Colorado head football coach Bill McCartney changed his mind at the last minute Saturday night and turned down Southern Methodist`s offer to rebuild its football squad. SMU Athletic Director Doug Single did not immediately disclose the school`s plans in its continuing search for a coach.
. . . Syracuse All-America Don McPherson has been named winner of the Davey O`Brien National Quarterback Award.
American skier Kerry Lynch, who admitted last month he had blood-doped before winning a silver medal in Nordic combined at the 1987 World Championships, may be banned from next month`s Winter Olympics, said Helmut Weinbuch, chairman of the Nordic combined committee of the ruling International Ski Federation. Weinbuch said ”several countries,” which he declined to identify, have protested Lynch`s possible participation in the Olympics.
In Val d`Isere, France, Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland won his first World Cup downhill race of the season, posting the fastest time ever on the Oreiller-Killy course, 1 minute 57.10 seconds. The race was delayed about 30 minutes after a snow-grooming machine skidded into a ski lift support, killing driver Frederic Tournier and injuring three people in gondolas.
Zoe Haas of Switzerland was declared the winner of the women`s World Cup super-giant slalom race in Lech Am Arlberg, Austria, after Sigrid Wolf and three other Austrians were disqualified for allegedly using safety pins to fasten down the starting numbers on their ski suits. Wolf won the race in 1:15.51, but West German coach Klaus Mayr and other officials asserted that pinning down the numbers provides an unfair aerodynamic advantage and allows better times. Haas had the second-best time of 1:15.55.
Romania, the only Soviet bloc country to compete at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, will take part in the 1988 Games in Seoul, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported.
Speedskater Dan Jansen set a track record of 37.80 seconds in winning the World Cup 500-meter sprint in Innsbruck, Austria.
East Germany`s Karin Kania established a rink record in the 1,500 with a time of 2:00.60 in a World Cup race in Davos, Switzerland. Bonnie Blair of Champaign took third (2:05.79). In the 500, Blair was headed for a top time when she fell shortly before the finish. Kania won in 40.57.
Jenny Kenny of Northbrook won the women`s 500 and 1,500 meters in the U.S. Junior World speedskating trials in West Allis, Wis. She won the 500 in 46.82 and the 1,500 in 2:26.69. Nate Mills of Northfield won the men`s 3,000 in 4:37.13.
One day after the New York Yankees lost pitcher Bill Gullickson to Japan, they began shopping around for a replacement, and it appears as if they`ll sign John Candelaria, the free-agent pitcher the Mets failed to sign by the Friday midnight deadline.
Kenya`s Ibrahim Hussein and Portugal`s Rosa Mota head a powerful foreign field for the April 18 Boston Marathon.
Venezuela`s Amleto Monacelli won his first U.S. Professional Bowlers Association title by beating Mark Roth 216-189 in the title match of the $175,000 Showboat Invitational in Las Vegas.
Welshman Ian Woosnam and Australian Ossie Moore shot 6-under-par 66s to share the halfway lead in the Sanctuary Cove Classic in Gold Coast, Australia. They were at at 9-under 135.
