19TH HOLE: The readers take over
SPORTING LOOK: AGONY AND ACQUISITION
Sirs:
Having read your magazine for the past several years with enjoyment and pleasure, it bothers me to see the amount of fashion and clothing articles that are being run lately.
In the March 9th issue I counted approximately 40 full pages of sports stories and pictures. I also counted 15 full pages of fashion stories and pictures. For a sports magazine, aren't you printing too much of this type of article?
JACK F. HENSLEY
Honesdale, Pa.
Sirs:
Perhaps we could call the magazine "60% SPORTS ILLUSTRATED."
J.C. LEDOUX, USN
Port Hueneme, Calif.
Sirs:
You are making me very unhappy.
LLOYD M. HEAD
Jackson, Mich.
Sirs:
Hope you'll change.
ED ARNOLD
Burlingame, Calif.
Sirs:
I want sports, not shorts.
FRANK A. GANSZ
Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.
Sirs:
Why don't you change your name?
BILL GRAHAM
Houston
Sirs:
We remain faithful, but disappointed.
LYLE DAVIS
PETE STEVENS
BOB KAISER
Windsor, Conn.
Sirs:
Now please don't prostitute the word "sports" any further—let's draw the line somewhere.
JULIAN EBERHARDT
Evanston, Ill.
Sirs:
Have the Madison Avenue boys taken over the sports world too?
LESTER G. GOTTLIEB
JEFFREY M. GOTTLIEB
Van Nuys, Calif.
Sirs:
There is no magazine devoted to a general coverage of sports. There once was. It was called SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.
ALLEN H. DEWEES
Riverton, Wyo.
Sirs:
As one who thinks that dressing up is part of the fun, I like your occasional sports clothes presentations, especially those given well in advance of the season. So where can I buy the district slacks?
EARL SMITH
Omaha
Sirs:
Please tell me where I can get the neck-muffling cashmere sweater.
MRS. WILLIAM E. PATTULLO
Anaconda, Mont.
Sirs:
You have a picture of a green blazer that I am very interested in.
JOHN K. NORMAN
Oklahoma City
Sirs:
Could you advise me where the plaid sport shorts may be obtained?
BILL FOX JR.
Indianapolis
Sirs:
Where can I get the new swimsuits for college vacations?
TED GRIGG
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sirs:
I would like to purchase a cape, and the rain suit, designed for men and women. Also the new short coats for scooter.
MAYNARD H. WHITE, USA
Fort Riley, Kans.
Sirs:
Please tell me where I can buy the Thomas Begg grouse helmet shown.
MRS. W.H. TINSMAN
Trout Run, Pa.
Sirs:
Where can I find the green-and-white-plaid golf bag?
W.E. CARROLL JR.
Dalton, Ga.
Sirs:
I wish to make inquiries with regard to the plus fours.
JOSEPHINE L. TOMES
Great Falls, Mont.
•Long before Vol. I, No. 1 of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED was published it was set forth in a working prospectus that "the most cursory look reveals that dressing for sports, watching or participating, is important. This will be the concern of the SPORTING LOOK department." The SPORTING LOOK story which is referred to in the letters above is The Quarterly Sporting Look Preview for spring which appeared in the March 9 issue. Each quarter—spring, summer, fall and winter—SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S SPORTING LOOK department will make a thorough survey of designers, manufacturers and retailers of sports clothing for men and women and select in advance of the season those items of apparel that are new and choice so that SPORTS ILLUSTRATED readers will have an exclusive preview of the upcoming season.
Messrs. Smith, Norman and the scores of others who have written to us for where-to-buy information will hear from us by mail.—ED.
NOTRE DAME: SPIRIT AND BALANCE
Sirs:
Those ill-informed critics who insist on attacking Notre Dame as a football factory might be interested in some of the school's recent achievements in other fields. In a national debate tournament the Irish debaters swept to victory in a field of 42 teams, including squads from several of the Ivy League colleges, the Big Ten, the military academies and private schools. Sunday afternoon, on the nationally televised College Bowl program, a fast-moving intellectual battle testing knowledge in all fields, a Georgetown University team with Princeton and Columbia numbered among its conquests was trounced 205-90 by Notre Dame.
The traditional Notre Dame school spirit showed itself as the student body turned out en masse to greet their returning scholars.
JOHN HUGHES
Notre Dame, Ind.
SET 'EM UP
Sirs:
The reader response to What Baseball Needs was surprising, to say the least (19TH HOLE, SI, March 9). Could be we genuine baseball fans just don't have many letter writers among us.
At least half the fun of baseball is second-guessing the manager, and as for worrying about the Mayses and Mantles being inhibited by their managers—that is hogwash.
Every ball team has at least one and usually two power hitters who never do anything but hit away. The manager's function is to move the other seven men around as efficiently as possible.
This is basic baseball, and you guys know it. However, tongue in cheek, you sure stirred up a controversy.
JAMES A. DILLON
Philadelphia
ON TO HOLMENKOLLEN
Sirs:
Your article on The Surprising Americans (SI, March 16) was extremely interesting.
The young ski jumper Gene Kotlarek, pictured in your magazine, is a full-blooded Minnesotan from Duluth and not a Michigan youngster as stated in your article. Also, Gene wasn't only "every bit as impressive in flight" as Karkinen—he was better! His second jump in style and distance points together was the best leap of the tournament. Gene and six other youngsters of the Duluth Ski Club were sent on a 5,000-mile ski competition tour, expenses for which were covered by contributions of local ski enthusiasts. After Gene's outstanding performances a spirited group of American skiers, led by George Hovland Jr., initiated a drive to raise money for Gene's trip to the coveted Holmenkollen tournament in Norway (SI, March 11, '57). Necessary funds were raised within a day, and Gene is presently in Norway competing and gaining valuable experience for the 1960 Olympic Games.
PAUL VESTERSTEIN
Duluth, Minn.
TENNIS: IN THE RIGHT FURROW
Sirs:
Could you tell me the derivation of the use of the word "seed" for the classification of favored competitors in tennis?
FREDERIC R. JOHNSON
N. Hollywood, Calif.
•The Dictionary of Americanisms cites the first appearance of this definition in Webster's 1909 first edition of the New International Dictionary of the English Language. The dictionary is published by the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Mass., and the editor opines that "there is no positive evidence of how 'seed' became a sports term. It seems a reasonable surmise that it was originally a metaphor based on the planting of seeds in a plot of ground: as seeds are placed at a certain distance from each other so as not to rob each other of nourishment, the best players are scattered so as not to eliminate one another too early." According to Mr. Fisher of the Eastern Lawn Tennis Association Library, the seeding regulation was first put into effect in the U.S. at the February 1922 meeting of the USLTA. In reporting a 1924 tennis tournament The London Times stated "...this year for the first time the draw has been seeded." And James Van Alen, president of the Tennis Hall of Fame, recalls "that in the early days of lawn tennis competition the draw was catch-as-catch-can. It was possible for all the top players to be in one half of the draw, which could easily kill interest in the semifinal and final matches. Someone had the idea of placing the top players in different quarters. 'Placing' sounded too exact and 'planting' had a Machiavellian ring to it. The word 'seeding' seemed to fit the bill—in the right furrow, but not every grain in an exact location."—ED.
SAILING: LONG ISLAND SOUND TO LAKE SAKAJAWLA
Sirs:
I would like to express my appreciation for the magnificent job you have done on sailing during the past five years which, to me as a small-boat skipper, culminated in your articles by Bill Cox on small-boat tuning and handling (Mastery of Small Boat Sailing, SI, Feb. 23, March 2).
These two articles contained more valuable and interesting information on the subject than most books for both novice and veteran. The illustrations in particular were superb, the best I have ever seen.
WILLIAM V. PIRIE
San Diego
Sirs:
Sportsmen of this area are very pleased.
WILLIAM G. CHAMBERS
Bradenton, Fla.
Sirs:
As you probably know, Manhasset Bay is one of the most active yachting areas on Long Island Sound. Each of the yacht clubs on the bay has a large sailing program for both children and adults, and the Lightning is the most popular boat of all of the sailing classes.
JANET D. STEUER
Port Washington, N.Y.
Sirs:
Is it February or June!
Boating so soon?
GLENDA DOUB
Evanston, Ill.
•For the sailor it is always June. See below.—ED.
Sirs:
The articles gave a shot in the arm to all of us small-boat sailors who are anxiously waiting for spring's thaw. Reading about sailing, while it is not as invigorating as a fresh breeze in the sails, is a vicarious and satisfying enjoyment.
BILL BROENKOW
Kennewick, Wash.
Sirs:
I would appreciate very much getting the name and address of a company that sells boat kits and plans for a sailboat in the Lightning class.
We have a new man-made lake in North Dakota, Lake Sakajawla, backed up on the Missouri River behind the Garrison Dam, with a 1,200-mile coastline. Great for a sailboat.
E.M. ARNTSON
New Rockford, N. Dak.
•The best source for Mr. Arntson is Miss Margaret Teske, Executive Secretary of the Lightning Class Association, 308 Center St., South Haven, Mich.—ED.
KEEP BATTLING
Sirs:
Babe McCarthy, the oil-salesman-basketball-coach of Mississippi State (Bouquets for Babe and his Bailey, SI, Feb. 23), is a brave man indeed. He has to be to dare to try a zone defense on his home court where the opposition some night may just decide to play catch at mid-court while the home fans give it all up as a bum rap and flock to the box offices to "get their money back.
Those who follow the game closely have come to realize all too clearly over the past several seasons that the rulemakers and referees are favoring the zone even more than they have in the past.
Somehow officials constantly fail to detect the jumping-in fouls the zone front and corner defenders make on flinching outside shooters, even when they turn their backs on the process. Zone players also can pinch all they want near the hoop, even though the driver's path to the bucket is clearly defined.
On the other hand, officials are quick to detect the slap and brush fouls man-to-man play is sure to cause.
In Minnesota, which prides itself as a basketball hotbed, the majority of schools play zones. Officials call it close in the tournaments. This helps the zones. In general, the state champion is the team playing a zone. They generally win because they have five boys 6 feet 5 inches.
Yet there is in Brainerd (pop. 13,000) a man named Fred Kellett who has taken first, second and third in the state tournament since 1951 and has enjoyed a winning record of 80% in his 10-year coaching career here, including tournaments.
In 1949 he appeared on the scene and promptly led his first club to the state tourney, ending a 15-year drought and starting to arouse the fans' interest once more. Brainerd is now recognized as a basketball stronghold. Its gym nearly always is packed (2,500 capacity), and its fans follow the team well and give every other neighboring school a packed house.
The zone nearly killed the sport here. Kellett's man-to-man has brought it back to the point where it pays the freight in this school for many sports, including football, wrestling, baseball and track.
Says Kellett, "I won't slow down my boys with a zone." His boys are in demand, many of them making college varsities as freshmen, including Jim Smith at Kansas State and Billy Selisker at Ham-line. It took time, patience and dedication to turn out boys like these. To Kellett and the other man-to-man diehards, I say, "Keep battling!"
JIM WALLACE
Brainerd, Minn.
•Proponents and detractors of the zone defense will never tire of the debate. And these days many teams play a defense combining the best or worst features of both. Often, an expert viewer has difficulty determining just what type of defense he's watching. Perhaps that's the best argument for the zone—it allows for variety in the game. Besides, a well-coached team should have no trouble circumventing a zone defense.—ED.
