Sports briefs
Hall of Fame coach Fitch dies at 89
Bill Fitch, who guided the Boston Celtics to one of their championships during a Hall of Fame coaching career spanning three decades, has died. He was 89.
A two-time NBA coach of the year, Fitch died Wednesday in Lake Conroe, Texas. Fitch’s daughter, Marcy Ann Coville, told Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle her father was surrounded by family. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Fitch coached for 25 seasons in the NBA, starting with the expansion Cleveland Cavaliers in 1970. He was Larry Bird’s first pro coach with Boston in 1979, won a title with the Celtics in 1981 and spent time with Houston, New Jersey and the Los Angeles Clippers.
While he had his greatest success in Boston, Fitch may be best remembered for his early seasons with the Cavs.
He helped develop a young team that won just 15 games in its first season before making the playoffs in 1976 and shocking the Washington Bullets in what became known as the “Miracle of Richfield.”
In college football
Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding has been arrested and charged with a DUI.
Golding was listed as an inmate in the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Thursday morning after he was jailed on $500 bond.
Alabama coach Nick Saban hired Golding in 2018.
In the NBA
Beth Mowins made ESPN history in 2017 when she was the first woman to call a “Monday Night Football” game. She will again be part of a network first on Wednesday when ESPN produces an NBA game announced and directed by all women.
Mowins will work the Golden State Warriors-Utah Jazz game with analyst Doris Burke and reporter Lisa Salters. In addition, 33 other women will handle production roles on site in Salt Lake City and in the control room from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.
In the NFL
Former Washington Commanders employees and members of Congress pressured the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday to release a report about the team’s history of sexual harassment and its sexist, hostile workplace culture. They said the team and owner Dan Snyder have not been held accountable for their misdeeds.
One of the six former employees who spoke before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform also came forward with a new allegation that she was sexually harassed by Snyder himself, which Snyder denied.
Complaints about the team’s treatment of female employees first surfaced in 2020. Snyder commissioned an investigation into the team’s workplace environment that was taken over by the NFL.
But the league did not release any details of the Wilkinson investigation’s findings, and former employees who spoke Thursday noted the contrast to the way the NFL handled an investigation into allegations that quarterback Tom Brady deflated footballs.
In the Olympics
Kendall Coyne Schofield and Alex Carpenter each scored twice, and the U.S. women’s hockey team began the defense of its Olympic title with a 5-2 win over Finland on Thursday in a game overshadowed by an injury to American forward Brianna Decker.
The assistant captain and three-time Olympian yelped out in pain after being tripped from behind by Finland’s Ronja Savolainen midway through the first period. Decker was unable to place any weight on her left leg and was taken off on a stretcher. USA Hockey said the 31-year-old Decker had a lower body injury and was being evaluated at the arena.