19th HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
EVASHEVSKI (CONT.): IS HE RIGHT?
Sirs:
When SPORTS ILLUSTRATED came out with its article on Coach Evashevski (Special Football Issue, Sept. 23) and his supposed philosophies on recruiting, the college president and football sportsmanship, I was too angry even to get off a coherent letter to the editors.
Now two weeks have passed, and my thoughts, having had a chance to mature, have changed. To sum them up: so what? Far from being a maverick among coaches and professional athletes in general, is not Mr. Evashevski the only honest man (practically) among them, the only non hypocrite? And furthermore, is he not right, absolutely, 100% right?
Is Evashevski not right in saying that when a boy reaches college it is too late to instill the spirit of sportsmanship into him and that if he does not have it by then, he never will? And that, furthermore, it is not the coach's job, but the parents' job to do that? Is Evashevski not right in saying that the only reason boys play football is for the fun and to win, win, win, and that nothing else matters? And is that not the very best training for life? How much have the editors of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED ever gotten for nothing out of this sad world? In my book Coach Evashevski is a better man than ever and a real educator of men.
ELMER C. LANGREN
Des Moines
•SPORTS ILLUSTRATED fully shares Mr. Langren's admiration for Coach Evashevski's pedagogy on and off the football field. The majority of scores of Iowans who wrote SPORTS ILLUSTRATED felt that in allowing Coach Evashevski to assail some of football's cherished beliefs (which inspired Mr. Langren to call Coach Evashevski a non hypocrite and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED to call him an iconoclast), SPORTS ILLUSTRATED did Iowa and Mr. Evashevski in particular and the game in general a disservice. But football, autumn's venerated institution, cannot continue to flourish without an occasional critical examination by a respected iconoclast such as Mr. Evashevski.—ED.
FOOTBALL: WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Sirs:
ALL HAIL TO THEE, MR. NASH, THOU LEFT US OUT:
Mr. Ogden Nash, speaking poetically in Sports Illustrated, says that collegians are guilty of intellectual laxity.
Because in giving names to their athletic teams they show no originality and as a result create a lot of perplaxity.
He says that when he reads that the Tigers are good this year he has to go through the whole Tiger storehouse—
"Which Tigers is it—Auburn, Clemson, Colorado College, DePauw, Doane, Grumbling, Louisiana State, Memphis State, University of Missouri, Occidental, College of the Pacific, Princeton, St.Paul's Poly, Sewanee, Tennessee, A&I, Trinity, or Morehouse?"
Knowing his way with rhymes, I'm just as glad Mr. Nash didn't think of our lynx,
Because I don't know what he might have said, but if he ever gets personal about our team, I hope he'll say it—ah—thinks.
DR. JOHN QUINCY WOLF
SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE
Memphis
FOOTBALL: FACTS AND FORM
Sirs:
The other evening I read with much interest and pleasure Herman Hickman's national football analysis which appeared in your September 23 issue. I thought without a doubt it was the most intelligent and common-sense analysis of football that I have had the pleasure of reading. I thought he did an excellent job.
Even though Herman Hickman and I are close friends, I can assure you that I am commending his football analysis purely on the facts as presented by him.
LOU LITTLE
New York City
•Thanks, but the season's form isn't doing Hickman any favors. So far, as of Saturday, Oct. 5, his Hunches are 45 right, 25 wrong and five ties.—ED.
NEBBISH: DEFINITION OF
Sirs:
As a Nebbish fan of long standing, I was delighted to see the full page cartoon (SI, Sept. 23) heralding his usual position for supporting not-quite-lost causes.
In true Nebbish fashion the cartoonist's name was blurred.
GERTRUDE GOODRICH
New York City
•The artist's name is Herb Gardner. His drawings wander through ashtrays, glasses, napkins, greeting cards, etc. The Nebbish, according to Gardner, is "the kind of person who, when he walks into a room, it is as though somebody has just left.... While not quite a leader of men and not quite suited to the debonair role and not a winner in any race, his eyes are forever fixed on his own fuzzy star, just beside the point, stalwartly nebulous, wearing his galoshes, he is ever with us."—ED.
BOXING: HAS IT COME TO THIS?
Sirs:
Are we now to assume that from now on the art of boxing is dead? Will fighters in the likeness of Willie Pep and Sugar Ray Robinson no longer stand in the foreground of their respective weight divisions? Has the artistic footwork, the sharp slashing flick of the left jab and the cruel destruction and swift devastating violence of a straight right hand to the jaw become obsolete, unnecessary, indeed detrimental tools in today's version of this great sport? Will we now see world champions and top contenders versed only in the art of plodding relentlessly forward, throwing wild lefts and rights, butting and elbowing in clinches, and demonstrating nothing but pure animal courage and an ability to absorb vast amounts of punishment and stay on their feet?
These are questions that those who follow boxing must now be asking themselves if they were fortunate enough to see middleweight champion, Sugar Ray Robinson, decisively defeat Carmen Basilio, only to lose the official decision. Basilio had only three things going for him in this fight—stamina, youth and almost unbelievable courage. Any other fighter must have gone down to stay in the face of Robinson's furious late round assault, and the left hand displayed by Sugar Ray all through the fight has to be one of the most educated of all time.
I only hope that Sugar Ray, and those who would attempt to emulate him in the future will not be downhearted; for if this is the case, boxing will not only lose much of its color, but also many of its fans.
W. P. BIRGE
Toronto, Ont.
BOXING: THE SEEING EYE
Sirs:
After witnessing the recent Robinson-Basilio championship bout on TV and being somewhat astonished at the wide discrepancy of the decisions rendered by the two judges and the referee, I wonder if there isn't any way of remedying this situation. This is not the first time that such a rumpus has arisen over 'bum decisions.'
Since the two judges could not possibly see the entire ring action, I would suggest using four judges and a referee for all future championship fights. The judges can be seated one on each side of the ring. At least this way a split decision would have three to two in favor of the winner, and a four to one vote would not leave too much doubt—we hope.
A. T. MOREY
Chicago
THE UNHAPPIEST FELLA
Sirs:
Your magazine is a national disgrace to intelligence!
Even TIME magazine was alert enough to cover the World Softball Championship at Clearwater, Fla., but the idiot staff of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED missed it completely.
Softball is the nation's national sport, not football, baseball, golf, basketball or horse racing, despite what you read in the sport pages of the metropolitan dailies. It is also the fastest, most well attended and happiest game of all.
ED FERGUSON
Shelton, Conn.
•The staff of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED appreciates (and sometimes plays) softball. The Clearwater series was reported in SCOREBOARD, Sept. 30.—ED.
GOREN: UPDATER
Sirs:
That Goren. First he says do it one way—then later, do it another way.
May I please have 12 reprints of Goren's My Ten New Commandments (SI, Sept. 16) on bridge for our Indian Hills Bridge Club?
Mrs. MARIE LA SALLE
Parkville, Mo.
•Tearsheets are on their way to Mrs. La Salle.—ED.
14 MEN AND 197 POINTS
Sirs:
Re Maccabiah Games (SI, Sept. 30): it should be noted that the host country, which is always able to enter a team of maximum strength, three in each event, nosed us out by only 29 points of their 226 total. As you indicated (SCOREBOARD, Sept. 30), this included points scored in most of the standard events by their women athletes, as well.
The U.S. Track and Field Team had no women entries at all. Our men's team consisted of a minimal 14 athletes, but despite this they scored an amazing 197 points. I believe that this is a record for any U.S. Track Team in international competition, and also, so far as I know, in local events of a comparable nature. I only wish you had the space to print the names of the boys in our squad and to mention their fine coach, Irv Kintisch, who did an incomparable job.
M. J. LOVELL
New York City
•The 14 athletes who scored 197 points and received 18 gold medals, 11 silver medals and 8 bronze medals are: Irving Dardik, Long Branch, N.J.; Martin En-gel, Jackson Heights, N.Y.; Michael R. Herman, New York City; Alan Jacobs, Chicago; Sidney Kiwitt, Cliffside Park, N.J.; Alan H. Kline, Philadelphia; Henry Laskau, Mineola, N.Y.; Isaac Matza, New York City; Arthur Reider, San Francisco; David A. Reisbord, Los Angeles; Robert Rittenburg, Boston; Donald Silpe, Great Neck, N.Y.; Lewis N. Stieglitz, West Hartford, Conn., and Harold Swidler, Harrisburg, Pa.—ED.
RETURN OF MR. TACHE
Sirs:
It was very kind of you to publish my letter and the picture of our English setter, Mr. Tache (19TH HOLE, Oct. 7).
I am so happy to tell you that we found Tache with a wonderful family on the Garden State Parkway, miles away from our home. He arrived there two weeks after he had disappeared.
He was neither thin nor footsore, and we believe he was stolen and then released.
If it had not been for the help of persons like you, we would not have him back.
Now, even more than ever, I am devoted to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, as is our whole family.
We were very happy to be able to give to the family who found our dog a setter puppy which their children had always wanted.
MARY DE W. DALY
Gladstone, N.J.