19TH HOLE: The readers take over
BOXING: UNDERCOVER AGENT
Sirs:
It appears that the hiring of Jack Dempsey as promotional adviser for Rosensohn (Velella) Enterprises (Meet Mr. X, SI, Aug. 31) has put a stamp of approval on this group in the eyes of many.
However, putting a pretty new cover on the book does not change its contents but only aids in covering up the truth.
Hiring out to such a questionable organization seems to be a strange and ironic way to "make the fight game an honest business," to use Mr. Dempsey's own words.
Here is hoping that no athletic commission will approve this organization as promoters (under any name) in its state.
THURMON ANDRESS
Abilene, Texas
LACROSSE: VANCOUVER, PLEASE NOTE
Sirs:
You suggest that someone come forward with an international lacrosse trophy (EVENTS & DISCOVERIES, Aug. 24). I know such a trophy is in existence. As president of the U.S. Lacrosse Association I headed an All-America team that in July of 1935 played a series of three games in Vancouver, B.C., each before an estimated crowd of 10,000 spectators, for the Lally Trophy, symbolic of international lacrosse supremacy.
We lost the trophy to a British Columbia contingent, and there it resides. So that it may be put up again in international competition, can any Vancouverite tell us where the trophy is now?
MILLER MOORE
New York City
POLO: THE LINES FORM
Sirs:
As to the polo challenge (19TH HOLE, Aug. 31): We Texans are justly proud of the three Texas poloists nominated by you for your Oak Brook team and of Dr. Williams' Dallas Athletic Club team, National Open champions of 1958, who may very well repeat this year.
However, let's not count the Easterners (or Meadow Brook) out just yet. For one thing, your Oak Brook team is decidedly unbalanced. It does not include a first-rate player in the No. 1 position.
To challenge your team for the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED Silver Mallet, may I suggest a Meadow Brook team of Pete Bostwick, Northrup Knox, Alan Corey and Dev Mil-burn Jr. It would be quite a battle, and worth leaving Texas to witness. Moreover, it would be an all-pro team vs. the all-amateurs of Meadow Brook.
LOUIS C. ROMANET
Dallas
TRACK & FIELD: HE STARTED IT ALL
Sirs:
It was good to see Parry O'Brien on your cover (SI, Aug. 31). You may be interested to know that the Striders competition shirt O'Brien is wearing was designed by Don Winton; and Don Winton is the same man who originated the Striders Team, which has won the national championship in track and field for the last three years. The Striders are an outgrowth of the All Comers track meets which were held back in 1951 to 1959 at John Muir High School in Pasadena.
In these early beginnings Don Winton literally ran the meets himself, watering the runways and circles, marking the distance lines in white, officiating, measuring and timing. He called and received calls from athletes to keep everyone abreast of the latest meet developments.
With efficiency and adherence to detail, the emphasis was on making a meet designed for the athlete. The All Comers trend started by Mr. Winton has mushroomed all over the country and has made late-summer track competitions a permanent thing. At the present time the All Comers draw upward of 150 competitors each Friday evening at Arroyo High School in El Monte, Calif. It's only logical to figure that without these meets many of these competitors might easily have had their attention diverted to less socially acceptable activities.
Hats off and a pat on the back to him. There is no greater devotee of this wonderful sport than Don Winton.
FORTUNE GORDIEN
Pasadena
•Fortune Gordien—a Strider himself—is current holder of the world record in the discus, pending recognition of Edmund Piatowski's 196-foot 6-inch throw.—ED.
GOOD NEWS FROM CANDLESTICK PARK
Sirs:
As architect for the San Francisco Stadium I am concerned by your inference that we forgot to provide a backstop (EVENTS & DISCOVERIES, Aug. 24).
Several years ago the voters of San Francisco passed a bond issue for $5 million for a multi-use stadium, with the understanding that every effort be made to bring a major league baseball team out here to play. Things went along very nicely, and we are now very fortunate in having the Giants well established here.
However, in the design of the stadium and in the financing of the stadium we were constantly reminded by all of the officials involved that this was to be a multi-use stadium, and it is laid out for baseball, football, boxing and track. Had the stadium been completed later this year, say in October, I am certain that people would be criticizing us for not having installed goal posts. All of these items were to have been provided by the Park and Recreation Department in their negotiations with the tenants, and as long as six or eight months ago we listed these items in a memorandum to the Park and Recreation Department of the City and County of San Francisco.
The facts are that for over a year and a half now Charley Harney and I have known that no backstop was to be provided under the plans we have prepared or by the contract he was to perform. For your own information however, a separate contract has been awarded and the backstop and foul-line poles will be in. You might also like to know that these cost $8,500 rather than $45,000. It sounds as though we were trying to gild the lily out here in the way of a backstop.
JOHN S. BOLLES
San Francisco
OUR WELL-TRAVELED READERS
Sirs:
I read with much interest your article on Boris Lissanevitch and the Yak & Yeti club in Katmandu, Nepal (EVENTS & DISCOVERIES, July 27). You may be interested in publishing a photograph of him (in center of picture below) and three tigers taken in Assam in 1945 on a shoot I had with him. He is a fine big-game hunter, but where I got to know him best as a shooter and companion was floundering around in the snipe bogs near Calcutta, where we hit, missed and fell with about equal regularity.
ORMONDE HUNTER
Savannah
PHOTO
DON WINTON AND STRIDER O'BRIEN
PHOTO
YAK & YETI'S LISSANEVITCH
