Sandwiches Serve as Boxing Champions’ Crowning Glory

New York’s famed Stage Deli has added another attraction to its card. “The Sugar Ray Leonard--a five-time champion tuna melt with tomato on a club roll” is now available as part of the Stage’s spring menu.

In another nosh division, there’s the “Evander Holyfield Triple-Decker Knockout--Nova Scotia salmon and lake sturgeon, tomato and onion.”

Paul Zoleng, one of the deli’s co-owners, explained that Holyfield’s name will stay on the sandwich as long as he holds the title, as was the case with Buster Douglas, Mike Tyson et al.

Said Zoleng: “George Foreman was in a few weeks ago and said, ‘That’s gonna be my sandwich pretty soon.’ ”

Add Foreman: Lou Duva, Holyfield’s manager, no doubt would scoff at Foreman’s claim to the sandwich, let alone the title.

Asked recently about the Holyfield-Foreman heavyweight championship fight scheduled for April, Duva made a play on a familiar expression, saying: “Foreman has two chances to win, slim and none--and slim is down.”

Trivia time: Name the shortest player to record a triple-double in an NBA game.

Nearly a yawner: It’s three days after the second anniversary of Loyola Marymount’s 181-150 victory over U.S. International, but it’s never too late to celebrate the event.

The game set NCAA records for most points by two teams, by a winning team, by a losing team, by two teams in the first half (170) and by one team in the first half (Loyola, 94).

The most boring part of the game was when 59 seconds elapsed between baskets.

Those troublemakers: Top-ranked Nevada Las Vegas was less than its usual precise, defensively tough self in its 88-64 victory at San Jose State Thursday. But Coach Jerry Tarkanian knew the reasons--hugging and talking.

He noted that former players Mark Wade and Freddie Banks had visited the Rebels before the game.

Said Tarkanian: “There was a lot of hugging and some talking. There was a different atmosphere today than we usually have. It’s my fault. I allowed it to happen.”

Manatees don’t drive: In Tampa Bay, the manatees are having their way.

For the second time in three months, the Suncoast Boat Racing Assn. canceled powerboat races because the Florida Department of Natural Resources said they posed a threat to the broad-tailed aquatic mammals.

When race organizers heard that, they decided not to wait for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recommendation to the Coast Guard.

David Coover, the racing association’s commodore, said: “It’s canceled. I don’t agree with it, but we don’t have a choice. Lots of people are killed every year in automobiles, but they haven’t banned driving.”

Trivia answer: Michael Adams, the Denver Nuggets’ 5-foot 11-inch guard, had 45 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists in helping the Nuggets defeat the New Jersey Nets, 123-119, Thursday night.

Quotebook: ABC sportscaster Frank Gifford, recalling his hotel breakfast before the 1967 Ice Bowl game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers: “I remember taking another bite of my coffee.”