Sports People

Doug MacLean, who coached the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup finals in his first year, signed a new three-year contract through 1998-99. MacLean’s previous contract was to expire in 1998. Financial terms of the new deal weren’t disclosed. … The New York Knicks re-signed reserve center Herb Williams, 39, to a two-year deal worth about $1.4 million. … Babe Dahlgren, the slick fielding first baseman who replaced Lou Gehrig with the New York Yankees on May 2, 1939, died at his Arcadia, Calif., home of natural causes. He was 84. … Kerry Kittles, the first senior taken in this year’s NBA Draft and the eighth pick overall, signed a three-year contract with the New Jersey Nets. Contract terms were not disclosed but Kittles is expected to earn about $4.5 million over the length of the contract.

George Horton was appointed head baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton and signed a contract through the 1999 season. Horton, 42, succeeds Augie Garrido, who resigned July 30 to become head coach at the University of Texas. … Bill MacPhail, a self-effacing sports television executive who hired Pat Summerall, Jack Whitaker, Frank Gifford and Jim McKay for CBS and created the CNN sports department, died in Atlanta. He was 76. The cause was complications of heart surgery he underwent last week at St. Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta, according to CNN.