Fast Break
Administration
Spear’s contract extended to 2012
The Idaho State Board of Education approved a multiyear contract extension for University of Idaho director of athletics Rob Spear, the school announced in a press release Friday.
Spear’s contract was extended until August 2012. He contract was due to expire in August 2008.
Spear has been A.D. since January 2004.
Under terms of the contract, Spear will receive a base salary of $165,048, with supplemental compensation of $15,000 per year for media and public appearances.
The board also approved a multiyear contract for head cross country and co-head track coach Wayne Phipps, whose new contract runs from through August 2012.
Track and field
Pentathlon Masters at SFCC
Two U.S. Olympians in the hammer throw – Ed Burke and Tom Gage – head the field for the USA Masters Weight Pentathlon Championships today at Spokane Falls Community College.
Burke, who was the American flag-bearer for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, competed at the 1964 and 1968 Games – finishing seventh in Tokyo – before retiring from the sport for 12 years. He returned to make the team for the Los Angeles Games at age 44 when he threw a personal-best 243 feet, 11 inches – 8 feet farther than the American record he set in 1967.
Gage had a lifetime best of 233-6 and won the 1972 Olympic Trials, going on to a 12th-place finish in the finals in Munich.
Men and women in 12 age groups, 30 and older, will compete in the four standard outdoor throwing events – shot put, discus, hammer and javelin – plus the weight throw to accumulate points.
Competition begins at 8 a.m. and continues through the afternoon.
Football
2 bad 4 u
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis is a fan of text messaging to recruits and bemoaned the NCAA ban that went into effect Aug. 1.
“Ask my wife if I text,” he said. “She gets mad at me all the time because I’m sitting there – you should have seen me on the 31st. I was miserable. I don’t know how many texts you can send in a day, but I might have set a record on that day because it was the last day you could do it, and I was saying this is it.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow.”