19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
SWEET DREAMS
Sirs:
Since when does a second-best team get top billing before the start of a new season (Growing to Greatness, Oct. 29)? If William Leggett is just predicting, let him say so, but to call the Los Angeles Lakers "the best in the whole NBA," is only wishful thinking.
Judging from the Lakers' miserable start this season (1 win, 4 losses), Coach Fred Schaus better seriously consider keeping all 12 players instead of that versatile 10 Leggett writes about. The Celtics can still run the pants off any team in the whole NBA.
BILL GORMAN
Flushing, N.Y.
Sirs:
Please tell dear, sweet, misinformed William Leggett the Boston Celtics will win seven of the nine season games scheduled against Los Angeles and, if they should meet in the playoffs—and there's an excellent chance the Lakers won't make it to the finals—the Celts will win in five. Boston is so strengthened by the rookie (John Havlicek) and the "fat man" (Clyde Lovellette) from St. Louis that they are undeniably the finest basketball team around and, I submit, the finest professional team engaged in any sport today. Why don't you keep this letter around so William Leggett can read it again in April? Shame, shame, shame.
JONATHAN SCHWARTZ
New York City
Sirs:
The statement that the Syracuse Nationals are one of the weakest, dullest teams in the NBA is the most false I have ever read. I would like to ask if Mr. Leggett knows which team has not placed lower than third since 1951? For what team does the alltime scoring leader of the NBA, Dolph Schayes, play? Which is the fastest team in the NBA? Not Boston, not Los Angeles, not San Francisco or St. Louis, but Syracuse.
DAVID F. HOYT
Syracuse, N.Y.
Sirs:
The Nationals are the fastest team in the NBA and the most enjoyable to watch. With speedsters like Hal Greer and Larry Costello, the Nats play basketball the way it was meant to be played—using the fast break and the give and go. This is what basketball really is; it is not the towering center pushing the ball through the cords.
HOWARD MORIN
New Brunswick, N.J.
Sirs:
Your view of the St. Louis Hawks made me sick. The Hawks have molded a team of veterans, tradees (Phil Jordan) and rookies into a fresh new team. This team, in my opinion, is the best that the Hawks have had since the 1957-58 championship team. The league standings agree with me (5 wins, 1 loss). In fact, just the other night the Hawks held the Boston Celtics under 100 points and beat them. The ABL can stay as long as it wants to. The Hawks don't need their players. They have enough good players now. The only "trouble" here in River City is the trouble the other NBA teams are going to have against the Hawks.
MARTIN HENDIN
St. Louis
ROCK ISLAND LINE
Sirs:
Whoever put together your pro basketball report overlooked one player on the Chicago Zephyrs lineup—and what a player!
I'm referring of course, to Iowa's great center, Don Nelson, of neighboring Rock Island, Ill. In his three years of varsity basketball, playing with three undistinguished teams and little support against an array of greats that included Lucas, Havlicek, Dischinger, Bellamy and others, he rewrote the Iowa record books.
Here are some of the records he shattered while running up a three-year total of more than 1,500 points:
Most points, single season
Most rebounds, three-year career
Most rebounds, single season
Best field-goal accuracy, one season
Most free throws, one season
Most free throws, one game
He is 6 feet 6½ moves well under the basket and the hammering he endured while a target for Iowa's opponents for three years makes it reasonable to assume that he can stand the pace of the pro game.
In my opinion, he will do more to help the Zephyrs—who last year, as the Packers, were possibly the shabbiest and dreariest team in pro basketball—than either Disch-inger or McGill.
ED MOFFITT
Moline, Ill.
BLACK SOX SCANDAL
Sirs:
This is an open letter to No. 85893 (Keep Your Eye on the Ball, Oct. 29):
You may have been the one who clouted me twice in one day in the gentle shadows of Babe Ruth, et al. at Yankee Stadium—getting my wallet and the contents of my car. I am not proud of this distinction, but at least I can be thankful for two things: the bag in the car contained dirty socks and shirts and the credit cards in my wallet were out of date. Now that you are on the lam, happy hunting, but don't try me. I learned my lesson.
THEODORE G. LAW
Allendale, N.J.
SIEG HEIL!
Sirs:
Re derogatory letters on Chinese Bandits, coolie hats, rabble-rousers, etc. (19TH HOLE, Oct. 29):
1) They win games.
2) Nothing beats victory.
3) Q.E.D.
J. ALEXANDER HOTTELL III
West Point, N.Y.
MANN'S PHILOSOPHY
Sirs:
I have just finished Allan Seager's article, The Joys of Sport at Oxford (Oct. 29). I got particular enjoyment out of Mr. Seager's meeting with his college swimming coach, Matt Mann (Teach Your Child to Swim, June 27 et seq., 1960), after his return to Ann Arbor. As SPORTS ILLUSTRATED reported (Aug. 20), Matt Mann died last August and, truly, his philosophy was that athletics should "be fun." You might also be interested in knowing that Michigan has just officially dedicated its varsity pool as the Matt Mann Pool.
JOHN DUMONT
Captain, University of Michigan Swim Team
Ann Arbor, Mich.
REPEAT PERFORMANCE
Sirs:
Since the beginning of the 1962 baseball season, I have enjoyed reading BASEBALL'S WEEK. Your writer did an outstanding job of boiling down eccentricities, great moments and excitement for rabid fans, casual fans and armchair experts.
Last week I was looking through some older issues and came across Herman Weiskopf's first article (April 23), which had a very interesting, yet minor detail about the San Francisco Giants: "Willie Mays hit the first pitch thrown to him this season for a home run, repeated the next day. San Francisco sportswriters noted that the last time Mays hit a homer on opening day was in 1954, when the Giants won the pennant." The implied prediction came true when Willie Mays caught a short fly ball for the third out in the bottom of the ninth in Chavez Ravine 164 games later to give the Giants another pennant.
ROBERT M. SLOAN
Alamo, Calif.
RED-HOT SKINS
Sirs:
Well! The Washington Redskins got three whole pages from SPORTS ILLUSTRATED {New Kick for the Redskins, Oct. 15)! True, they've deserved very little in the way of recognition since 1957, but the generally lean years since 1946 are all forgotten now as the Skins seem to have attained the prominence they deserve this season. You stated in a previous issue that the possibility of a .500 season was not remote. How about revising your estimate to the extent of saying that Washington has a real contender for the Eastern Conference title?
W. HOLLIS LEITH
Martinsburg, W. Va.
Sirs:
Washington has come through with a fine team and a beautiful stadium. My complaint is that $6 for every seat is pretty high. If George Preston Marshall would rearrange the prices, the Skins would draw 50,000 on every home game.
PHIL KIEFER
Washington
BOWMEN'S BUTLERS
Sirs:
I'm sure that archers everywhere, and especially members of the National Archery Association, enjoyed William Barry Furlong's article about Paul Butler and Oak Brook (Man With 14 Polo Fields, Oct. 22). But I was sorry that he didn't talk about another Butler in connection with it—Julius W. Butler, Paul's brother, an extremely vigorous, imaginative man of 67.
Both Butlers, but especially Julius, have made Oak Brook and archery synonymous in the minds of NAAers. The main polo field, which you showed, will be the site of our national championships in even-numbered years. Next June 22-23 it will be the site of our qualification tournament to pick three men and three women to represent the United States in the biennial world championship meet on the playing fields of Eton. (In the last four world championships U.S. archers have won 13 of 16 gold medals, a record, I daresay, that cannot be matched by any other U.S. team in international competition.)
The tournament comes to the United States in 1965, and Julius Butler already is working to see that it takes place at Oak Brook.
WILLIAM STUMP
Riderwood, Md.
TERRIFIC
Sirs:
How could you possibly report the World Amateur golf team championship and not once mention Canada's Gary Cowan (U.S. Is Best on Fuji's Fairways, Oct. 22)?
He just happened to be the low scorer among 23 four-man teams. He tied the low-round championship score of 68 on the opening day, but you noted only that Deane Beman carded a "magnificent" last-round 66 to tie the course record. You were lavish in your praise of the Pakistan team, calling them the New York Mets of international golf. So you really know how to be appreciative when you want to. Couldn't Cowan's 68 be rated at least "terrific"? Or maybe just "pretty darn good"?
GUY LESLIE
Toronto
PERCENTAGE PLAY
Sirs:
I do believe soft-spoken Washington State Coach Jim Sutherland has outspoken himself (Big Surge on the West Coast, Oct. 22). His statement that "To be effective [as a passing team] you must have 65% completions and there isn't a college passer who can do this" doesn't exactly satisfy me. Miami's great quarterback, George Mira, a junior, has completed only 66 of 133 passes and has a mere 48% completion percentage. Yet without Mr. Mira's golden arm Miami would not be the excellent football team that it is. Mr. Sutherland has inflicted an insult upon the college quarterbacks of America.
THOMAS REDDY
Westfield, N.J.
Sirs:
We've been noting the statistics on total offense of various backs in the country. At the top of the list is Eldon Fortie, the tailback from Brigham Young University. Fortie's total offensive yardage for the first five games was an unbelievable 1,092 yards. This, you must agree, is an almost superhuman accomplishment.
DAN HUBBARD
CRAIG LAMBERT
STEVE RUDELIC
East Saint Louis, Ill.
TIME TO QUIT
Sirs:
We find it regrettable that SPORTS ILLUSTRATED must refer to a winning, 15-foot 9-inch pole vault by Ron Morris as "lowly" (FOR THE RECORD, Oct. 22). Two years ago that height would have been nearly a world record. Furthermore, this particular vault was achieved during the off season for American track men. If the time has come that any effort which is not of world-record caliber cannot be recognized as an outstanding or even good effort, then it is time for humans to give up competition of any sort.
MIKE JOHNSON
GERRY GAINTNER
Los Angeles
