Hockey
A pair of legendary Wings gain entrance to the Hall
ZURICH – Olympic gold medalists Nicklas Lidstrom and Steve Yzerman, both Stanley Cup-winning captains for the Detroit Red Wings, will enter the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.
The federation said the 2014 class includes Soviet Union Olympic champion teammates Vyacheslav Bykov and Andrei Khomutov, plus Ruslan Salei of Belarus, who died in a 2011 airplane crash which killed an entire Russian team.
The IIHF said the induction ceremony will be held in May at the world championships in Belarus.
Lidstrom scored the decisive goal for Sweden in the 2006 Torino Olympic final, and Yzerman helped Canada win the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic gold.
Bykov won 1988 and ’92 Olympic golds, five world championships and coached Russia to two world titles. Khomutov won three Olympic golds and six world titles.
MLB
Rockies co-owner Monfort pleads guilty to his DUI
GREELEY – Colorado Rockies co-owner Charlie Monfort pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol.
Monfort entered the plea Friday in his hometown of Greeley and was sentenced to two years of probation.
He was arrested Nov. 5 after police said he was pulled over and found to be driving with a breath alcohol concentration level more than three times the legal limit. He also was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to driving while ability impaired after an arrest in Greeley in 1999.
NFL
Texans introduce O’Brien as Houston’s next head coach
HOUSTON – Bill O’Brien went from perhaps the toughest coaching job in college football to a coveted gig with one of the NFL’s most respected teams.
Less than two years after replacing Joe Paterno as coach at Penn State, the 44-year-old O’Brien returned to the NFL as coach of the Houston Texans. He was an offensive assistant under Bill Belichick at New England from 2007 to 2012, but the Penn State job was his first as a head coach.
Now he gets the Texans, who spiraled to an NFL-worst 2-14 record last season.
O’Brien was 15-9 at Penn State, hit hard by NCAA sanctions levied for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal that cost the late Paterno his job.
College Football
Longhorns make a Strong play for Louisville’s coach
AUSTIN, Texas – A person familiar with the search told The Associated Press that Texas has offered its head coaching job to Louisville’s Charlie Strong, and he is expected to accept.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the process was being kept confidential and had not been completed. Texas has been looking to replace Mack Brown, who stepped down in December after 16 seasons with the Longhorns.
Strong is in his fourth year at Louisville and coming off his second consecutive double-digit victory season. He took over a program coming off three consecutive non-winning seasons and has gone 37-15.
The 53-year-old was a longtime defensive coordinator in the Southeastern Conference before getting a chance to be head coach. He took Louisville to the BCS last season and finished 12-1 this year.
World Cup Ski Racing
A disappointing Mancuso is ‘taking a short break’
Off to a poor start during pre-Olympics races, U.S. ski racer Julia Mancuso says she’s “taking a short break at home.”
Mancuso has won three Olympic medals but only has one top-15 finish through 10 World Cup races this season leading up to the Sochi Games, which will begin Feb. 7. The 29-year-old from Squaw Valley, Calif., won a gold medal in giant slalom at the 2006 Olympics and silvers in downhill and super-combined in 2010.
Associated Press
