NCAA’s Dempsey Will Retire at End of the Year

Cedric Dempsey is retiring as NCAA president, ending a nearly nine-year run with the college sports governing body that included the signing of two major television contracts.

Dempsey played an instrumental role in the NCAA’s contracts with ESPN and CBS that will generate $6.2 billion over 11 years beginning in 2003. He also led the restructuring of the organization’s governing body, and presided over the NCAA’s move from Overland Park, Kan., to Indianapolis in 1999.

Dempsey, 69, said Tuesday he will retire at the end of the year after holding the organization’s top job since 1994.

“My challenge over the remainder of my term is to counsel those engaged in creating change--both in terms of reform and bringing new leadership,” Dempsey said in a written statement. “I look forward to that challenge.”

Dempsey, a former athletic director at Arizona, said he wrestled with whether to seek a contract extension or retire.

“I think it’s time to move on, so I will do that,” Dempsey said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”

The announcement came on the final day of the NCAA’s annual convention at Indianapolis.

“I think the NCAA is where it is today because of Ced,” said Bob Lawless, chairman of the NCAA’s executive committee and president of the University of Tulsa.

“He has been a real treasure for the NCAA.”

Lawless will head the search for a successor to Dempsey, the third leader of the NCAA in its 96-year history.

University of Georgia police are investigating a report of rape and attempted rape at a dormitory that allegedly involved athletes, associate athletic director Claude Felton said.

“There was an incident at McWhorter Hall and there were student-athletes involved,” Felton said.

He would not identify the athletes but said their coaches were aware of the investigation.

University police Chief Chuck Horton said a female student said she was raped by a man she knew and that a man she did not know tried to rape her Monday night.

Speedskating

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported Tuesday that a second athlete has accused Apolo Anton Ohno of race-fixing at last month’s U.S. Olympic trials.

The paper said Ron Biondo essentially backed up the allegations made by Tommy O’Hare, a skater who did not make the Olympic team.

O’Hare filed a complaint alleging Ohno conspired with teammate Rusty Smith to fix a race at the trials.

Biondo finished fourth in the 1,000-meter final. He had to beat Smith to qualify for one of the two individual spots on the team, but claims that Ohno kept blocking him so that Smith would get the spot.

Ohno had locked up his spot on the team and said he didn’t want to risk an injury with a daring move. He finished third behind Smith and race winner Shani Davis, whose victory knocked O’Hare off the team.

Biondo said Smith reciprocated by letting Davis, a close friend of Smith and Ohno, win the race. Davis had to finish first to earn enough points to overtake O’Hare for the sixth and final spot.

Ohno has denied any wrongdoing in the race, the only one he didn’t win.

Biondo made the team but will skate only in the relay.

Soccer

Goalkeeper Kasey Keller, who has been playing in England, will rejoin the U.S. team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the championship of soccer’s North and Central American and Caribbean region.

The U.S. opens against South Korea on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

The U.S. also added former Colorado Rapid coach Glenn Myernick as an assistant.

Longtime stars Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly, Tiffeny Milbrett and Julie Foudy were among 13 WUSA players selected for the U.S. women’s team that will play in the Four Nations tournament in China this month.

Forward Mia Hamm is injured and not on the roster.

Miscellany

The Olympic hopes of Austrian skier Josef Strobl, winner of seven World Cup races, ended when he shredded knee ligaments in a crash during downhill practice at Kitzbuehel, Austria.

He is expected to have surgery.

Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine won his third race in two days, capturing the men’s 100-meter breaststroke in a FINA World Cup swim meet at Imperia, Italy.

Costa Rica’s Claudia Poll took the women’s 100 and 400 freestyle.

Tonya Harding’s landlord filed a lawsuit Monday to evict the former Olympic figure skater and her roommate from a three-bedroom riverfront home at Vancouver, Wash.

Dale E. Anderson claims Harding and her former manager, Linda Lewis, owe him $4,530 in rent, according to court documents.

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T.J. Simers is on assignment.