Infante, Tobin Fired By Colts

Lindy Infante was fired as coach of the Indianapolis Colts today, a day after the team finished 3-13 for the worst record in the NFL.

Bill Tobin, the Colts' director of football operations, also was dismissed after a season in which the team lost its first 10 games.

Infante compiled a 12-20 record in two seasons as Colt coach. He moved up from offensive coordinator to head coach when the Colts dismissed Ted Marchibroda after the 1995 season. Tobin joined the Colts in 1994 after 18 seasons with the Chicago Bears.

College football

Curtis Enis, Penn State running back, said a suit he wore to an awards banquet was purchased by his girlfriend, not by a sports agent, the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News reported today.

Enis told Penn State officials that Heidi Hanna bought the suit in the Philadelphia area the weekend of Dec. 6-7, sports-information director Jeff Nelson said.

Harrisburg's WHTM-TV aired a report last Friday claiming that agent Jeff Nalley bought Enis, a junior, $400 in clothing Dec. 6 in a Harrisburg-area mall, a violation of NCAA rules.

-- Brandon Drum was suspended from Nebraska's team after a racially charged fight at a local bar in which he broke a man's nose. The reserve defensive tackle, who is white, was ticketed for third-degree misdemeanor assault after reportedly head-butting a black patron of Guitars and Cadillacs bar. He also is accused of making racial slurs during what witnesses said was an unprovoked attack. Athletic Director Bill Byrne did not disclose the length of the suspension.

-- Louisiana State's Melvin Hill, a senior fullback, received severe lacerations to his face and upper body and Samuel Scott, a walk-on, suffered a broken leg when a car driven by Hill veered off the highway and hit a tree. Hill told troopers he fell asleep at the wheel.

Skiing

Mild temperature and soft snow forced postponement of a men's World Cup slalom today - the third race out of four wiped out by poor weather at the race site in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.

-- Austrian Christian Mayer's four-year victory drought ended when he beat world champion Michael von Gruenigen of Switzerland in yesterday's World Cup giant-slalom race in Alta Badia, Italy.

Seven Austrians finished in the top eight.

Speedskating

Apolo-Anton Ohno of Seattle, the 1997 U.S. short-track champion, has qualified for the men's world junior short-track championships Jan. 3-4 in St. Louis, finishing second in the U.S. junior meet.

Baseball

The New York Mets traded Carl Everett today, sending the troubled outfielder to the Houston Astros for reliever John Hudek.

Everett's name was in the news in early August when his two children were taken into custody by New York City officials after a Shea Stadium child-care worker noticed bruises on one of them. Since then, the parents have been allowed only supervised visits with the children.

-- The Cincinnati Reds signed free-agent pitcher David Weathers to a one-year contract and declined to offer contracts to pitcher Joey Eischen and outfielder Steve Gibralter.

Boxing

WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, has signed a contract to meet Evander Holyfield in a $50 million unification fight in Las Vegas on April 25.

Now it's up to Holyfield, the WBA and IBF champion, as well as promoter Don King and HBO to sign the deal, Panos Eliades, who promotes Lewis' fights, said today.

Soccer

Colombian players were stripped nearly naked by fans who invaded the field after watching their side win the national championship in Cali.

Hundreds of supporters of the team, America, broke through a police cordon after the final whistle and stripped the players of their uniforms and jewelry.

Undeterred, the team completed a lap of honor, using flags and anything else with the team's red colors to cover themselves.

Horse racing

Jockey Juan Vives was found stabbed to death yesterday, just hours after he won a race at Penn National Race Course, track officials said.

Vives' body was found in the woods near his house. He was 32.

Police believe Vives returned home from the Grantville, Pa., raceway Saturday night to find burglars breaking into his car and then chased them into the woods.

- Seattle Times news services