4-3, in their gold medal softball game.

* Edwina Brown scored 19 points to lead the U.S. women’s basketball team past Brazil, 85-59, for the bronze medal.

* Cuban basketball player Juan Leopoldo Vazquez defected and plans to seek asylum in the United States.