Ex-NHL Union Chief Faces Extradition

Former hockey official Alan Eagleson is wanted in the United States to face fraud, racketeering and embezzlement charges.

Paul Kelly, U.S. district attorney, said a request to extradite the former executive director of the NHL Players Assn. and Hockey Canada’s international negotiator from Toronto will be filed within 60 days. Additional charges also may be added to the 32-count indictment handed up by a grand jury on March 3.

“The reason for the delay has been to do with the fact that we’ve encountered other indications of wrongdoing and we want to make sure we thoroughly pursue them,” Kelly said. “It has nothing to do with tightening up the case. What’s being investigated is something entirely new.”

Eagleson’s lawyers said their client will fight the charges but is not willing to surrender to U.S. authorities until details of the indictment are released and his defense can be properly prepared.

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Jerry Tarkanian will drop his lawsuits against Nevada Las Vegas and the university will pay the former UNLV basketball coach’s legal costs.

UNLV President Kenny Guinn said Tarkanian and his wife, Lois, agreed to drop their lawsuit so the financially troubled school could spend as much money as possible on students, rather than continued legal fees and possible damages.

UNLV agreed not to appeal a district court order that it pay Tarkanian $250,000 in legal fees for 13 years of battles with the NCAA. UNLV also agreed to pay Tarkanian at least $38,000 in sick pay and vacation pay and to cover $60,000 to $75,000 in legal fees the coach and his wife accumulated after filing a second lawsuit against three university officials in September.

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The Dallas Mavericks first-round draft choice, Jason Kidd, is scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 30 on hit-and-run charges after attempts to work out a plea bargain failed. If convicted, Kidd, 21, faces a maximum sentence of six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine.

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The California State University system has agreed to pay $1.35 million plus $300,000 in attorney fees to settle a wrongful termination suit by former Fullerton volleyball Coach Jim Huffman. . . . Las Vegas sports agent Nate Cebrun, 48, who gained national attention for giving gifts and cash to Florida State football players, was arrested for failing to register with the state of Florida. . . . Ohio State punter Mike Malfatt, 19, was charged with shoplifting $445 worth of merchandise from a discount store in Columbus, Ohio.

Tennis

Top-seeded Sergi Bruguera of Spain needed less than an hour to defeat American Jim Grabb, 6-4, 6-2, and six-time champion Ivan Lendl routed Australia’s Wally Masur, 6-0, 6-0, to move into the third round of the Player’s International tournament at Toronto. Eighth-seeded Andre Agassi defeated Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland, 6-1, 6-1. Second-seeded Todd Martin withdrew from his match against Israel’s Amos Mansdorf. Two other seeded players, No. 5 Petr Korda of the Czech Republic and No. 13 Aaron Krickstein, were upset by Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist and Chuck Adams, respectively.

Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez, the No. 2 and No. 3 players in the world, breezed through opening-round matches in the U.S. Women’s Hardcourts tournament at Stratton Mountain, Vt. Sanchez Vicario defeated Mashona Washington, and Martinez beat Stephanie Rottier.

No. 3-seeded Javier Sanchez of Spain lost to wild-card entry Marcelo Rios of Chile, and No. 4 Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands was defeated by unseeded Australian Richard Fromberg in the Dutch clay-court championships.

Auto Racing

The Benetton team of Formula One points leader Michael Schumacher said it would decide today whether to appeal the two-race ban handed the driver for a penalty incurred in the British Grand Prix.

A.J. Foyt, who retired from racing more than two years ago, is listed as a driver for the inaugural Brickyard 400 NASCAR race at Indianapolis on Aug. 6.

Miscellany

Cobb County, Ga., Commission Chairman Bill Byrne is moving to cancel plans for pre-Olympic volleyball practices and games at the Cobb Convention Center next year, striking back at Atlanta Olympic officials who have threatened to remove the county’s only venue for the 1996 Games. Such a move would effectively rule out Cobb, target of mounting protests because of the county commission’s resolution condemning the “gay lifestyle,” as a venue for the 1996 volleyball preliminaries.

The NFL resurrected the World League by adding three teams to holdovers Barcelona, Frankfurt and London. The new entries will be in Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Germany; and Edinburgh, Scotland. The league will begin play on April 8 with a 10-game schedule and the World Bowl scheduled for June 17. The NFL and Fox Inc.-News Corporation, will invest $40 million in the league over the next four years. . . . Harvey Grant of the Portland Trail Blazers had surgery to repair torn ligaments in his right wrist and is expected to wear a cast for two months; he will need at least a month of rehabilitation after the cast is removed. . . . Michael Henderson of Raleigh, N.C., shot a three-under-par 69 for a 36-hole total of 139, taking medalist honors in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championships by three strokes at Westfield, N.J. . . One college and three high school athletes died of injuries suffered while playing football in 1993, according to a national survey conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.