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Mississippi goes with black bear as new mascot;Rebels' name stays
OXFORD, Miss. | It took seven years, but the University of Mississippi has a substitute for a beloved and reviled mascot who brought the Confederacy to mind. The new guy is still a rebel, only cuddlier.
"Rebel Black Bear" won 62 percent of the vote in a final poll, the school announced Thursday. Its athletic programs will keep the Rebels nickname.
It has been more than a decade since Ole Miss began stripping away its images of the Old South. Confederate battle flags were the first to go. Next was mascot "Colonel Reb," the goateed Southern planter who cheered on the Rebels from the sidelines since 1979.
pro football
Sainz won't return to locker rooms
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. | A Mexican television reporter who was hooted at by some of the New York Jets and said she felt uncomfortable in their locker room is returning to work next week and plans to conduct her interviews anywhere but there.
Ines Sainz of TV Azteca said she suggested to the NFL that she talk to players on the field or on the sideline.
"I'm not going into the locker rooms anymore," she said Thursday at a news conference near Universal Studios. "It's not a good place right now for me. I don't want to be in there."
college basketball
Probe doesn't concern UNC coach
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. | North Carolina coach Roy Williams says there's no indication the ongoing NCAA investigation into the football team has any connection to his men's basketball program.
During the team's preseason media day Thursday, Williams said the probe was "not on my mind" and that his program does a good job in monitoring any player interaction with sports agents.
College basketball teams can officially start practice today.
IN OTHER NEWS
Baylor guard LaceDarius Dunn will be allowed to practice, but remains suspended indefinitely from games while facing allegations that he broke his girlfriend's jaw in a domestic dispute, coach Scott Drew said Thursday.
baseball
Uecker needs a second surgery
MILWAUKEE | Brewers radio announcer Bob Uecker needs surgery on his heart again after a tear was discovered at the site of his valve replacement.
The team says Uecker will have the surgery on Tuesday .
IN OTHER BASEBALL NEWS
The New York Yankees are blocking a 77-year-old woman from publishing letters written to her from a college-age George Steinbrenner more than a half-century ago.
Former All-Star pitcher Matt Keough has been sentenced to a year in jail for driving drunk near his Orange County home.
Former Blue Jays manager Carlos Tosca, just hired as the Atlanta Braves' bench coach, has interviewed for the Pittsburgh Pirates manager's job.
tennis
Austrian upsets Nadal in Shanghai
SHANGHAI | Rafael Nadal failed to reach a quarterfinal for the first time this year, falling 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to Jurgen Melzer in the third round of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday.
IN OTHER TENNIS NEWS
Despite being docked a game for a time violation to go to the bathroom, Ana Ivanovic defeated Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the Generali Ladies.
pro basketball
Arenas injured for real this time
WASHINGTON | In his first game at the Verizon Center in more than nine months, Gilbert Arenas was gone in a flash.
Two nights after he admitted faking a left knee injury, Arenas played just three minutes before exiting the Washington Wizards' 96-88 preseason loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night with a strained right groin.
soccer
Judge: Liverpool sale to proceed
LONDON | The bitter fight over control of the Liverpool soccer team was dragged through dueling court hearings Thursday on opposite sides of the Atlantic, with a British judge ruling to let the sale proceed to the owners of the Boston Red Sox.
But that didn't clean up what's quickly becoming a legal quagmire.
In Dallas, a state judge scheduled an extraordinary early morning hearing today that may either clear the path for the sale or complicate things even more.
in other news
High-profile Canadian sports doctor Anthony Galea, charged earlier this year with smuggling unapproved drugs into the United States to treat professional athletes, was formally indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Buffalo.
Rocco Mediate had a hole-in-one on the par-3 third hole and shot a bogey-free 7-under 64 on Thursday to top the leaderboard in the first round of the Frys.com Open in San Martin, Calif.
Brittany Lincicome shot an 11-under 61 on Thursday, recording the tour's best round of the season on the first day of the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge in Danville, Calif.
Robert Karlsson and Johan Edfors of Sweden and Maarten Lafeber of Netherlands led the Portugal Masters with 64s .
