19th HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
EZZ CHARLES AND FRIEND
Sirs:
Here is a picture of Ezzard Charles taken when he came here to the University of Illinois to take a series of physical-fitness tests under Professor Thomas K. Cureton. Charles read about Cureton's physical-fitness tests (SI, Aug. 30) that told about Roger Bannister's experiences with Cureton. Charles said he feels that he has several more good years left in him and these tests may help him regain the heavyweight championship. Incidentally, the fellow in pic with Charles is Cureton.
EDWARD J. WOJTAS
Champaign, Ill.
INVITATION ACCEPTED
Sirs:
I enjoyed so much your splendid article Wood Smoke From Old Cabins (SI, Oct. 11) that I was prompted to invite SI editors if they are ever driving through this part of our beautiful Wisconsin to stop a few moments and see my cabin in the woods. I built it in 1923, and it is sitting on a beautiful little lake in 1,300 acres of timber country, and it has, with wonderful fellowship given it, a great deal of charm.
You would be most welcome to use it for an hour, a day or week or longer, because I know how much you would appreciate it.
A. J. O'MELIA
Rhinelander, Wise.
NATURALLY
Sirs:
We don't know where you get the dope on New Mex. fishing but your advice worked out for us this weekend. We took your word for it and really got fish.
MR. & MRS. D. W. NEWTON
Mountain Air, N. Mex.
NIGHT HUNTERS
Sirs:
As a fox hunter I enjoyed SI's story on fox hunting (Oct. 11) and Mr. Everett's good writeup. However, I believe Mr. Everett's "100,000 night-hunters—25 states—chiefly farmers" is incomplete. There are probably that many night-hunting members of some fox-hunting association, which number does not take into account the thousands who do not belong to any association. As to "25 states"—I do not believe there are over two or three states where the night fox chase is not enjoyed. As to "chiefly farmers"—it may be that the best fox hunters are men of the land, and it may be that time was when they were the hub of the thing. However, I venture the guess that today there are more preachers, bankers, lawyers, factory laborers, and countless other nonfarmers who keep a pack than there are farmers.
I wanted to mention this last exception merely to point out that the appeal of the chase finds its way into all classes and kinds of people.
Congratulations to a sports magazine which covers all sports.
J. P. BUZARD
Moss Point, Miss.
•SI was referring to hard core of "night-hunters," spread mainly over the Southeastern and Midwestern states—ED.
COMIC SITUATION
Sirs:
In your Oct. 18th issue there is a cartoon concerning horseshoe pitchers who are searching through a rule book for information on how to score a precariously balanced horseshoe on top of the stake.
This is certainly a comic situation, but for those who are interested in what is the official scoring of this 'shoe, it is by logic only one point—regardless of its novel position. The same applies to any 'shoe within six inches of the stake that is a nonringer.
In the event this situation should ever actually occur, I suggest that the 'shoe or stake be checked for magnetism or Newton's Law of gravity be repealed.
GLENN C. BARNETT
Sec'y-Treas.
American Horseshoe Pitcher's Assoc. Inc.
Canton, O.
WHO'S MISSING THEM?
Sirs:
When I first saw your photograph of Frank Mincevich (The Solid South, SI, Oct. 4) I felt there was something missing.
Then I read Otto Graham's words in your Oct. 11th issue and immediately I knew what had been left out of Mincevich's photograph.
Here is the "complete" picture.
DON INMAN
Chemin St. Louis
Grand'Mere, Quebec
Canada
TWENTY MILLION SALUTES
Sirs:
America's No. 1 participant sport salutes America's No. 1 sports publication.
Bowling has at last been accorded its long-overdue recognition through the fine pen of Victor Kalman. Twenty million bowlers eagerly await your weekly feature on their beloved sport. Keep them coming, they're tops!
MARC BALDWIN
President
New York Bowling Council
New York
BONDED BOWLER
Sirs:
Nice going on the Oct. 11th column, predicting a big year for Lindy Faragalli. You might be interested to know that on Friday, Oct. 15, he rolled a 300 game in the Bergen County Major League. Because Faragalli was wearing a shirt and trousers made by Crown Prince Inc., the company awarded him a thousand-dollar bond. Two nights later, on Oct. 17, he rolled a 790 series with games of 258, 278 and 254 in the Eastern Classic League, at Mattewan, New Jersey. Last Sunday, Oct. 24, Lindy came back with 772, including a 289 game in the Eastern. He is currently leading in the New Jersey eliminations for the All-Star Classic, so that he has a good chance to win the U.S. title this year, as you said he had a chance to.
THE FABER CEMENT BLOCKS
BOWLING TEAM
Lodi, N.J.
BOWLER'S BOUQUET
Sirs:
Thanks to your magazine for publication of a very constructive article on what you should know if you want to bowl. A bouquet to you for that effort.
A scallion to you for Vic Kalman's last interpretation of the soon-coming Team Tournament at Handicap. Have to differ with Vic on his interpretations. Firstly, 90 % of the bowling public are handicap bowlers. Actually less than 10 % are proficient enough to be able to actually compete with the Don Carters and Joe Norrisses. etc. etc., who make up the FLASH of bowling
Are the 90% always to be denied the right to compete in major tournaments, except when they sacrifice all chance to win, just for the sport of so competing, as is done by all booster bowlers in the current ABC, when they bowl in the doubles and singles events?
The B.P.A.A. realizes, through years of experience, that these handicap bowlers, who make up the backbone of the bowling lines bowled each year in this country, would also like to compete once in a while in a nationally known affair and still not have to concede all victories to the professionals before they even compete against them. Hence the B.P.A.A. Team Handicap Tournament.
Vic exaggerated a bit when he said that a bowler who carried a 120 average in December would easily carry a 170 in May. In the first place, at the end of December most league bowlers have already bowled for three months or more that winter, and the average they have at the end of December very seldom varies over a very few pins over what they will carry when the season is over A five-pin variation would be the maximum, as an average. Most bowlers show their improvement in the off summer season when they start one winter as a beginner, bowl through that season and end up with, let's say a 140 average, then bowl like mad that summer, and come into their league the next winter still with a 140 blue-book average but with 160 capability.
This same bowler will, however, during the next three months, show his or her ability to shoot 160-170 by doing so in his league, so that when the end of December rolls around he will have a league average that will be a true picture of his actual capability. Thus, the possibility of a 170 bowler getting into a handicap tournament way below his average is minute.
Furthermore, there will probably be a limitation of a minimum of 150 as an entering average, which will also tend to make Vic's average spread still further exaggerated.
You know, year after year, bowling proprietors and, if you please, state associations, belonging to the ABC and operating strictly under ABC supervision and rules, hold handicap team, singles and doubles tournaments all over the country These actually could work let us say, as area qualifying rounds for a large national affair. However, so far the ABC has not seen fit to hold such an event because of the success of their scratch tournament.
It will just be a matter of a year or two until the B.P.A.A. will be held on a sectional basis, thus saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel and expense money for the bowlers, and the team sectional winners alone will meet in a grand final for the roll-off. Would this be bad for bowling? I believe that you will find that about twenty million bowlers will not think so.
FRANK B. LACY, Pres.
Albany Bowl
Albany, Cal.
COMEBACK
Sirs:
We at Pennsylvania had more than a passing interest in the reprint of the Thomas Eakins' masterpiece on page 68 of your September 27th issue.
Since Billy Smith (the fighter in Eakins' canvas) retired, he has been employed by the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. During the spring and fall months he handles the university tennis courts. During the winter months he is attached directly to the department office. Even when he was fighting professionally he used to spend his Saturday afternoons watching the football games at the University of Pennsylvania.
BOB PAUL
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
•Billy Smith, now 79, was a 24-year-old 115-pounder when Eakins painted him in Philadelphia. Although never, by his own admission, a great fighter, Billy fought in over 115 bouts before retiring in 1901.—ED.
FURY OF THE GREEN WAVE
Sirs:
Your piece in SOUNDTRACK called "Purists, Beware!" (SI, Oct. 18) recalled to mind an amazingly similar incident.... From my point of view, the setting was epic: small-town Arkansas boy away to college in big city watching first big-time football game from yawning expanse of a mammoth stadium. In this instance, Tulane vs. New Orleans, in the Sugar Bowl. It was the first game of the 1947 season and the combatants were the two forces of the Southeastern conference, Tulane's Green Wave and Alabama's favored and potent Crimson Tide. As far as I knew, it was to be a track meet for Alabama's All-Americans Gilmer and Mancha against a bunch of green Greenies. Needless to say, I was delighted when the scoreboard held points for neither team with just 56 seconds remaining in the first half. But then Alabama pushed the ball deep into Tulane territory, where it rested on the four-yard line while the Green braced against the on-rushing Tide. The first wave, however, swept the visitors to their long-awaited first TD. but a missed conversion attempt gave them only a 6-0 lead with the first half all but over. But was it? The booming Alabama kickoff was taken three yards deep in the end zone by a Tulane back named Eddie Price. As he rushed back onto the playing field, it became as a stormy sea but this time the fury of the Green Wave was not to be denied and Price sped spectacularly, all the way, tying the score. But we got our PAT, so in the twinkling of an eye Tulane went ahead, 7-6. It had all happened so fast that hardly any of the precious seconds had been ticked off the scoreboard clock. Now Tulane kicked off, and got Alabama's man near the middle of his half of the field. But even this did not run the time out, so Alabama got set to run it out with a play from scrimmage. A fumble! with Tulane recovering. Time for about one more play. And a good one it was, too, a completed touchdown pass followed by another successful point after. Now it was Tulane 14, Alabama 6 and the game was finally half over. That is, half over for most of the 60,000 stunned fans, but in my book the game ended right there. Twenty points in 56 seconds after none for 29 minutes and four seconds!!!
Oh, yes, I do still remember that, although Alabama came out in the second half and garnered two TDs to our one, they had already given our boys a one-point margin in that missed extra point and it eventually led to a 21-20 dissolution of Red into Green.
JIMMIE CARTER. M.D.
Little Rock, Ark.
EVERY LEAF'S THE SAME
Sirs:
I am 80 years old and just straining on my leash to go deer hunting.... Oh, these Autumn days! My poem, "The Huntin' in the Fall,"* explains my love:
THE HUNTIN' IN THE FALL
Old "Sport" in the kennel is a lookin' mighty spry
For the swift October days proclaim the huntin' season nigh,
You can tell it, you can feel it, every year it is the same,
'Tis the longin' that comes o'er us for the shootin' and the game.
For the rustle of the brown leaves beneath our huntin' boot,
For the fine work of our pointers the wary game to loot,
Just a free breath of the country, 'tis the sweetest boon of all.
When you hear the Bob. White whistle and the turkey gobbler call.
Oh! Our shootin' irons are ready, they are oiled and looking' neat,
And our huntin' coat is hangin' limp beside the window seat.
Our boots are at the cobbler's and our cap is on the wall.
But we'll have the outfit ready for the huntin' in the fall.
GEORGE E. McMILLAN
Compton, Cal.
NAMES AND FACES
Sirs:
James Farrell's article on the old White Sox (SI, Oct. 4) rekindled old memories, for it was the early White Sox who were my first baseball love. But names and faces don't go together after such a time. Could you give me the names of the players who sat for that group picture? I'm particularly interested in finding Ray Schalk (whom I consider the greatest catcher of all time and who should be in the Hall of Fame for my money) and also Gandil and Weaver if they were with the team that early—and of course old Red Faber. I'll appreciate any light you can shed for me back into those now too-dim years.
PHILIP POTTER
Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
•Complete roster of championship team (see cut and SI, Oct. 4) is on its way to Potter. Buck Weaver is seventh man from left, top row, with Chick Gandil on his left. Ray Schalk is first player in middle row. SI can shed little light on Gandil, who seems to have disappeared. Weaver, now 63, lives in Chicago, works as pari-mutuel ticket-taker for Hawthorne Race Track. Urban Faber, 66, also in Chicago, is rod man for a Cook County Highway Dept. survey team and 62-year-old Raymond Schalk, who got in the bowling business while still a player, continues to supervise the 24 alleys of Chicago's Evergreen Towers Lounge. Schalk keeps his hand in baseball with an annual spring-training session for Purdue's baseball team.—ED.
COMPOUND FRACTURE
Sirs:
I thought you might be interested in the enclosed picture of my son and neighbor's son, who are early football casualties of the 1954 season.
The broken leg happened two days before the broken arm, so they were able to console each other for the remainder of the season.
E. L. GRIFFITH
San Francisco
HE BLOCKED ME
Sirs:
In SI, Oct. 11, Duane Decker wrote Football for All. In his article he stated that "it gives brittle-boned folk a chance to lug a football without the danger of winding up in a doctor's waiting room" (referring to touch football). I broke my arm last Tuesday playing touch football. A boy blocked me (with his shoulder) and I fell down and broke it. That should prove that touch football is not very safe.
JAY TRAVIS III
McComb, Miss.
SWAP SLIGHTLY USED...
Sirs:
I read your article (SI, Sept. 27) on telescopic sights.
I have in my possession a German scope and case with the following markings on it: Digee Berlin Luxor 6x 116918 D.R.P. Nr-305004, Hubertus (on case).
I didn't know anything about scopes until I read your article, and as this scope isn't much use to me I was wondering whether some reader would be interested in a swap. I'd be willing to let it go for a Bache or equally good brand of fresh-water spinning reel.
HAROLD WlLLIAMS
New York
ACTION
Sirs:
Mark Kauffman's picture of the field of three-year-old pacers heading into the turn in the Little Brown Jug (SI, Oct. 4) is one of the finest action pictures of a harness race that I have seen. It captures the spirit
of this event....
E. G. FRANZ
Erie, Pa.
SHOULD I BE ASKING?
Sirs:
Prayerful boys in Doctor Denton's (SI, Oct. 25) seem to have become a sine qua non of the major leagues.
Since they promise to play as important a role in organized baseball as bat boys and switch hitters, I feel beholden to reveal for future historians of the game the origin of this innovation.
A Brooklyn type—a dead ringer for the Kansas City lad—started the trend during the 1952 World Series. Our local boy, a Dodger fan, needless to say, prayed in the same fervent manner as his Kansas City cousin. To make a strange coincidence even stranger, he knelt on a similar scatter rug, his elbows resting on a bed the identical twin of the one in the Helzberg advertisement. The props were all the same—flannel nighties, a baseball hat for a nightcap, pictures of ballplayers, in this case Dodgers, on the wall.
Even his prayer was identical as to words, printing and typography: "...AND MAYBE I SHOULDN'T BE ASKING BUT...." A little more subtle than the Kansas City kid, our youngster left it up to the readers of the New York Times (Oct. 7, 1952) and the Brooklyn Eagle, where Abraham & Straus published the advertisement, to fill in the ending—defeat for the Yankees and triumph for the Brooklyns.
Our boy's prayers, sad to say, were no more effective than the Kansas City intercession with Providence.
Incidentally, if Junior is still waiting forlornly out there in K.C. for a big league ball club, he is welcome to come to Brooklyn, where we are all looking forward to next year and where every prayer will be needed come spring.
WILLIAM TOBEY
Brooklyn, N.Y.
•But last weekend, with the Philadelphia sale abandoned, prayers counted more than ever.—ED.
*REPRINTED COURTESY "THE AMERICAN FIELD"
PHOTO
CHARLES IN BALANCE TEST
PHOTO
FARAGALLI & BOND
PHOTO
MINCEVICH AND TROPHIES
PHOTO
EAKINS SMITH TODAY
PHOTO
1917 WORLD-CHAMPION WHITE SOX
PHOTO
DISAPPOINTED READER TRAVIS
PHOTO
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
PHOTO
KANSAS CITY SUPPLICANT, 1954 A.D.
PHOTO
BROOKLYN SUPPLICANT, 1952 A.D.
