Sports in Brief: Electric football inventor Sas is dead

Mechanical engineer Norman Sas, an MIT graduate who created electric football, a tabletop game with a vibrating metal field and unpredictable plastic players that captivated and frustrated children for decades, has died at 87, his daughter confirmed on Friday. Sas died June 28 at his home in Vero Beach.

Electric football, which used a small motor to create vibrations on a metal plate, was introduced in 1949. With the flick of a switch, tiny players were sent moving haphazardly around the tin field clutching a felt ball. It could be infuriatingly slow and player movements were nearly impossible to predict, but the game was popular.

Mike Holmgren, president of the Cleveland Browns, told NFL.com electric football was "the best Christmas present I've ever received in my whole life."

The game's popularity endured into the 1980s, when video football games began to emerge. By then, Sas had sold his company.

TRACK AND FIELD: Tyson Gay, preparing for the anticipated chilly Olympics, won the 100 meters in dreary conditions at the London Grand Prix. The former world champion won in 10.03 seconds in a headwind of 1.2 meters per second, ahead of fellow American Ryan Bailey and Nesta Carter of Jamaica.

In the 110 hurdles, Aries Merritt of the United States won in 12.93 seconds.

Great Britain's Mo Farah won the 5,000 meters in 13 minutes, 6.04 seconds.

In a surprise in the women's 400 hurdles, Great Britain's Perri Shakes-Drayton, ranked 21st, won in 53.77.

SOCCER: In London, Chelsea's John Terry was cleared of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers player Anton Ferdinand, who is black, during an October match. Terry had faced a maximum fine of $3,900 if found guilty in a case that was heard without a jury.

 The magistrate who ruled on the case backed Terry's defense that he only used the offensive term sarcastically to counter the obscenity he claims Ferdinand was accusing him of using.

Scottish clubs voted for humbled Rangers, in bankruptcy protection because of tax debts exceeding $30 million, to begin next season in the fourth tier, the country's lowest professional league. The Glasgow club, winners of a record 54 top-flight titles, is now set to be playing on fields with seats for just a few hundred fans next season.

The New York Red Bulls acquired former Union forward Sébastien Le Toux from the Vancouver Whitecaps for midfielder Dane Richards and allocation money.

Italy striker Fabio Borini joined Liverpool from Roma as new coach Brendan Rodgers' first signing.

CYCLING: The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that Johan Bruyneel, the coach of Lance Armstrong's teams during his seven Tour de France victories, has elected to contest his case before a panel of three arbitrators rather than accept a lifetime ban.

- Staff and wire reports