Associated Press
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. óPenn State coach Joe Paterno spent several hours at a hospital being treated for dehydration before returning home late Thursday.
The 81-year-old coach had been working at home late in the morning when he began feeling nauseated and was taken by ambulance to Mount Nittany Medical Center, team spokesman Guido D’Elia said. Paterno had tests at the hospital but was not admitted.
Paterno was released and back home Thursday evening, and doctors determined he suffered from dehydration, team officials said.
Paterno’s son and Penn State quarterbacks coach, Jay, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that his father was OK.
“It’s no big deal,” Jay Paterno said before his father returned home. “If it’s dehydration, he’s probably all talked out.”
– LOS ANGELES ó Southern California has signed a new 25-year lease that will keep the Trojans’ football team in the Los Angeles Coliseum and include improvements in the stadium.
USC has played in the 85-year-old facility since it was built in 1923.
BARKLEY
LAS VEGAS ó Charles Barkley acknowledged he owes a $400,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas Strip casino and promised Thursday to repay it after a prosecutor said the retired NBA star faced criminal charges.
“My mistake,” Barkley said in an interview at a pro-am golf tournament in Hoover, Ala. “I’m not broke, and I’m going to take care of it.”
COLLEGE HOOPS
LOS ANGELES ó Former USC basketball star O.J. Mayo has denied allegations that he received cash and gifts from events promoter Rodney Guillory and said he was confident an investigation will determine he did not violate NCAA rules.
“I know for a fact that I haven’t accepted anything,” Mayo told the Los Angeles Times for Thursday’s editions. “My family hasn’t accepted anything, so I’m just waiting for the NCAA to do what they have to do to prove that I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Louis Johnson, a former associate of Mayo’s, claimed in a segment of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that Guillory received money from Bill Duffy Associates and funneled cash and gifts to Mayo.
NFL
MIAMI ó Prosecutors charged a fifth person in the slaying of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor.
Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office spokesman Ed Griffith said 16-year-old Timothy Brown is charged with first-degree murder.
– OWINGS MILLS, Md. ó The Baltimore Ravens have reached a compromise with franchise player Terrell Suggs, his agent said. Suggs filed a grievance against the team in March after the Ravens tagged him with the one-year, $8.065 million linebacker tag.
TENNIS
HAMBURG, Germany ó Rafael Nadal had no birthday gift for Andy Murray, winning in straight sets Thursday to join Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of the Hamburg Masters.
Nadal won 6-3, 6-2 against Murray, who turned 21.
Defending champion Federer breezed past Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-2. The top-ranked Federer is seeking his fifth title in Hamburg.
– ROME ó Maria Sharapova rallied from a four-game deficit in the second set to beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Thursday, advancing to the Italian Open quarterfinals along with sisters Serena and Venus Williams.