Football
PEGRAM OUT: Running back Erric Pegram limped off the Pittsburgh Steelers' practice field Friday with a calf muscle injury that ended his season. He was injured on his first practice play, though there was no contact.
VIKINGS RE-SIGN JOHNSON: The Minnesota Vikings took a chance on quarterback Brad Johnson 4 1/2 years ago. They're going to do it again.
Johnson, whose seven career starts all have been this season, has agreed to a four-year contract worth more than $15 million. His agent flew to the Twin Cities this morning, and the team called an afternoon news conference to announce the signing of the NFL's most surprising quarterback of 1996.
Johnson, a ninth-round draft pick in 1992, would have been a free agent after the season. He currently is earning about $425,000.
POWLUS STAYS PUT: Don't get Ron Powlus wrong. He liked Lou Holtz. But if Holtz was still at Notre Dame, Powlus wouldn't be coming back.
Powlus said Friday the Irish coaching change was the biggest factor in his decision to return for his fifth year of eligibility. Holtz left after 11 seasons and was replaced by Bob Davie, his defensive coordinator.
"My time with coach Holtz would have been done . . . it would have been time for me to move on," Powlus said at a news conference in his hometown of Berwick, Pa.
"With coach Davie coming in, it's a positive move and it's something I want to be a part of."
SMU HIRES CAVAN: Mike Cavan already has turned around football programs in Division II and Division I-AA. On Friday, Southern Methodist hired him to do the same on the Division I level.
SMU has a rich athletic history, but the program is still smarting from being shut down a decade ago by the NCAA's first death penalty. Since resuming football in 1989, the Mustangs are 18-67-3.
Last month, SMU athletic director Jim Copeland fired Tom Rossley, who had gone 15-48-3 over six years, because he felt the program wasn't headed in the right direction.
On Thursday, Cavan finished second in voting for the Division I-AA coach of the year after leading East Tennessee State to a 10-3 record and the second round of the playoffs.
VANDY TABS WIDENHOFER: Woody Widenhofer was promoted to head football coach at Vanderbilt on Friday to succeed Rod Dowhower who resigned under pressure a week earlier.
Tennis
DAVIS CUP: Tom Gullikson was reappointed captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team today.
The announcement was made by Harry Marmion, president-elect of the United States Tennis Association.
Gullikson will be serving his fourth year as captain when the U.S. team begins its 1997 Davis Cup play in Brazil Feb. 7-9.
Gullickson selected Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Todd Martin and Alex O'Brien as the U.S. team for the opening round.
Golf
LEXUS CHALLENGE: Helped by his 11 handicap, actor Sean Connery recorded seven birdies Friday in combining with Hale Irwin for an 11-under-par 61 and a two-shot lead after the first round of the Lexus Challenge in La Quinta, Calif.
Former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula and Jim Colbert shot 63 on the Citrus course at La Quinta Resort & Club.
The teams of actor Joe Pesci and Dave Stockton, actor Robert Wuhl and Chi Chi Rodriguez, and baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. and John Brodie had 64s.
Pesci brought a 15 handicap into the event, which matches 12 senior tour players and 12 celebrities.
Cycling
ARMSTRONG EYES RETURN: Former world champion bicyclist Lance Armstrong hopes to race again next year after months of treatment for cancer.
Doctors have told Armstrong that he probably will not have to receive more chemotherapy, the Austin American-Statesman reported Friday. That's good news for 1993's road race champion, a two-time Tour de France stage winner and two-time Tour DuPont titlist.
"I'm almost back to normal," Armstrong said. "But I don't have my old life back. Yet."
Armstrong disclosed in October that he had had a cancerous testicle removed and was undergoing chemotherapy to fight the disease that had spread to his stomach and lungs. He later had two small brain lesions removed.