Illini fire coach one week before opener
AL ARBOUR, 1932 - 2015
Illinois fired Coach Tim Beckman one week before the start of the season, after an investigation alleged that he tried to influence medical decisions and pressure players to play with injuries.
Athletic Director Mike Thomas said Friday that the timing is unfortunate, but “it was in the best interests of student-athletes to act now.” Thomas said the final report would not be publicly released until during the season. Beckman’s firing follows the unexpected resignations this month of the top two officials on campus, revelations that they’d used private emails accounts to avoid public scrutiny of school business, and a pair of lawsuits in which former women’s basketball and women’s soccer players claim they were mistreated by coaches.
In a statement, Beckman denied wrongdoing and hinted that he might take legal action, calling the decision to fire him “a rush to judgment that confirms the university’s bad faith.”
The Illini face Kent State at home Sept. 4 to start the season. Offensive coordinator Bill Cubit has been named interim coach.
Eaton has shot at decathlon record
Defending world champion Ashton Eaton stayed within world-record range after seven events in the decathlon, amassing 6,451 points after the discus throw at the world track and field championships in Beijing. Eaton, who set the world record at 9,039 points in 2012, threw 44.34 meters and had a 131-point lead over Damian Warner of Canada. Warner cut Eaton’s overnight lead by 42 points with better marks in the 110-meter hurdles and the discus throw on Saturday. The pole vault, javelin throw and 1,500-meter race are still to come in the decathlon.
Matej Toth of Slovakia won the longest event at the world championships, taking gold in the 50-kilometer walk in 3 hours 40 minutes 32 seconds.
The Sparks’ three-game road win streak ended with a 76-66 loss to the host Tulsa Shock. Riquna Williams made a three-pointer as the shot clock expired with 1:27 left to increase Tulsa’s lead to 73-66 and, on the next possession, the Sparks had a three-pointer waved off because of a shot-clock violation. Candace Parker had 24 points for the Sparks (11-18).
In tennis, French qualifier Pierre-Hughes Herbert advanced to the Winston-Salem Open final in North Carolina, beating 13th-seeded Steve Johnson of the U.S., 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Herbert, ranked 140th, will next play second-seeded Kevin Anderson, who defeated Malek Jaziri, 6-4, 6-3. . . . Fourth-seeded Lucie Safarova held off lucky-loser Lesia Tsurenko, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), in the Connecticut Open semifinals at New Haven. Safarova will next play second-seeded Petra Kvitova, who defeated third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, 7-5, 6-1.
Coach Danny Blink selected Arjen Robben to replace striker Robin van Persie as captain of the Netherlands’ national soccer team.
NASCAR star Tony Stewart said he did not see driver Kevin Ward Jr. walking on a dirt track in upstate New York last year before Stewart’s car struck and killed Ward. Stewart noted that Ward was impaired by marijuana and shouldn’t have been outside his
car, according to court papers filed.
Ronda Rousey’s next Ultimate Fighting Championship title defense will shift to Nov. 14 at an outdoor stadium in Melbourne, Australia, instead of Jan. 2 in Las Vegas. Rousey (12-0) will fight former professional boxing champion Holly Holm (9-0). UFC President Dana White announced that welterweight champion Robbie Lawler injured his thumb Friday and was ruled out of his scheduled Nov. 14 fight against Carlos Condit.
— Lance Pugmire
Al Arbour, whose coaching helped turn the New York Islanders franchise into an NHL dynasty that won four straight Stanley Cups in the early 1980s, died. He was 82. Arbour had been in declining health, battling Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and living in a long-term care facility in Florida.
Al Arbour, the bespectacled gentleman of a coach who molded a young and talented New York Islanders franchise into an NHL dynasty that won four straight Stanley Cups in the early 1980s, has died. He was 82.
Arbour had been in declining health, battling Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and living in a long-term care facility in Florida, his former team said in a statement Friday.
Beginning in 1973-74, Arbour led the Islanders to 15 playoff appearances and won 119 playoff games — an NHL record with one team — over 19 seasons. His 740 career regular-season wins with the Islanders are the most with one NHL team.
Arbour was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996. He had success as a player, but his real talent was in coaching.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Arbour was brilliant as a tactician and coach.
“Al Arbour directed the Islanders’ rapid transformation from expansion team to NHL powerhouse,” Bettman said in a statement released by the league.
As a player, the defenseman won titles with the Detroit Red Wings in 1954, the Chicago Blackhawks in 1961 and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1962 and 1964 during an NHL career that spanned three decades and 14 seasons.
His last four seasons were with the expansion St. Louis Blues, who took him to three more Cup finals and gave him his start behind the bench.
His coaching statistics were even better. Besides the four consecutive Cups, he won 782 games, making him the NHL’s secondwinningest coach behind his mentor, Scotty Bowman (1,244). The Islanders also set an NHL record by winning 19 consecutive playoff series.
No team in any major sport has won four straight titles since Arbour’s Islanders did it.
Bowman referred to the Islanders’ string of series wins as a record that will be tough to break, and he called it a testament to Arbour that he was able to enjoy so much success with one franchise.
“Most of us coaches, we have to move around to get our message across,” Bowman said Friday. “But he was able to do it over a 20-year span. It’s an awesome feat.”
Arbour’s last win came in 2007, when the Islanders brought the then-75-year-old out of retirement to coach his 1,500th game with the franchise, a 3-2 win over the Penguins.
The NHL named Arbour its coach of year in 1979. He also was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1992 for contributions to ice hockey in the United States.
Born Nov. 1, 1932, in Sudbury, Canada, Arbour was one of the last NHL players to play wearing glasses.He never hesitated to go down and block shots, and he had a couple of hundred stitches to prove it. As a coach, he respected his players but found ways to push them. Failing to listen would result in fewer shifts and games missed.
As a player, Arbour finished with 12 goals and 58 assists in 626 career games. In retirement, Arbour was an avid NHL follower and sometimes critic.
During the 2012 playoffs, he complained about the NHL’s inconsistencies in disciplining players and how it led to stars such as Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux having to fight to defend themselves.
Arbour also complained about how quickly teams lose patience with coaches and general managers, wondering if he would have coached the Islanders for as long as he did in today’s game.
“The minute you lose a few games, you get the hammer, you get canned,” Arbour told the Associated Press in 2010. “It’s craziness. The guy they get is not any better.”
He is survived by his wife, Claire, and children Joann, Jay, Julie and Janice.