NEWSWIRE

Coach Paul Hackett has dismissed receiver Quincy Woods, safety Darnell Lacy and offensive lineman Robby Wood from the USC football team and has suspended starting defensive end Shamsud-Din Abdul-Shaheed and linebacker Darryl Knight for the season opener for “failure to uphold team standards.”

Academic shortcomings led to the suspensions of Woods, Abdul-Shaheed and Knight during spring practice, one year after Lacy and star receiver R. Jay Soward were suspended for a game for similar reasons, and Hackett’s latest move is related, although the school is prohibited from commenting because of privacy concerns.

*

Nian Taylor, Washington State’s top receiver who was elected a team co-captain last week, was arrested in Pullman for investigation of domestic assault.

Olympics

The head of the Olympics’ biggest revenue source accused a major sponsor of damaging fund-raising for U.S. athletes through “cynical . . . self-serving” attacks on the International Olympic Committee.

NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol described David D’Alessandro, the president of John Hancock insurance and the most vocal corporate critic in the Salt Lake City scandal, as “a bully” motivated by a thirst for publicity.

D’Alessandro responded that Hancock was dedicated to helping athletes directly and will continue to support Olympic organizers in Sydney and Salt Lake City.

D’Alessandro said he had not spoken with Ebersol during the scandal. He called the NBC chief’s statements a “desperate and sad commentary. . . .

“If I were Dick Ebersol and had hitched my career to the Olympics, I’d be pretty scared too,” he added.

Australian IOC member Phil Coles said he would clear his name when he appears before a special panel investigating charges of ethical misconduct. He said he doesn’t believe the panel will recommend his expulsion from the IOC when it reports its findings to the executive board at a meeting June 16 in Seoul. . . . Three environmental groups asked for a year’s delay in choosing the host city for the 2006 Winter Olympics. Three cities--Sion, Switzerland; Turin, Italy, and Klagenfurt, Austria--are front-runners for the 2006 Games. The other candidates are Helsinki, Finland; Zakopane, Poland, and Poprad-Tatry, Slovakia. An IOC panel will reduce the field to two finalists in Seoul on June 19. That same day, the full assembly will choose the winner.

Miscellany

Ed Arnold, longtime Los Angeles sportscaster who has been at KTLA, Channel 5, the last 13 years, has been told that his contract will not be renewed. He will continue to work at until his contract expires at the end of June.

“I was hoping to retire at KTLA,” Arnold, 59, said. “But it was a good run, and I understand that these things happen in this business.”

Illinois quarterback Kirk Johnson was hospitalized in fair condition after being injured in a one-car accident near Champaign, Ill.

John Gillette, onetime financial advisor to professional athletes, pleaded guilty in San Diego to federal income tax evasion stemming from his alleged theft of $10 million from the athletes. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine when sentenced in September.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip L.B. Halpern said Gillette failed to invest the money he collected from two dozen athletes, among them the San Diego Chargers’ Junior Seau, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Rob Johnson, the Florida Marlins’ Mark Kotsay, the Oakland A’s Eric Chavez and triathlete Mark Allen. Instead he used some of the money to cover his own investments and sent phony financial statements to the athletes.

In apparent violation of his doctor’s orders against heavy exercise, Reggie Lewis of the Boston Celtics was running, shooting baskets and dunking days before he died in July 1993, a former Northeastern University student testified in Boston.

In testimony marking the start of the defense case at the malpractice trial stemming from Lewis’ death, Sean Curran told how a chance encounter four days before Lewis’ death led to a one-on-one practice session with his idol.

The U.S. Figure Skating Assn. has decided against pursuing a sexual misconduct case against former Detroit Skating Club coach Richard Callaghan. Craig Maurizi, a former colleague of Callaghan’s at the Skating Club, had filed a complaint against Callaghan.

Steve DeBerg is no longer a 45-year-old backup quarterback after being hired as quarterback coach by the Atlanta Falcons.

Murray Rose, an Associated Press sportswriter and editor for 46 years and one of the country’s best-known boxing journalists, died Monday in New York. He was 84.

Shav Glick, Times motorsports writer, has won first, second and third prizes in the 33rd annual contest conducted by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Assn. Competing in the newspaper category, Glick won first place in news writing, second in feature writing and third in column writing for the 1998 season.