'Dr. Death' succumbs to throat cancer
A former coach says Steve Williams, who wrestled professionally as "Dr. Death" after a successful college wrestling and football career, has died. He was 49.
A former coach says
Steve Williams
, who wrestled professionally as "Dr. Death" after a successful college wrestling and football career, has died. He was 49.
Former University of Oklahoma wrestling coach Stan Abel says Williams' family told him Williams died Tuesday night in Lakewood, Colo., after a long battle with throat cancer.
Williams was a four-time All-America as a heavyweight at Oklahoma from 1979 to '82 and finished second nationally his senior year. He was an All-Big Eight Conference offensive guard for Oklahoma in 1982.
Current OU wrestling coach Jack Spates called Williams "one of the greatest athletes that the University of Oklahoma has ever produced."
Speedskating
* American Shani Davis plans to skate in all five individual distances at the Vancouver Olympics in February and will not compete in the team pursuit. U.S. Speedskating confirmed that Chad Hedrick has declined the Olympic spot in the 10,000 and that the spot instead was given to Davis, allowing him to race in the every distance. Davis will not compete in the team pursuit, because he did not enter the U.S. pool of athletes by the Dec. 24 deadline.
* Olympic 10,000 speedskating champion Bob de Jong will defend his title at the Vancouver Games after winning at the Dutch trials with a personal best of 12 minutes, 53.63 seconds.
Sport Stops
* Manny Pacquiao upped the ante in his standoff with Floyd Mayweather Jr. by filing a lawsuit alleging that Mayweather and others defamed him by falsely accusing Pacquiao of using performance-enhancing drugs. The suit filed in federal court in Las Vegas further complicates efforts to reach an agreement for a proposed March 13 fight between the two boxers. Pacquiao claimed in the suit that he has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, but that Mayweather, his father and uncle, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions chief Richard Schaefer embarked on a campaign to make people think he used drugs.
* Hockey linesman Kevin Brown's carotid artery was slashed by a skate while trying to break up a fight in a junior league game in Woodstock, Ontario, and he was hospitalized in critical condition. Brown, not realizing he had been gravely injured, continued to break up the fight as he bled profusely. "I saw the skate go up and he grabbed his neck right away," fellow linesman Bruce Byers said. "You knew he was leaking." Team trainers say Brown, 25, drifted in and out of consciousness as he was loaded into an ambulance.
* Tiger Woods met with the Florida Highway Patrol at an undisclosed location in Orlando Dec. 1, the day authorities closed their investigation into his car crash, Orlando's WESH-TV reported. Woods was cited for careless driving and issued a $164 ticket.
* The Oakland A's re-signed righthanded starter Justin Duchscherer to an incentive-laden 1-year, $1.75 million contract after he missed the 2009 season. Duchscherer, 32, underwent arthroscopic right elbow surgery in March and later was treated for clinical depression.