Carroll Will Head 49er Defense

The Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers began filling their depleted coaching ranks Friday, naming Pete Carroll as the team’s defensive coordinator.

Carroll succeeds Ray Rhodes, who was hired as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday after overseeing a defensive resurgence in which the 49ers moved from 15th in 1993 to eighth in the league last season.

Mike Shanahan, hired as coach of the Denver Broncos on Wednesday after coordinating San Francisco’s top-scoring offense, had offered Carroll a job as the Broncos’ defensive coordinator. But Carroll, a San Francisco native, opted to go home. He played at Pacific in Stockton and once coached high school football in Marin County.

Carroll was fired last month after one season as coach of the New York Jets.

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A car wreck that left Seattle Seahawk defensive tackle Mike Frier paralyzed from the neck down cannot be blamed on rookie running back Lamar Smith, a lawyer for Smith said Friday.

Smith, 24, a native of Ft. Wayne, Ind., was arraigned Friday in King County Superior Court on a charge of vehicular assault. He pleaded not guilty.

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Joe Rhein, executive vice president of the Arizona Cardinals, has been fired by owner Bill Bidwill, the Arizona Republic reported. . . . Wide receiver Jerry Rice of the 49ers will not play in the Pro Bowl on Sunday at Honolulu because of a slight shoulder separation.

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The owners of the Las Vegas Posse franchise of the Canadian Football League said that, besides Los Angeles, they are negotiating to sell the franchise to interests in Jackson, Miss.

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An official of the CFL’s Memphis franchise said the team will begin play this summer, but not on a field of regulation size.

The CFL plays on fields wider and longer than U.S. football, and owners of the Memphis franchise planned to have the city’s Liberty Bowl Stadium renovated by July for the start of the new season.

But Pepper Rodgers, the team’s managing partner, said that isn’t going to happen because of time constraints and expenses exceeding the original estimate of $1.7 million. He has asked the league for a waiver on field size.

Baseball

Former Boston Red Sox manager Butch Hobson was hired to manage the Mobile, Ala., BaySharks, an independent minor league team that plays in the Texas-Louisiana League.

A passed ball by catcher Chad Kreuter with the bases load in the ninth inning allowed Carmelo Martinez to score the winning run as San Juan defeated Mayaguez, 5-4, at Caguas, P.R., for its second consecutive Puerto Rican League title.

Sailing

Backed by a huge wind shift, Dennis Conner sailed Stars & Stripes to its fifth consecutive victory in the America’s Cup defender trials at San Diego, beating America 3by 4 minutes 45 seconds. Conner’s boat pulled away from the all-female crew when the wind shifted to the left side during the fifth leg.

On the challengers’ course, oneAustralia, NZL-39 and France 3 won for the second day in a row.

Miscellany

Fifth-seeded Kimiko Date of Japan upset top-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3, and seventh-seeded Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria upset second-seeded Mary Pierce of France, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific Open at Tokyo. . . . Communication and equipment problems led to last June’s Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver, a city police report concludes. The 150-page document, released by police Chief Ray Canuel, makes almost 100 recommendations but blames no officers for the June 14 rampage that caused $500,000 damage.

Alabama Birmingham basketball Coach Gene Bartow will miss today’s game against St. Louis after the Great Midwest Conference denied his appeal of a one-game suspension. Bartow was suspended after he received two technical fouls and then bumped an official on the court during a 64-58 loss at South Florida on Jan. 18. . . . Sun Cayun of China broke the women’s pole vault world indoor record for the second time in a week by clearing 13 feet 5 3/4 inches at a meet in Pulheim, Germany.

An Ontario court justice saved the NHL at least $2.4 million when he chose the league’s method of accounting for pension surpluses over the method supported by seven former players suing the league, reducing payout to old-timers from $35.7 million to $33.3 million. . . . Edgar Grospiron of France posted his first victory of the season in a World Cup moguls event at Oberjoch, Germany. . . . The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals announced that former UCLA quarterback Jeff Dankworth has resigned as executive director to head a new communications software company in Reno.