English hired by Eastern Michigan

Eastern Michigan has hired Ron English, making him the fifth black head football coach in major-college football, a person familiar with the contract agreement told the Associated Press on Sunday.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the school hasn’t announced its decision.

Eastern Michigan scheduled a news conference for today.

The other black coaches among the 119 teams in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision are Buffalo’s Turner Gill, Miami’s Randy Shannon, Houston’s Kevin Sumlin and New Mexico’s Mike Locksley.

English, 40, was Louisville’s defensive coordinator in 2008 after serving on Lloyd Carr’s staff at Michigan for five seasons, the last two as defensive coordinator. He was also an assistant at Arizona State, San Diego State and Northern Arizona.

English replaces Jeff Genyk, who was fired in November and had a 16-42 record in five seasons.

Duke has given Coach David Cutcliffe a two-year contract extension through 2015. Terms were not released. . . . Texas Christian might play without standout senior linebacker Robert Henson when it faces No. 9-ranked Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl on Tuesday. Asked whether Henson would play, Coach Gary Patterson said, “I don’t know about that yet, but there isn’t anything wrong with him.”

WINTER SPORTS

Davis, Bleiler win at first stop of Winter Dew Tour

Danny Davis won the superpipe final and Olympic silver medalist Gretchen Bleiler topped the women’s field at Breckenridge, Colo., in the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour.

Davis finished with 94.75 points. Shaun White was second with 93.50 points and Scotty Lago was third with 90.00 points.

Bleiler finished with a score of 90.25 points. Kelly Clark was second with 86.75 points and Elena Hight was third with 82.00 points.

The four-day competition, the first of three stops on the tour, drew more than 17,000 spectators and features men’s and women’s freeskiing and snowboarding.

Apolo Anton Ohno won the 1,000 and 3,000 meters at the U.S. Short Track Speedskating Championships in Chesterfield, Mo., to finish with 4,140 points and earn his eighth consecutive national title. Katherine Reutter swept the last two women’s events to finish with 3,860 points and earn her second consecutive national title. The top five men and women will represent the U.S. at the World Cup events in February and the world championships in March. . . . Daniel Albrecht of Switzerland had a combined time of 2 minutes 32.71 seconds to win a World Cup giant slalom event at Alta Badia, Italy. He finished 0.12 of a second ahead of second-place Ivica Kostelic of Croatia. Defending World Cup giant-slalom champion Ted Ligety of Park City, Utah, was fourth. Albrecht moved in front in the giant slalom standings, leading Ligety 216 points to 212.

ETC.

Hollywood Park’s meet ends; Vacare is a winner

Favorite Vacare held off Gotta Have Her and In My Glory to score a one-length victory in the $150,000 Dahlia Handicap on the closing day at Hollywood Park.

Ridden by Jose Valdivia Jr., Vacare covered 1 1/16 miles on the turf in 1:43.13.

Vacare earned $90,000 to boost her earnings to $1.2 million and trainer Christophe Clement got his 1,000th win. Vacare’s connections said the 5-year-old mare will be retired.

Rafael Bejarano added another jockey’s title by riding 52 winners at Hollywood Park’s 40-day meet. He completed a sweep of the five major Southern California meetings this year.

Doug O’Neill saddled 30 winners to take the training title. It’s the seventh time O’Neill was the top trainer at Hollywood Park.

Wayne Rooney scored late in the 73rd minute to lead Manchester United over Ecuador’s Liga de Quito, 1-0, in the final of the Club World Cup at Yokohama, Japan. . . . Spain’s Aschwin Wildeboer set a world record of 49.20 in the men’s 100-meter backstroke at the Spanish short-course championships in Madrid.