Arbour Decides to Stay on Bench for Islanders

Al Arbour, who coached the New York Islanders to four consecutive Stanley Cup championships from 1980 to 1983, has decided to return next season.

Arbour, 52, the senior coach in the National Hockey League, considered quitting after the Islanders were eliminated from the NHL playoffs last month.

“I’m not ready to be packed in mothballs and stored away,” Arbour said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of blending our existing players with the quality players we have coming up. I couldn’t see myself on the sidelines.”

Former Yankee first baseman Joe Pepitone has pleaded not guilty to drug and weapon possession charges.

He was arraigned on a seven-count indictment before a New York state Supreme Court Justice along with two other men he was with in a car that was stopped by police last March. A search of the car turned up cocaine, heroin and illegal pills with a street value of $70,000, drug paraphernalia and a loaded .22-caliber Derringer.

Roberto Duran, who retired from boxing after being knocked out by Thomas Hearns in two rounds last June in Las Vegas, is training in New York and expects to travel to Miami soon to begin three months of training before he will return to the ring.

Duran recently said he weighs 200 pounds and hopes to lose 40 to fight as a middleweight.

Duran’s wife, Felicidad, denied a report in a newspaper in Panama that Duran is ending his retirement because he is broke.

Georgetown University Coach John Thompson said he was been contacted by three pro teams, including one that took part in the National Basketball Assn. lottery, regarding a coaching position.

“I’m not sure they were job offers as much as inquiring,” Thompson said. “I’m evaluating and making an assessment. But at this point in time I’m not ready to leave Georgetown.”

Competition in the 1987 Pan American Games for some sports might be moved out of Indianapolis to other Indiana cities, an official of the organizing committee said.

“The possibility of holding competition outside Indianapolis has been discussed, but there are still many questions that remain,” said Bruce R. Dworshak, vice president of communications for the local organizing committee.

Proposals to hold some of the competition in Michigan City, South Bend, Columbus and Bloomington have developed in recent months, Dworshak said.

Six members of former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier’s boxing family have signed a long-term agreement with promoter Murad Muhammad. Three of them will appear on the undercard of next week’s Larry Holmes-Carl (The Truth) Williams heavyweight championship fight.

Muhammad said Marvis Frazier, Joe’s son, will meet James (Quick) Tillis, and Rodney Frazier, a nephew of the ex-champion, will fight Philip Brown as heavyweight preliminaries to the Holmes-Williams fight at Reno, Nev., next Monday night.

Also on the card is Smoking Bert Cooper, an adopted son of Frazier’s, who will fight Cliff Melburn in another heavyweight match.

Besides Marvis, Rodney and Cooper, Muhammad has signed welterweight Hector Frazier, Joe’s son, middleweight Mark Frazier, a nephew, and welterweight Murray Frazier, another adopted son.

Danny Ongais, severely injured in a crash at the Indianapolis Speedway in 1981, suffered bruises to his right knee and left foot when his March-Cosworth hit the wall during practice for the Indy 500.

Ongais had just completed a 210.526 m.p.h. lap around the 2 1/2-mile Indy track, faster than any of the laps he took in posting the 17th-best qualifying speed average at 207.220.

The Texas House of Representatives tentatively approved a bill that would prohibit sports agents from contacting college athletes until after the athlete’s last college game.

The only exception to the rule would be a 10-day period set by the college during the athlete’s final year of eligibility.

Under the legislation, sports agents would also be required to register annually with the secretary of state, pay a $1,000 registration fee and file a $100,000 surety bond.

Violation of the law would be a misdemeanor punishable by a $2,000 fine and a year in jail.

Don Mattingly and Dale Berra, New York Yankee infielders, were charged with indecent conduct in separate weekend incidents at the fashionable Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, authorities said.

Mattingly was arrested Thursday about midnight for urinating in public at a street corner in the plaza. He was taken to a plaza security office, given a municipal summons for indecent conduct and released on a signature bond. Berra, arrested at 9:45 p.m. Saturday after a plaza security officer allegedly saw him urinating in a parking garage, also was charged with trying to strike a plaza security officer, according to the Kansas City Police Department.

Lou Pinella, a former outfielder with the Royals and Yankees and currently New York’s hitting coach, is part-owner of a tavern in the plaza. The Yankees were in town for a three-game weekend series with the Kansas City Royals.

The maximum sentence for each charge is six months in jail and a $500 fine.

The Los Angeles Lazers have announced plans to move their administrative offices from the Forum to the San Fernando Valley on July 1. The team also hopes to build an indoor practice facility near the new office. However, the team will still play its games at the Forum.

The club said it is making the move in order to reach the large soccer market in the Valley.

Names in the News

Darryl Strawberry, the New York Mets’ leading home run hitter, underwent what was termed successful surgery for a torn ligament in his right thumb.

Micheal Ray Richardson of the New Jersey Nets, who overcame a drug problem to average a career-high 20.1 points per game last season, has been named the NBA’s Comeback Player of the Year.

Joe Namath will have his jersey retired by the New York Jets during an early season game this year, the club announced.