Morning roundup

A pilfered half-ton chain-saw carving of former Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas was returned to Buffalo on Friday.

Thomas, a former Oklahoma State standout, gave his 8 1/2 foot wooden likeness a kiss after a crane unloaded the 1,000-pound pine statue at a sports training facility in suburban Buffalo.

The statue disappeared shortly after it was unveiled in the stadium parking lot before last Sunday’s Bills game. A Canadian man said he and some friends rescued the statue in Welland, Ontario, from some fans who, he said, had planned to burn it.

Chad Campbell closed with an eagle on the par-5 ninth for a 9-under 62 and a share of the second-round lead with Troy Matteson in the PGA Tour’s Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas.

Campbell and Matteson were at 13-under 129. Former Oklahoma State golfer Rickie Fowler, in his first PGA Tour event, shot a 64 and was two shots behind at 131. Former OSU golfer Hunter Mahan was four back.

Dan Forsman reeled off six straight birdies en route to an 8-under 64 and a one-shot lead after the first round of the Champions Tour Administaff Small Business Classic in The Woodlands, Texas.

John Cook was next at 7-under 65, two better than Bob Tway of Edmond, Jay Don Blake, Mark Wiebe and Nick Price.

Cullen Bryant, a running back who spent 11 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and was on their 1980 Super Bowl team, died at the age of 58 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Bryant, who was born in Fort Sill and raised in Colorado Springs, had been under a doctor’s care when he died, his sister-in-law said. She did not supply any other details.

Bryant was the Rams’ second-round draft pick in 1973. He played with the team until 1982, was with the Seattle Seahawks in 1983 and 1984 and returned to the Rams for his last pro season in 1987.

The U.S. women continue to dominate in gymnastics. Bridget Sloan edged U.S. teammate Rebecca Bross for the all-around title at the world gymnastics championships in London, just as Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson swept the first two places at the Beijing Games last summer.

Sloan, the lone holdover from the U.S. team that won the silver medal in Beijing, finished with 57.825 points. Bross, competing at her first world championships after turning 16 in July, scored 57.775 points.

Steven Sheffield is listed as Texas Tech’s No. 1 quarterback on the team’s depth chart for today’s game at No. 15 Nebraska.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach made no official announcement. He said earlier he wouldn’t decide between Sheffield and Taylor Potts until just before game time.

Sheffield threw for 728 yards and 10 touchdowns after Potts, the former starter, suffered a concussion two weeks ago against New Mexico.

Sen. John McCain pressed President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.

McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., noted in a letter to Obama that both houses of Congress this summer passed their resolution urging a pardon. After the vote, the lawmakers wrote to Obama in August asking him to issue the pardon.

McCain and King, both former amateur boxers, asked why there had been no response from the Obama administration. The White House declined to comment.

FROM WIRE REPORTS

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