Monson Suing Oregon For Old Job Or Compensation

-- COLLEGES

Fired Oregon basketball coach Don Monson has sued the state, seeking reinstatement to the job or $425,788 in compensation for the two years remaining on his contract with the university.

Jerry Greene, Oregon's new basketball coach, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Lane County Circuit Court in Eugene.

Monson was fired March 17 after the Ducks' worst season in 21 years. The team was 2-16 in the Pac-10 Conference and 6-21 overall.

Monson is asking for $178,936 in damages, $221,066 for non-university income related to the job and $25,785 for lost benefits.

Greene was named as a defendant because he now holds the position that Monson "remains ready, willing and able to perform," the lawsuit maintains.

At the time of the firing, Oregon athletic director Bill Byrne said the university would negotiate with Monson over what he would be paid during the remaining two years of his contract.

-- Clemson basketball assistant Len Gordy, who has been at the center of an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations at the school, resigned.

Gordy was suspended with pay on June 29 after admitting he lied to NCAA investigators looking into recruiting allegations.

-- Tom Chapman, men's basketball coach at St. Bonaventure, was fired after compiling a 22-62 record during his three-year tenure.

-- TENNIS

Ivan Lendl qualified for his eighth Player's Ltd. International final with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over 10th-seeded Wally Masur. Lendl will go for his seventh title today against Andre Agassi, who beat MaliVai Washington 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the other match from Toronto.

-- Second-seeded Pete Sampras beat ninth-seeded Gabriel Markus of Argentina 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) to advance to the semifinals of an exhibition tournament in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

Austria's Thomas Muster, the No. 4 seed, had to work hard for a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Czechoslovakia's Martin Strelba in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, Sampras faces Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay, while Muster will play Argentina's Alberto Mancini.

-- PRO BASKETBALL

Forward Marty Conlon scored 18 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds as the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Houston Rockets 101-95 in the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league at Salt Lake City. Gerald Paddio had 21 points for Seattle, which won for the first time in three tries.

-- YACHTING

Washington sailors took overall victories in seven of eleven classes at Yachting Race Week, which ended yesterday off Whidbey Island.

Three skippers turned in perfect low-point scores of 3.00, each winning all four of their races. They were Medina's Rob Fleming, aboard Coruba in PHRF A class; Seattle's Dave Danielson, aboard Delicate Balance in IMS D class; and Ron Kluwe of Seal Beach, Calif., aboard Easy Go in PHRF 1 class.

Kluwe received the award for best overall performance by a skipper. (Results, B 2.)

-- LOCAL NOTE

Tony Volpentest, 19, of Mountlake Terrace, won the men's 200-meters in a time of 23.7 seconds during third-day competition at the National Amputee Summer Games in Atlanta.

-- RODEO

A Colorado teenager died yesterday from injuries suffered while competing in the National High School Finals Rodeo in Shawnee, Okla.

Tyler R. Sprague, 18, of Loveland, Colo., was injured Thursday night when his head hit a bull's head during the bull-riding competition.

-- BOXING

Heavyweight Alex "The Destroyer" Stewart lived up to his nickname by stopping Paul Poirier in the third round of a scheduled 10-round heavyweight bout in Catskill, N.Y.