Golf
PALMER STATUE: Arnold Palmer will be in Augusta next month for the unveiling of his statue along the city's Riverwalk.
Palmer will attend the unveiling April 9 before a practice round for the Masters at Augusta National, the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame said Monday.
The $100,000, 7-foot bronze sculpture by Philadelphia-based Zenos Frudakis is among eight statues of golf greats planned for the Riverwalk. Others will honor Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen and Gary Player.
The Hall of Fame, including the sculptures, garden and interactive theater, is to open in 1998. The Hall announced in October that it would place the Palmer sculpture in the Radisson Riverfront Hotel's circular drive.
Football
SMITH CONTRACT: Emmitt Smith hopes Eugene Parker can negotiate another blockbuster contract with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Parker helped Deion Sanders ease past Smith on the team's payroll last season with a five-year, $25 million deal.
"Emmitt Smith stands alone as a player. Not only in terms of the Cowboys, but in terms of the whole league," Parker told The Dallas Morning News. "So I'm sure Emmitt expects a contract that is commensurate with those of the top players of the league, rather than him looking at any one player such as Deion."
Smith, a four-time NFL rushing champion with three Super Bowl rings, signed a four-year $13.6 million contract after a bitter dispute in 1993. He has since fired agent Richard Howell.
Tennis
EVERT CUP: Leading 4-1 in the second set, Julie Halard-Decugis hit a crosscourt forehand that looked like a winner. Against somebody other than Steffi Graf, it almost certainly would have been.
Graf ran, reached and smashed a backhand down the line out of the reach of Halard-Decugis.
"She's a tough player and she puts a lot of intensity into it when she's playing, and maybe that's the difference. When I was leading 4-1, she made an unbelievable backhand down the line," said Halard-Decugis after Graf beat her 6-3, 7-5 Monday in the third round of the $550,000 State Farm Evert Cup.
Graf, in just her second match back after having surgery for a bone spur in her left foot, won the sixth game of the second set, then the next two. After Halard-Decugis held service, Graf won three more games in a row to take the match.
Basketball
CRAVENS OUT AT IDAHO: University of Idaho officials will not renew the contracts of men's basketball coach Joe Cravens and his staff, saying they want more than a middle-of-the-road showing from the Vandals.
Athletic director Pete Liske said while Cravens hovered around .500 with his career record, he wants Idaho to do better.
"I think we always want to be able to compete and contend for championships. We've been in that mode. Just being .500 or having the prospects of it is not what the Vandal tradition is about," Liske said. "Our standards conceivably might be higher than others. It's not solely on winning, but yes you have to.
Cravens has been head coach for the Vandals for three years and amassed a record of 42-41. His record for this past season was 12-16 and just 5-9 in the Big Sky Conference. Cravens was formerly an assistant at Utah under Rick Majerus.
- Dave Grube's contract at Kent won't be renewed, athletic director Laing Kennedy said. Kent was 14-13 this season and 45-63 in three seasons under Grube.
WHITNEY CASE: A federal magistrate put off Monday deciding on whether former NBA player Charles "Hawkeye" Whitney can be released into a drug treatment program while awaiting trial on kidnapping and robbery charges.
After hearing from Philadelphia 76ers coach John Lucas, whose Houston-based drug treatment facility has already conditionally accepted Whitney, U.S. Magistrate Patrick Attridge said he needed more time to weigh security risks. It was not clear when a ruling would come.
Whitney is accused of kidnapping and robbing White House lawyer Mark Fabiani Jan. 26 as Fabiani left a commuter train station in Alexandria. Whitney is being held without bond pending a ruling by Attridge.
CBA ROCKERS MOVING: The CBA's Chicago Rockers will move to La Crosse next season, the La Crosse Tribune reported today.
CBA spokesman Brett Meister said commissioner Tom Valdiserri will join team and city officials for an announcement today at the La Crosse Center.
Baseball
ROBINSON HONORED: In Cairo, Ga., the Cairo High School baseball field has been renamed in honor of Jackie Robinson, a native of south Georgia who became the first black to play in the major leagues.
To many in the crowd Monday evening, the event was overdue.
"It's worthy," 70-year-old Charles Copeland said. "It should have been done a long time ago."
NEW CONTRACTS: Outfielders Jim Edmonds and Garret Anderson, first baseman J.T. Snow and reliever Troy Percival agreed to contracts with the California Angels. Terms were not disclosed.
Horse racing
CIGAR STATUS: Horse of the Year Cigar's scheduled workout Monday was postponed because of rain at Gulfstream Park.
Trainer Bill Mott, on a tight schedule to prepare Cigar for the $4 million Dubai World Cup on March 27, had planned to breeze his horse, but chose to just gallop him instead.
Cigar has recovered from a bruised right front hoof that forced him to skip the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap and several workouts.
"I didn't like the race track this morning," Mott said. "He's worked on wet tracks before, but not a track like this one with pools of water sitting on it."
Mott still hopes to get in two workouts before flying Cigar to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Saturday.
Hockey
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Tampa Bay goalie Darren Puppa, who posted two shutouts, was selected the NHL player of the week Monday.
Puppa made 20 saves in a 5-0 victory over Chicago last Tuesday night and had 28 in a 1-0 decision over Washington on Sunday as the Lightning extended their unbeaten streak to 5-0-1 and improved to 10-1-1 in their last 12.