Newsmakers

Agrees Wide receiver Hines Ward apparently will get his wish to finish his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ward, about to enter the final season of his contract, agreed to a contract extension that will pay him a lower salary than the $5.8 million he was to make this season but will make up the money in a signing bonus. The deal was being finalized between the Steelers and Ward’s agent, Eugene Parker, but is expected to be worth about $22 million over four seasons, although only a portion of that would be guaranteed.

Hospitalized Longtime Los Angeles Lakers consultant Tex Winter, a mentor to coach Phil Jackson, has been hospitalized in Kansas, a team spokesman said. Winter, 87, fell ill Saturday morning in Manhattan, where he was attending a reunion of Kansas State basketball team members, said John Black, the Lakers’ vice president of communications. Black would not comment on Winter’s specific condition, citing medical privacy laws. Winter was head coach of the Houston Rockets from 1972-1974. In the 1980s, he worked as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls, where he began a long working relationship with Jackson.

Signed Former Montana State quarterback Travis Lulay said he has reached an agreement on a two-year contract with the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League. The contract is pending a workout in which he is expected to participate on May 3 in Lake Oswego, Ore. The Lions open preseason training camp in June. Lulay, who holds Montana State’s career passing record with 10,746 yards, has been signed by the Seattle Seahawks several times. He was a member of the Seahawks’ practice squad from October through December of last year while Matt Hasselbeck was injured.