Gunslinger Paychecks in Dispute

The San Antonio Gunslingers’ continuing payroll problems have prompted the United States Football League Players Assn. to file a grievance against the team.

Several player paychecks, which arrived three and four days late last week, bounced when they were deposited, newspapers in San Antonio reported Wednesday.

The San Antonio Express-News reported the team has pledged to make good the paychecks, with each player getting half in cash and half in a personal check from club president Bud Haun.

Four of the five series of Gunslinger paychecks this season either have been late or have lacked sufficient funds.

The USFL Players Assn. filed a formal grievance Tuesday against South Texas Sports Inc., parent company of the Gunslingers, to protest the franchise’s chronic payroll problems.

Meanwhile, the Gunslingers traded defensive end Ken Gillen to the Arizona Outlaws for two draft picks. The San Antonio Light reported Gillen was traded for comments he made to the newspaper criticizing the paycheck situation.

In a related development, South Texas Sports Inc. has been sued by the Internal Revenue Service for $285,000 in back taxes.

The suit follows one filed recently by the Bexar Appraisal District against the Gunslingers. That suit seeks payment of $143,759 in unpaid taxes.

The IRS suit seeks $285,068.40 in federal taxes and Social Security payments that had been withheld from employee paychecks.

Akeem Olajuwon, the Houston Rockets’ rookie center who sucker-punched Billy Paultz of the Utah Jazz during their National Basketball Assn. playoff game April 28, was fined $1,500.

The two players were under the Houston basket in the closing minutes of Utah’s 104-97 victory that knocked the Rockets out of the playoffs, when Olajuwon threw a right hand that hit Paultz on the side of the face while Paultz was looking away.

Scotty Stirling, the NBA vice president of operations, said in a letter to Olajuwon that Paultz “was in no way prepared for the punch and totally defenseless. While this flagrant act was undetected by the officials working the game, it nonetheless violates all of the NBA’s principles of fair play and good sportsmanship.”

A vice president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Mari Hulman George, the daughter of the late speedway owner Tony Hulman, was charged with two counts of battery resulting in injury of a police officer, one count of resisting arrest and one count of public intoxication following a scuffle at an Indianapolis bar.

The United States has pledged to assist South Korea in whatever manner is necessary to assure security for the 1986 Asian Games and 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul.

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger called security for the Games “a high priority.” He refused, however, to elaborate on what types of measures the agreement contemplated “for obvious reasons.”

Guard Gary McLain, who helped Villanova to the NCAA basketball title this past season, signed a one-year contract with the Wildwood Aces of the new United States Basketball League.

McLain, who averaged 8.0 points per game last season and led the Wildcats in assists with 150, said he hoped the USBL would help his chances of getting into the NBA.

The Seattle SuperSonics would draft Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing if the team wins Sunday’s NBA lottery, but General Manager Lenny Wilkens said he knows nothing about rumors that Hoya Coach John Thompson will become Seattle’s coach if it lands Ewing.

Wilkens insisted that the Sonics have not talked to Thompson about their vacant head coaching job.

The City of St. Louis has filed suit seeking nearly $300,000 in amusement taxes from the St. Louis Blues, but team owner Harry Ornest is holding out, calling the tax unfair and saying that it should be abolished.

The city’s suit was filed in St. Louis Circuit Court one day after the Blues filed a suit against the city in U.S. District Court seeking to have the 5% tax on gross receipts invalidated. The club contends the tax is unconstitutional because it singles out athletic events for taxation while exempting other forms of entertainment.

Washington State University will suspend its men’s wrestling and women’s volleyball programs at the end of next year in an effort to head off a potential $750,000 deficit in the athletic department budget.

School officials say the decision, announced Wednesday, was forced mainly by the anticipated loss of $500,000 in revenue from televised football games during the 1985-1986 school year.

WSU also lost $100,000 during this school year when a regional television network defaulted on a $1-million Pacific 10 Conference television package.

Names in the News

Former USC linebacker Chip Banks was the only one of the Cleveland Browns’ 58 veteran players who failed to report for the first day of spring camp at Berea, Ohio. Banks, a first-round draft choice in 1982, reportedly is unhappy that the Browns tried to trade him to the Buffalo Bills.

Former New York Knicks star center Willis Reed was named an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks. Reed, who was a standout in the NBA for 10 years, resigned as head coach at Creighton University last week.