With a publicity boost from Hall of Fame LB Dick Butkus, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst introduced a state Senate bill Wednesday to require random steroids testing for Texas public-school athletes.
“Taking steroids doesn’t make you tougher,” Butkus said at a news conference. “It puts your life at risk.”
Texas has about 733,000 athletes at roughly 1,300 public schools, and the bill calls for random testing of at least 22,000 students. Dewhurst said he hoped to test as many as 40,000 in the first year of the program, which could start as early as next fall if passed.
Studies have shown as many as one million high-schoolers nationwide have taken steroids and as many as 40,000 in Texas. If approved, the bill leaves the testing details to the University Interscholastic League, the state’s governing body for prep sports. The program wouldn’t be the first of its kind nationally, but it would be the largest. New Jersey started a limited program last fall, testing athletes during the postseason.
MORE DOPING: Cross-country skier Sergei Shiriaev was banned for two years by the Russian Nordic ski federation for doping. . . . European athletes who serve two-year doping suspensions will be banned from competing at European track and field championships for an additional two years, its governing body announced.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
LSU’s Chatman resigns
LSU women’s basketball coach Pokey Chatman, who took over as head coach in 2004 and twice took the Tigers to the Final Four, announced her resignation Wednesday to “pursue other career opportunities.” She did not disclose her plans but said she will coach the team during the NCAA Tournament. LSU lost to Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference Tournament final Sunday night in Duluth, Ga.
MORE BASKETBALL: Duke G Lindsey Harding won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the nation’s best women’s player 5 feet 8 or under.
IDITAROD
Lance Mackey regains lead
Lance Mackey snatched back the lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, speeding through Ophir, Alaska, as other teams rested. Four-time champions Martin Buser and Jeff King had breezed through the Nikolai checkpoint and cruised to the front while Mackey slept, but they rested their teams early Wednesday in Ophir, near the halfway point of the 1,100-mile race.
HORSE RACING
N.Y. franchise up for grabs
A state panel formed by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will review the proposals of six companies seeking to operate the state’s thoroughbred racing franchise. The field includes Empire Racing, a Saratoga Springs group that includes Churchill Downs of Louisville, Ky., as well as the New York Racing Association, Excelsior Racing Associates, Capital Play, Catskill Regional Off-Track Betting and Thoroughbred Racing-NY.
SOCCER
Stadium must be modified
Brazil’s famous Maracana stadium must be modified if the country wants to play qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup there this year. Walter Gagg, FIFA’s director of security, inspected the legendary stadium Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. He documented areas he felt must be altered if Brazil expects to host Ecuador on Oct. 17.
MORE SOCCER: Roy Makaay scored the quickest goal in European Champions League history — in 11 seconds — and Bayern Munich advanced past Real Madrid 2-1 into the quarterfinals. Manchester United, AC Milan and PSV Eindhoven also reached the final eight. . . . NCAA officials selected Pizza Hut Park, a stadium in suburban Dallas, for the 2008 College Cup.
OBITUARIES
Jim Thorpe’s widow dies
Freeda Kirkpatrick Thorpe, the second wife of the legendary Jim Thorpe, died Friday in Yakima, Wash. She was 101. She divorced Thorpe in 1941 after 15 years of marriage, but fielded calls about their life together into the 1980s.
TRACK & FIELD
Marion Jones marries
Olympic medal-winning sprinters Marion Jones and Obadele Thompson married in North Carolina. It is the second marriage for Jones, 31. Her first was to shot putter C.J. Hunter, and she has a 3-year-old son with sprinter Tim Montgomery. Hunter and Montgomery are both under suspension for doping.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
‘Everybody’s OK, but going to get this fixed will take some time out of my throwing program, you know.’
— 88-year-old former Cleveland pitcher Bob Feller, after a minor car accident at the Indians’ spring-training camp in Winter Haven
STAT OF THE DAY
$366M
Cost of an 80,000-seat temporary Olympic stadium planned in Chicago’s South Side if the city is awarded the 2016 Games.
ON THIS DAY
1971
Smokin’ Joe Frazier wins the world heavyweight championship with a 15-round unanimous decision over Muhammad Ali.
THE LAST WORD
Steroids aren’t just an issue for pro sports.
Testing in high schools (public and private) might be a big step toward eliminating them.
