Tyson’s Release Date Now March 25

Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson will be released from prison March 25, his original release date before being disciplined early in his six-year term.

Tyson’s release had been set back to May 9 after he was disciplined in 1992 for threatening a guard and for disorderly conduct at the Indiana Youth Center near Plainfield, Ind.

But H. Christian DeBruyn, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction, decided recently to lift the added penalty, largely because Tyson has been a model prisoner since.

Football

Oregon named offensive coordinator Mike Bellotti as its football coach. Bellotti, 44, signed a four-year contract worth $175,000 a year.

He emerged as the top candidate after Rich Brooks resigned to become coach of the Rams.

The other candidates were Oregon assistants Nick Aliotti and Neal Zoumboukas, California offensive coordinator Denny Schuler, UCLA offensive coordinator Bob Toledo and former Stanford offensive coordinator Terry Shea.

The American Football Coaches Assn. will study a tiebreaker system for regular-season games and make a recommendation to the NCAA football rules committee. The committee has recommended a system to break ties in bowl games beginning next season.

Police investigating a fire in the apartment of former Wisconsin running back Brent Moss, who was in Indianapolis at the weekend NFL scouting combine, reported finding two men wanted on outstanding drug and alcohol warrants. . . . Former Pittsburgh Steeler All-Pro guard Carlton Haselrig, charged with resisting arrest and failing to appear at a hearing last month regarding a drunken-driving charge, was released from jail on bond. . . . Steve Atwater will be named the Denver Broncos’ franchise player and possibly the NFL’s highest-paid safety with a salary surpassing $2 million.

Baseball

The owners’ Player Relations Committee will begin tendering contracts with the maximum 20% pay cut to unsigned players on Friday, but will remain the bargaining agent for the 28 clubs, meaning individual teams cannot bargain with players or agents. Only 234 of the 1,100 players on 40-man major league rosters are signed for 1995.

It will be up to the union to propose a system by which contracts will be negotiated, management counsel Chuck O’Connor said.

The Dodgers confirmed the signings of five more players to minor-league contracts for the 1995 season: first baseman Oreste Marrero and pitchers Dennis Moeller, James Bruske, Miguel Alicea and Wayne Edwards. . . . The new United League that hopes to compete with major league baseball in 1996 will announce six charter franchises today, including one in Los Angeles.

Miscellany

Sweden’s Thomas Fogdoe, five times a winner in World Cup slalom competitions and the 1993 World Cup slalom champion, probably will never compete again because of “serious paralysis” from a training accident, a doctor said.

Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan says she passed up a $5 million offer to skate against Tonya Harding, who pleaded guilty to being involved in an attack on her.

Hasso Plattner’s Reichel/Pugh 50 Morning Glory was 148 miles ahead of Joe Case’s Santa Cruz 70 Mongoose with 521 miles to go in the Marina de Rey to Puerto Vallarta regatta.

The NBA approved the sale of the Miami Heat to the Arison family, which bought out Billy Cunningham and Lewis Schaffel to gain 100% of the club. . . . Orlando Magic assistant Richie Adubato was in good condition at a Phoenix hospital. . . . Darrick Martin, a former UCLA point guard, was signed by the Minnesota Timberwolves after playing at Sioux Falls, S.D., in the Continental Basketball Assn. . . . Dallas Maverick forward Roy Tarpley, who has been sidelined for a month because of a knee injury, has suffered a setback after accidentally dropping a water jug on his right foot. . . . Vernon Maxwell, suspended for rushing into the stands to punch a heckler, failed to show for practice with the Houston Rockets. . . . Alcorn State forfeited its game against Alabama State when Coach Sam Weaver refused to leave the court after receiving his second technical foul with 1:26 to play at Lorman, Miss. . . . The Massachusetts-Rutgers game, suspended because of a student protest last week, will be completed March 2 at a site to be determined.

Hockey

King General Manager Sam McMaster confirmed after watching the Buffalo Sabres twice over the weekend that he has had trade talks with the Sabres regarding goaltender Grant Fuhr.

McMaster will decide by next Monday whether to return goaltender Jamie Storr, 19, to junior hockey. Adding to the uncertainty is an injured Robb Stauber, who says he is “spinning his wheels” with the Kings.

Paul Kariya, the Mighty Ducks’ leading scorer, was found to have a sprained back and probably will return to practice Wednesday.

Joe Carista, a high school junior in Rockland, Mass., narrowly escaped death after his throat was slashed by an opponent’s skate. He needed 155 stitches to close the wound in his throat.