In His First Move as Ram, Vermeil Ousts Ortmayer

Dick Vermeil, new St. Louis Ram coach and president of football operations, has fired vice president of football operations Steve Ortmayer.

Ortmayer, 52, had acted as general manager since the move to St. Louis from Anaheim two years ago and was responsible for all aspects of the Rams’ football operations.

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Atlanta Coach Dan Reeves added five former New York Giant assistants to his staff: Reeves named Don Blackmon, James Daniel, George Sefcik, Joe DeCamillis and Al Miller. The Giants hired Jim Skipper as their offensive coordinator.

Baseball

Relief pitcher Duane Ward agreed to a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers, another step in his long comeback from arm surgery. . . . Baseball’s summit meeting to develop a conduct code for players and umpires, called for after the Roberto Alomar spitting incident, has been rescheduled for Feb. 4 in Palm Beach, Fla.

Swimming

Denis Silantchev of Ukraine swam the 100-meter butterfly in 52.51 seconds at a short-course World Cup event in Espoo, Finland, to match the European record set eight years ago by Michael Gross of Germany. He also won the 200-meter butterfly Wednesday in 1:55.57.

Jani Sievinen won the 200 medley full course outdoors in 1:58.52. Tong Mi of China won three distances in the women’s breaststroke. China won five of seven races, and Mette Jacobsen of Denmark won twice in the women’s butterfly.

Winter Sports

Martina Ertl, 23, tore her left knee ligaments in a spill during a downhill training session. The accident occurred at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, where skiers are training for the World Alpine Ski Championships. Ertl is expected to miss the Feb. 2 event at Sestriere, Italy.

Bernd Kroschewski won on the men’s side and Heidi Renoth won on the women’s side in the World Snowboarding Championships at San Candido, Italy.

Alexei Urmanov won the men’s title in the European Figure Skating Championships at Paris.

Fabrice Becker of France won the World Cup acro-skiing event at Breckenridge, Colo. Elena Batalova of Russia won the women’s division.

Jurisprudence

Five of the 16 Ethiopian soccer players who had sought political asylum in Italy withdrew their request and asked to return home, police said in Rome.

Italian Inspector Gianfranco Petralia said the five players who changed their minds were not allowed to board the flight and were being held at the airport’s police offices.

The other 11 players who asked for asylum were taken Wednesday to a social center in Viterbo, about 30 miles north of Rome.

Meanwhile, an official of the Ethiopian Football Federation denied reports that Ethiopia had withdrawn from the Africa Nations Cup because of the defections.

A prosecutor in Bursa, Turkey, charged former NBA players Dallas Comegys and Larry Spriggs with taking part in a nightclub brawl that left one person dead. They could face up to five years in prison if found guilty.

Miscellany

The Taco Bell Newport Classic Pro-Am, a $100,000 two-day golf tournament featuring Nike Tour players and fringe PGA Tour players, begins today at the Newport Beach Country Club. Four LPGA players, including Muffin Spencer-Devlin, are also playing.

Names in the News

Texas Pan-American baseball Coach Al Ogletree, 67, the winningest active coach in Division I, announced he will retire after this season. Ogletree, whose career record is 1,187-689, will begin his 29th season.

Enio Andrade, the former Brazilian soccer star who won a record three national soccer championships as a coach, died at 67 of lung cancer in his hometown of Porto Alegre.

Murray State filled its vacant football coaching position today by naming Oklahoma assistant Denver Johnson to the post.

Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield was voted the Boxing Writers Assn. of America’s fighter of the year for 1996.

Pernell Whitaker will face Diobelis Hurtado tonight in a tune-up bout for his April 12 fight against Oscar De La Hoya.

Brian Nielsen will face Larry Holmes tonight in Copenhagen, Denmark.