Star gymnast Thomas dies
Kurt Thomas, the first U.S. male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. He was 64.
Thomas' family said he died Friday. He had a stroke May 24, caused by a tear of the basilar artery in the brain stem.
After competing in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Thomas won the floor exercise in the 1978 world championships in Strasbourg, France, for the first U.S. men's title. In the 1979 worlds in Fort Worth, Texas, he successfully defended the floor exercise title and won the horizontal bar while adding silver in the all-around, pommel horse and parallel bars.
Thomas brought a mixture of athleticism and showmanship the elite U.S. men's program lacked. He starred at Indiana State and led the Sycamores to an NCAA team title in 1977. His popularity on campus at the time ranked second only to future basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird. Thomas won the AAU's 1979 James E. Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2003.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
UW-Green Bay is turning its basketball program over to Will Ryan, the son of former Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan.
Athletic director Charles Guthrie announced Sunday that the school and Ryan have agreed to a deal in principle, though final contract details are still being worked out.
The 41-year-old Ryan comes to Green Bay after posting a 14-13 record in his lone season as the head coach at Division II program Wheeling in West Virginia. He previously worked as an assistant at Ohio (2014-'19) and North Dakota State (2007-'14).
He worked on his father's Wisconsin staff from 2002-'07, where he served as a director of basketball operations and video coordinator.
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
Amanda Nunes became the first UFC fighter to defend a championship belt while holding titles in two weight classes late Saturday night in Las Vegas, earning a dominant unanimous decision over featherweight contender Felicia Spencer at UFC 250.
Nunes (20-4), widely considered the greatest female fighter in mixed martial arts history, is the UFC's champion of the bantamweight and featherweight divisions.
Former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt also knocked out Raphael Assunção an instant before the second-round bell in the co-main event at a fan-free gym.