19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
CORRECTIONS AND AMENDMENTS
Sirs:
Your college football issue (Sept. 21) was a masterpiece of writing and research—and as entertaining as it was informative.
However, you completely ignored mention of a charter member of the Western Athletic Conference—Brigham Young.
JON P. WARDRIP
Lancaster, Pa.
Sirs:
I'm distressed. No word of an Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference school.
Northeastern State College in Tahlequah, Okla., for instance, finished last season undefeated and....
TOM J. PEAVLER
Yates Center, Kans.
Sirs:
Southerners are grateful for your cover of Auburn's Jimmy Sidle, and the story, And Auburn Runs the Most. But why let geographical boundaries decide who has good teams? More interconference play will not only reduce friction among the various conference divisions, it should strengthen our other athletic teams at the Pan American Games and the Olympics.
EDMUND DOLLAR
Bainbridge, Ga.
Sirs:
SI is right when it refers to the late George Wilson as the University of Washington's first All-America football player (Sept. 21), of course, but it wrongly identifies him as the present Detroit Lions' coach, who went to Northwestern, I believe. Nobody who lived on the Pacific Coast in the '20s could have made an error of this sort. Wilson was a world-famous figure there then, even if little known east of the Rockies. I believe he was famous even before college—he went to Everett (Wash.) High School, whose teams played an annual intersectional championship game with Oak Park, Ill.—Ernest Hemingway's old school. (Bob Zuppke, the great University of Illinois coach who developed Red Grange, was, incidentally, the coach of those Oak Park teams and the friend and mentor of Hemingway.)
Wilson was boyish-looking, short, squarish and very fast. He led Washington to the Rose Bowl in 1924. In 1925, when Stanford was led by the invincible Ernie Nevers, Wilson carried Washington to a 13-0 victory over Stanford. For years Wilson had a sort of monopoly of all Seattle sportswriters: no other name was mentioned.
ROBERT L. TROUTMAN
Seattle
Sirs:
George Wilson was his name, all right, but Washington's first All-America had been a lonely San Francisco dock worker in recent years. He died last December. He was as great as Thorpe, Nevers and Grange.
JIM KIPPEN
San Francisco
Sirs:
Your report on Southern Illinois University states that, among other pass receivers, the school is counting on Harry Bobbitt. Unfortunately, Bobbitt died of pulmonary embolism this past summer.
BILL SCHRADER
Evansville, Ind.
VIVA LA DIFFÉRENCE
Sirs:
The sale to CBS of the New York Yankees could be the most damaging blow ever dealt the sport. I compliment you 100% on your article, A Sad Day for Baseball (Sept. 21).
I am glad to see that someone else in this world is smart enough to see the dangers of such a sale. To say there is no difference between Mickey Mantle and Jackie Gleason is to say that there is no difference between the population of New York and Ridotto, Iowa (pop. 6).
ARDEN J. SCHOEP
Nevada, Iowa
Sirs:
Your magazine has done much good for boxing, and now your position on the Yankee-CBS deal could save baseball. Any competent U.S. Representative or Senator who may aspire to national recognition could get it by investigating this deal.
Personally, I have supported the Twins since they arrived here. But now I don't believe I can anymore, because Calvin Griffith, president of the Twins, didn't vote against CBS. I will not support those who are selling out the American League.
R. J. GERDE
Minneapolis
JACK IN THE PULPIT
Sirs:
Sounds and Hounds of a Texas Wolf Hunt (Sept. 14) was fine, but talk about puns! "The family that preys together stays together," indeed!
I picture Jack Olsen strutting around your halls, his thumbs hooked in his suspenders, taking bows.
RON ELKIND
West Boylston, Mass.
•Exactly.—ED.
HEART PROGRAM
Sirs:
I enjoyed your September 21 article, A Leg Up on a Good Heart. My pupils in the sixth grade are simply amazed at the type of workout Dr. Thomas K. Cureton of the University of Illinois conducted at the health conference in Burlington, Vt.
DANIEL P. SEVERINO
Somerville, Mass.
Sirs:
As you know, lack of exercise may well be the cause of coronary artery disease. Baltimore and Washington now have programs to help the middle-aged man exercise.
In August we in Baltimore decided to see if the citizens would respond to exercise of this type. We held a three-race program consisting of a 10-mile race for the best runners in the area, a 2½-mile teen-age race and a 2½-mile "Run for Your Life."
Forty-two runners ranging in age from 10 to 67 years old entered. Every starter finished the race, and we had the largest crowd watching a distance race in many a year—400 people.
GABE MIRKIN, M.D.
OSCAR MEEHLING
GEORGE BROWN
Baltimore
JOLLY GREEN GIANTS
Sirs:
Your article on the Green Bay Packers (Green Bay Blocks to Win, Sept. 7) was one of the finest ever printed about the glory-less workhorses of the team. It was about time for someone to give the football lineman recognition.
DAN GREGIER
Butte, Mont.
Sirs:
So Paul Hornung, the Golden Boy, returns to the scene of the crime (Shining Hour for Golden Boy, Sept. 21). It is nice to see that he now leads a very simple life, and is nice to his mother. Why, however, is it necessary to praise him for doing something that is expected of him? Have you forgotten already how seriously he endangered the integrity of the National Football League back in 1962?
EDGAR M. FRIED
Ames, Iowa
Sirs:
Hooray and Oh, joy! Paul Hornung is back, and I'm cheering for the Packers again. Thanks for the cute story.
LINDA WILLIAMS
Chicago
SOVENIR HUNT
Sirs:
Now that another baseball season is about to go into cold storage along with its memories, its crumpled scorecards, its hastily scrawled autographs and its endless arguments, I thought you people might be interested in a survey I made in one department of souvenir hunting: getting an autographed baseball.
I was experimenting with the 20 major league clubs. I wrote a lengthy letter to each team's publicity director asking how I might obtain a personally autographed baseball for my daughter Robin, who really wanted one. I offered to pay any of the costs involved, but I requested that the ball be personally signed and not just facsimile or rubber-stamped. The results, I think, are quite interesting.
I obtained 10 balls in all. Two of them (one from the Baltimore Orioles and one from the Chicago White Sox) were sent without charge and included a pleasant note. Four teams (the New York Yankees and Mets, the Cleveland Indians and the Pittsburgh Pirates) said that if I would send the ball, they would have the players sign it—which they did.
Four teams (the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox and Houston Colt 45s) asked me to send them from $3 to $5 to cover the cost of the ball and mailing—which was certainly reasonable. The Dodgers and Red Sox went on to explain that they donated receipts from the sale of these balls to charity—which is an excellent idea and should be commended.
Six teams answered that only facsimile reproductions were available and enclosed their price schedules.
Four of the teams that I wrote (Los Angeles Angels, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Athletics) didn't have the courtesy even to acknowledge receiving my original letter and two letters that I sent subsequently.
This latter list of nonrepliers interested me. The Athletics have had such poor public response to their stadium, their proposed moves and trades that I figured they would at least acknowledge my letter. The Angels can afford $200,000 bonuses but are not interested in investing a 5¢ stamp for a better public image.
I wish I could say that my poll showed that nice guys finish first, but one of the more pleasant answers I received, along with a signed ball, was from Tom Meany of the New York Mets! One positive conclusion I drew from all this is that there are some ball clubs who care about their fans and who are interested in developing new young customers and rooters for the future. And there are some who don't.
RONALD P. FENDRICK
North Hills, Pa.