Red Wings Give Up On Troubled Probert

The Detroit Red Wings today waived troubled forward Bob Probert, whose NHL career has been plagued by battles with alcohol and legal problems.

Probert, 29, most recently was treated for minor injuries stemming from a motorcyle accident in suburban Detroit.

Last season, Probert had seven goals and 10 assists in 66 games with 275 penalty minutes. He had played out his contract with the Red Wings and had been negotiating with Detroit and other clubs.

FOOTBALL

The Pac-10 and WAC have agreed to a three-year contract to have football teams from their conferences meet in the Freedom Bowl at Anaheim Stadium to end the next three seasons. The bowl will match the Western Athletic Conference runnerup team against the Pac-10 third-place team this December. In 1995 it will be third place teams from both conferences, and in 1996 revert to the WAC's second-place team.

TENNIS

Tracy Austin, saying she "stopped feeling that spark on the court," retired from tennis for the second time. Austin, 31, made the tearful announcement after retiring from her opening match at a tournament in Mahwah, N.J., against Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere because of a groin injury. Maleeva-Fragniere was leading 6-4, 2-0.

-- France, Germany and Japan won singles matches at the Federation Cup today in Frankfurt, Germany, giving all three unbeatable 2-0 leads and putting them into the quarterfinals.

GOLF

Former British and U.S. Open golf champion Tony Jacklin was disqualified from the Senior British Open at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. Jacklin, making his debut as a senior golfer - over 50 - in Britain, signed for a four at the 13th hole when he had taken five.

BOXING

Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe is set to fight Buster Mathis on Aug. 13 in Atlantic City, N.J. in what is expected to be one of two tuneups for a challenge to WBC champion Lennox Lewis.

-- Johnny Tapia, 27, who last week won the super flyweight title of the North American Boxing Federation, was arrested in Albuquerque, N.M., on fourth-degree felony charges when he and two other men allegedly tried to sell crack cocaine to an off-duty police officer. A police report identified the substance as soap, but the charges will stand because Tapia allegedly said the substance was cocaine.

FIELD HOCKEY

The United States moved into the semifinals of the women's field hockey World Cup when it beat China 1-0 in the crucial last game of the preliminary round in Dublin, Ireland. Also in the semfinals are Australia, Germany and Argentina.

LOCAL NOTES

Cascade High School graduate Brian Skoog (men's eight), Mercer Island's Hans Von Trotha (men's eight), Seattle Prep's Peter Lundquist (men's pairs with coxswain) and Gretchen Wiese and Kari Green of Sammamish High School (women's four and eight) are on the United States Junior World Championship rowing team that will compete in Munich, Germany.

-- The United States Golf Association has picked Broadmoor Country Club as the site for the 1996 Senior Women's Amateur Championship.

-- Seattle's Nancy Bruce won the women's 40-plus 10-kilometer division of the Masters National Cycling Championships in Cooper City, Fla. Bellevue's Woody Cox (40-44 age group) and Seattle's Glen Norton (45-49) finished second and Kirkland's Stan Gregg (45-49) was fifth in the men's competition.

-- Roger Mar of Seattle will compete for the U.S. in the World Shooting Championships in Milan, Italy, today through Aug. 4. Mar, a 1992 Olympian, will compete in rapid-fire pistol.