19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

"ARETE" (CONT.)
Sirs:
I wish to nominate the following three athletes to share this year's award as SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S Sportsman of the Year:

Joe Bellino, who gained more than half of Navy's total rushing yardage, scored 110 points and led Navy to an 8-1 season in football;

Herb Elliott, who crushed his opponents and set a new world record in the Olympic 1,500-meter race, proving to any doubters that he is the world's greatest miler; and

Arnold Palmer, whose fabulous finishes carried him to victory in eight major tournaments and helped him set a record for earnings ($73,716.19) on the official golf tournament circuit.
DAVID H. McCLINTOCK JR.
Alexandria, Va.

IRON MEN, GLASS SHIPS
Sirs:
I have read Carleton Mitchell's article on fiber-glass boats (Mold of the Future, Nov. 28), and I must say I can't agree with his conclusions that good old white oak frames and Honduras mahogany planking are doomed to extinction.

To me, a longtime sailor, the new fiberglass boats are just what they represent—synthetic.
R. F. COOPER
New Britain, Conn.

Sirs:
Mitch says, "Four years ago, when the fledgling plastic boat industry was first establishing itself, not a single ocean racer of fiber glass existed, nor was there a glass inboard power cruiser of comparable size."

May I bring to Mr. Mitchell's attention that the 42-foot auxiliary ketch Arion, designed by A. Sidney de W. Herreshoff and built by us, was launched May 15, 1951. Arion won second place in the spring Off Soundings Races that year and in 1953 was raced from Newport to Annapolis by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, by whom she is still owned and actively sailed to the best of my knowledge. Arion at this time was publicized as the largest one-piece fiber-glass molding in the world.
W. J. H. DYER
President, The Anchorage, Inc.
Warren, R.I.

Sirs:
Doesn't Mr. Mitchell know about the important postwar revolution in wooden-boat hull material—the light, tough marine plywoods, with the proved virtues of wood strength and resiliency, sound absorption, vibration-cushioning and natural flotation?
ROBERT N. THOMPSON
Cortland, N.Y.

ATHLETES AND DRUGS
Sirs:
In Our Drug-happy Athletes (Nov 21) you state that "Although they [amphetamines] are sold at retail only on prescription, any person (of any age) can write a pharmaceutical jobber or wholesale house, give a name that sounds like a legitimate drugstore, include the cash and wait for the pills to arrive."

Selling prescription merchandise to individuals without a prescription is a crime, and honest firms do not do this, except in error. For your information, McKesson & Robbins operates some 91 wholesale drug divisions throughout the U.S., and we have given all of our people strict orders that under no circumstances shall prescription-legend merchandise be sold to anyone other than a registered pharmacist or a hospital employing a registered pharmacist.
HERMAN C. NOLEN
President, McKesson & Robbins, Inc.
New York City

Sirs:
...a gross injustice to the drug wholesalers of the United States.

The over 330 service wholesale druggists of this country, for whom I speak, resent the implication that they are conducting their business in such a way as to lend aid and support to the improper use of what are otherwise excellent therapeutic agents when they are used as intended.
HARRY A. KIMBRIEL
Executive Vice-President,
National Wholesale
Druggists' Association
New York City

•SPORTS ILLUSTRATED had no intent to be unfair or unjust to the hundreds of reputable drug wholesalers and the thousands of pharmacists who maintain safeguards against the unlawful distribution of drugs. We regret that our report insufficiently distinguished between the practices of legitimate dealers and those of illegal operators who mimic and plague them.—ED.

TENNIS PILLS
Sirs:
The remark attributed to me in your article about drugs was facetiously made, and only referred to the several types of vitamin and mineral pills used by our tennis players.

Proper attention to diet and training rules will do more to make a great athlete than anything in the world, and will give that little extra edge we are all so desirous of getting.
DAVID L. FREED
Captain, U.S. Davis Cup team
Melbourne, Australia

Sirs:
Your "editorializing" in SCORECARD (Dec. 12) concerning the criticism of our Davis Cup team seems disastrous as we go into the homestretch. Temperamentally high-strung as all athletes are, the spectator must sympathize with each man's idiosyncrasies. Tennis players seem particularly sensitive to public opinion only because they are individuals competing as individuals.
CARLOS P. ECHEVERRIA JR.
New York City

EARLY BIRDS
Sirs:
Please accept my sincere thanks as a Canadian for the informative article on the Detroit Red Wings {Again, the Beat of Red Wings, Dec. 5).

However, I would like to offer one correction: Canadians do celebrate Thanksgiving-This year along with 18 million Canadians we enjoyed our turkey dinner (after viewing one of the exciting World Series baseball games) on October 10, the second Monday of the month, as usual.
ROBERT N. SMITH
Vancouver, B.C.

DAMNS FOR HOPKINS
Sirs:
Whereas Johns Hopkins University students take an "I don't give a damn" attitude toward football (How Pure Can a Game Gel?, Dec. 5), anyone who knows lacrosse knows the whole JHU campus does give a damn, faculty included, when lacrosse is played.
WILLIAM SUD BRINK
Baltimore

Sirs:
Consider 1947 when 500 University of Maryland students invaded our campus seeking a borrowed bronze turtle preceding the Hopkins-Maryland lacrosse game. There were barricades, fists, bed slats, grease, fire hoses, riot squads and shaven heads. One thousand students were up all night defending our very campus. Does this sound like students that don't give a damn?
DONALD T. FRITZ
Glen Burnie, Md.

Sirs:
Our viewpoint may be shortsighted, narrow-minded and parochial, but here at Hopkins we feel that there is a place for education in the American university.
STANLEY IFSHIN
ARTHUR GREENBERG
PETER W. KERSKER
Baltimore

Sirs:
Think of it! No football scholarships!
H. C. WARNOCK
Tucson