Basketball
NBA’s first scorer dies at 94: Oscar ‘Ossie’ Schectman
Oscar “Ossie” Schectman, the former New York Knicks guard who scored the first basket in NBA history, died Tuesday. He was 94.
Schectman’s son Peter confirmed his father’s death, which also was announced by the Knicks. Peter said his dad died of complications from respiratory failure.
Schectman scored the opening basket of a game in what then was known as the BAA on Nov. 1, 1946, for the Knicks against the Toronto Huskies.
Commissioner David Stern said Tuesday in a statement that Schectman was a “pioneer.” The commissioner said, “Playing for the New York Knickerbockers in the 1946-47 season, Ossie scored the league’s first basket, which placed him permanently in the annals of NBA history. On behalf of the entire NBA family, our condolences go out to Ossie’s family.”
College Football
Three die in a car crash on U.S. Hwy 550 near Cuba
Texas A&M said Tuesday that redshirt freshman Polo Manukainiu and a friend who was joining the Utah football team this fall were among three people killed in a single-car rollover crash in the high desert of northern New Mexico, stunning both schools just days before fall practices begin.
Manukainiu, a 19-year-old defensive lineman for the Aggies, and 18-year-old Utah recruit Gaius “Keio” Vaenuku were killed, officials from both schools said.
The wreck happened Monday evening on U.S. 550 near Cuba, N.M., about 85 miles north of Albuquerque, as the group of five was returning from Salt Lake City to suburban Dallas, where three of them had ties to prep football power Trinity High School in Euless.
The southbound 2002 Toyota Sequoia drifted off the sagebrush-lined highway, New Mexico State Police spokesman Emmanuel T. Gutierrez said. The driver, 18-year-old Siaosi Salesi Uhatafe Jr. of Euless, over-corrected, causing the vehicle to lose control and roll several times.
Alcohol wasn’t involved, and it appeared the driver was the only one wearing a seatbelt, investigators said.
Manukainiu and 13-year-old passenger Andrew “Lolo” Uhatafe died at the scene after they were ejected from the vehicle, Gutierrez said. Vaenuku was pronounced dead in an ambulance that responded to the accident.
The driver and his father, Salesi Uhatafe, were taken to the San Juan Medical Center in Farmington and suffered only minor injuries, authorities said. Siaosi Uhatafe was a stepbrother of Manukainiu and, like Vaenuku, also is a Utah recruit.
Cycling
Legitimate or ‘desperation’ – McQuaid seeks rule change
GENEVA – With embattled UCI president Pat McQuaid in an intense contest for his job against British challenger Brian Cookson, the cycling body’s election rules are set to be changed.
The International Cycling Union said late Monday it is preparing an amendment to its statutes, which could safeguard McQuaid’s nomination for the September election.
On Tuesday, Cookson denounced the tactic as “a clear sign of desperation.”
Zabel admits doping habit was more than just brief
BERLIN – Former rider Erik Zabel resigned Monday as a member of an International Cycling Union advisory panel after telling a German newspaper he used the blood-booster erythropoietin, cortisone and other banned substances during several years of his career.
Zabel, who won 12 Tour de France stages and earned the sprinter’s green jersey six times, retired in 2008. The year before, the German said he briefly used EPO in 1996.
In Monday’s edition of Germany daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Zabel said that only was “a small part of the truth” and that he instead engaged in doping for “many years.”
Associated Press
