19th HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
HOTBOX: AMORAL PRIMATES
Sirs:
With regard to the Feb. 11 question of Jimmy Jemail ("If you saw someone violating fish and game laws, would you report him to a game warden?"), the persons interviewed, with two exceptions, pondered the question with all the profundity of a chimpanzee contemplating his navel.
This amoral approach to game law observance reveals that far too many so-called sportsmen drool with an intense desire to be thought of as good fellows.
More power to Messrs. Cornish and Bromley, who thought it out.
NICK BUESEN
Boswell, Ind.
HOTBOX: SPORTSMEN ASSISTANTS
Sirs:
It should be the duty of every true sportsman to report any deliberate violations, just as you would if you got the number of a hit-and-run driver.
I am not talking about the novice who takes one too many fish, or an accidental killing of a hen pheasant, which will happen on occasion, but the man who deliberately and willfully, as Mr. Cornish stated, "robs our resources." For the life of me, I couldn't understand the reluctance of the persons interviewed to report such an incident.
RALPH H. MAPLES
Wellsville, N.Y.
SPIKE WEBB: OUR GUYS
Sirs:
The Spike Webb series (SI, Feb. 11 & 18) brought to mind Yale's boxing coach of the same era, the one and only Mosey King. Despite Webb's bigger reputation and, I should think, better material, Mosey's Yale teams generally fought Webb's boys to a 3-3 draw. I always have to smile when I read of Spike's reputation as a teacher of "boxing," because every Annapolis fighter I ever saw against Yale was purely a slugger, at least compared to our guys. Invariably they'd start the fight by coming out of their corners almost on the dead run and trying for a knockout. If Spike felt "contempt for the slugger," his boys sure didn't share it.
CHARLES W. DIBBELL
New York
•For SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's tribute to Mosey King, who in his 50 years as boxing coach became as much a symbol of Yale athletics as Handsome Dan the bulldog, see EVENTS & DISCOVERIES, Dec. 24.—ED.
WINTER SPORTS
Sirs:
Are you running out of sports material? In your Feb. 18 issue you wasted three pages showing Mrs. Brandon D. Walsh and her friends getting haircuts at Round Hill. Is this a sport? For the past month you have shown almost nothing but fashion shows and dog shows.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens and the Red Wings are battling it out in a thrilling NHL race which you do not publicize, and 5 million skiers are thirsting for an article on skiing. How about a little more hockey and skiing and fewer dogs and haircuts!
M. A. KAUFMAN
Nashua, N.H.
•We appreciate Mr. Kaufman's letting his hair down and admire his razor-sharp enthusiasm, but for the record we must point out that to date the editorial ratio has been skiing and hockey 74, haircuts 1.—ED.
TRACK: VICIOUS INDULGENCE
Sirs:
Reading about our women's track and field prowess at the Olympic Games last year, I wondered how many American girls speculated about how well they could do in competition.
There are so few areas where there is any encouragement in these events for women. How does one find out if one has potential talent? What girl wouldn't train seriously if she thought she had a chance?
Surely this type of activity can't be thought unmaidenly. The middied and bloomered female of 1912 strove valiantly in track events on Vassar's circular track. Alas, today the track is a flowered walk, its green center witnessing only the leisurely tread of the archery classes. And yet the students viciously indulge in field hockey and lacrosse, and sometimes soccer.
If every high school and college offered an optional track program for girls we could choose a representative Olympic team from the winners of regional meets.
JEAN M. SQUIRES
Leonia, N.J.
BOXING: ONWARD, APPPFFERS!
Sirs:
With the Art Aragon scandal and the poor condition of boxing all over the U.S., I think it is about time for Budd Schulberg to reorganize the APPPFF (SI, Nov. 29, 1954). I think that most people will agree with me when I say that some serious measures must be taken to save boxing.
RICK BEEMAN
North Hollywood, Calif.
•For a report on a major victory for the Association for the Protection of Poor Put-upon Fight Fans, see page 18.—ED.
HELEN WILLS ON THE GAME
Sirs:
In HOTBOX (Feb. 25) Jimmy Jemail asks: "Should there be an open in tennis as there is in golf?" I think that an event in which there would be competition between amateur and professional tennis might be desirable, and successful, provided that a great deal of thought and consideration were given to planning such an event. It could become one of the great sporting events, or it could be a fiasco. I could imagine a really fine "open" tennis championship tournament, played during the winter months when it would not conflict with already scheduled events. The meeting would be perhaps in California and Florida on alternate years. Hard-court surface would probably be the best. The cost of putting on such an event would be very great, and it is doubtful if the gate would be sufficient to meet costs at the beginning. However, if a plan could be worked out by which the meeting would be on a trial basis for two years, with the right for either the amateur or the professional group to withdraw at the end of that period if dissatisfied, there could be no great loss. I would certainly imagine that the meeting, if handled correctly, would be financially successful in the long run. Here again you have another problem, and perhaps the most difficult one. A nonprofit plan would have to be adopted, and all money taken in would have to go into a fund or foundation. The administration of this fund would present another set of problems. The success of such an undertaking is entirely dependent upon the thinking of the persons who make the plans. "What's good for the game" must be first and always the main consideration.
HELEN WILLS ROARK
Pacific Palisades, Calif.
•Helen Wills Roark (see picture), erstwhile "Little Miss Poker Face" of the tennis world, won her first U.S. championship in 1923 at the age of 17 and won it six more times between 1924 and 1931. In 1938 she came back to win the Wimbledon crown for the eighth time, an unprecedented feat. Still a weekend player, Mrs. Roark has won recognition as an author and artist.—ED.
GOLF—FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
Sirs:
Bill Weber has a good idea in the 19TH HOLE (Feb. 18) about burial space in fairways for golf club members! However, while he prefers the location where he made a perfect eight-iron shot, give me mine beneath the site of a horrible look-up wedge shot near the 17th green which cost me a tournament!
We all like to replay the bad ones. So there I'll be with plenty of time to do just that!
ROBERT D. METZGER
Cincinnati
REQUIRED READING
Sirs:
In A Big Lift for Fitness (SI, Feb. 11) you mentioned Dr. Karpovich's latest book Weight Training in Athletics.
I am wondering if this book has been released to the public as yet and where it may be purchased.
JIM SONGSTER
Brockport, N. Y.
•For the information of Mr. Songster and a score of other physical fitness fans, Dr. Karpovich's book is published by Prentice-Hall at $4.95 and is available through al] bookstores—ED.
PHOTO
FLYING SAUCERS FROM CHAPEL HILL. N.C. PROCLAIM READER SPERO DORTON'S PRIDE IN THE UNIVERSITY'S FIRST-RANKED BASKETBALL TEAM
PHOTO
MRS. ROARK GIVING TENNIS LESSON