Newsmakers
Completed Saints owner Tom Benson officially gained control of the New Orleans Hornets from the NBA. The completion Friday of the $338 million sale of the NBA club comes two days after the league’s board of governors approved the decision to sell to Benson. As part of the deal, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has approved the Hornets’ lease extension at the state-owned New Orleans Arena, which runs through 2024 and provides for $50 million in improvements. Benson agreed in April to buy the Hornets. The team had been owned by the NBA since December of 2010.
Died The University of Michigan says College Football Hall of Famer and Heisman Trophy runner-up Bob Chappuis has died. He was 89. Chappuis played for the Wolverines in 1942 before his career was interrupted by World War II. As an aerial gunner and radio operator on B-25 bombers, Chappuis was shot down over Italy and remained in that country until the end of the war. The triple-threat back resumed his playing career after the war and finished second to Notre Dame’s John Lujack in the Heisman balloting in 1947 when he led the “Mad Magicians” to an undefeated season and the national title.
• Jesse Powell, a linebacker for the unbeaten 1972 Miami Dolphins, has died at a hospital in West Texas. He was 65. Powell was born in the Texas Panhandle town of Matador. He starred at West Texas State, now West Texas A&M, before the Dolphins chose him in the ninth round of the 1969 draft. Powell spent his five-year NFL career with Miami, including a perfect 17-0 season leading to a Super Bowl victory over Washington.
Injured One-time Uruguayan soccer great Alcides Ghiggia, 85, is in critical condition in a coma with multiple injuries following a traffic accident.
Extended Arizona men’s basketball coach Sean Miller will lead the Wildcats at least through the 2016-17 season. The Arizona Board of Regents approved a one-year contract extension for Miller, who is 69-35 in three seasons with the Wildcats and in 2011 led the team to the Pac-10 regular-season title and the round of eight in the NCAA tournament.
Euthanized A 6-year-old horse on the Belmont Stakes undercard, Giant Ryan, was euthanized after developing the same disease that led to the death of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. The horse was battling for the lead in the True North Handicap on June 9 when he crumpled with sesamoid fractures in his left front ankle before thousands of fans in the grandstand. Giant Ryan then was stricken with laminitis, a disease marked by inflammation in the hoof.