19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

TROT TOT
Sirs:
I would love to see Sudden Death Sabol (The Fearless Tot from Possum Trot, Nov. 22) drafted by the pros. He could undoubtedly play in both professional leagues at the same time.
JOHN MERRILL JR.
Stanford, Calif.

Sirs:
I suspect from the pictures and article on Sudden Death that his group had 25% fewer cavities.
ROBERT PHILIPSON
Syracuse, N.Y.

Sirs:
Tom Brody's article on the tot from Possum Trot was the kind you hate to see end. I only wish our college had someone in the Sudden Death style. Most colleges are too grim now.
JOHN ANDERSON
Brookville, N.Y.

Sirs:
Unbelievable! We have never enjoyed an article more.
MR. AND MRS. MAURY ORRELL
Albuquerque

TANKED TIGER
Sirs:
One recent evening, for some absurd reason, I decided to pick up your magazine and came upon a very funny article that a Mr. John Underwood wrote about some pussycats who happened to play football (This Tiger Is Not in the Tank, Nov. 15). It was Mr. Underwood's opinion that these pussycats could play football better than anyone else in the East, and "if somebody tells you there is a team in the East that is as good," he wrote about Princeton, "it must be on the tip of his imagination, brothers, his imagination." It so happens that I know countless Indians from Dartmouth who have great imaginations.
ANDREW RAYMOND
Hanover, N.H.

Sirs:
Would Author Underwood really want to have Princeton meet the likes of Syracuse, Penn State and Pitt? The Tiger would not be in the tank—it would be in the hospital.
DAVID P. WHITE
Rensselaer, N.Y.

Sirs:
We are three Dartmouth freshmen who feel that our great team has been badly slighted throughout the season. We do not expect an apology, since we realize that it was through no fault of your own that you chose Princeton to win the Ivy League football title. They had a fine team, but it did not even come close to the Big Green. Even the infallible Gogo failed. That Ron Landeck was able to break Dick Kazmaier's alltime record in "The Game" is all the more to the credit of the Indians. Furthermore, our victory was not made by lucky breaks or upset play, but rather by solid, steady ball control.
JOHN FRONDORF
RICK FEINS
LANE MCBURNEY
Hanover, N.H.

Sirs:
Maybe next year Princeton will be the team everyone seemed to think they were this year. They will be trying harder, of course, since they are only No. 2.
DOUGLAS J. NICHOLS
MICHAEL L. SHORTRIDGE
Hanover, N.H.

Sirs:
John Underwood's article on Princeton's football team had its sane moments (Tailback Landeck, Guard Maliszewski and Kicker Gogolak would be fine additions to almost any squad in the country), but how could he possibly rank the Tigers above Syracuse?

Of course, we were almost sure his story was tongue in cheek when we read of End Cashdollar becoming proficient as a receiver by catching passes from his sister!

And pity poor Back Bedell (who never blocked in high school) if he should have to lead sweeps against the defenses of Syracuse or Penn State, which have fought with tough intersectional opponents instead of such sieves as Brown, Penn and Columbia.
LARRY BASHE
PETER CRONK
Syracuse, N.Y.

HOMESICK
Sirs:
You indicate that Los Angeles Ram Coach Harland Svare was all wet when he said there is home-towning among officials in the NFL (SCORECARD, Nov. 15), but I think you are naive.

What you did in figuring was take the simple expedient of comparing the total yards lost on penalties by visitors and home teams. Of course, it isn't the number of yards lost that counts. Rather, it is the situation in which the penalty is doled out. Four 15-yarders against a home team late in a game in which it is winning 35-0 hurt much less than one five-yarder tagged against a visitor that nullifies an 80-yard run at a time when the visitor trails 3-0.
WILLIAM V. Cox
Colorado Springs, Colo.

Sirs:
Your criticism of Harland Svare was very unfair. I don't think he was complaining about the total yardage of the penalties against his team, but the fact that penalties have been called against his team at crucial times in close games.

As president of a semipro team called the New Jersey Red Oaks, I notice the same thing seems to happen to us when we travel. Our penalties seem to occur at a crucial point in the game whereas the home team's penalties seem to occur when they are ahead.

There are a lot of calls being made by officials who do not see the actual infraction taking place, but are helped along by the fans and the home team. Officials are supposed to be like doctors. There is no room for mistakes.
MAX LEVENSON
Plainfield, N.J.

LAST OINK
Sirs:
You were willing to print letters criticizing Arkansas' schedule. How about printing one that praises it?

The Southwest Conference had two teams (Arkansas and Texas) in the nation's top five in 1964 and sent three teams (Arkansas, Texas and Texas Tech) to post-season bowl games. Arkansas defeated three of the teams (Texas, Texas Tech and Tulsa) that played in post-season games, as well as Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl. This year Arkansas and Texas Tech are once again going to bowl games.

Even we fans in the East realize Arkansas has a great team and that their schedule is as rough or rougher than those of the other major schools. Maybe these "experts" ought to do a little researching before they start knocking a team. Maybe they should check this year's scores and see what happened to No. 1 Purdue when it played "lowly" SMU of the "lousy" Southwest Conference. Maybe then they will realize that he who oinks last, oinks best.
J. W. GEURIN
Bethesda, Md.

WINGS OF THE LAND
Sirs:
Many thanks for the fine story on falconry by Duncan Barnes and for Francis Gold-en's lovely paintings (The Hunters of the Sky, Nov. 8). Together they were an interesting and effective portrayal of our sport. We of the North American Falconers Association particularly appreciate your emphasis on the deep obligation the falconer feels toward his bird and his interest in the welfare of the birds of prey.
H. H. D. HEIBERG JR.
Montgomery, Ala.

Sirs:
In, I think, 1947 my brother and I were breaking sod (plowing it) with tractor-drawn plows on a farm south of Akron, Colo. There were quite a few other sod-breakers working in that high-prairie area. You break sod in "lands," that is, you lay out two straight lines the length of the field, go through on one, come back on the other. As you go back and forth on the land, the un-plowed sod strip in the middle becomes progressively narrower, until on the last trip through you break the last of the sod left, then lay out another land and start on it.

The hawks there had learned that when the land became narrow they could expect rabbits and mice to break from it and cross the plowed ground to the safety of the grass on the other side. And while you might not see a hawk in the sky when you started on a land, as it narrowed there would be four or five wheeling high above you, their shadows crossing your tractor's path as they circled. This was happening when a full-grown jack-rabbit broke from in front of my tractor and dashed madly across the plowed strip. But he wasn't fast enough. One of the wheeling hawks slanted steeply down in a thunder-boltlike dive. He led the running jack perfectly. When 10 feet above the rabbit, the hawk's wings came together above his head and what had been a head-first dive became a feet-first dive. The hawk struck the running jack right behind the head, and the jack tumbled over and over and lay still, his neck broken. The hawk hopped clumsily on the ground, watched the tractor pass with his round, red eyes, then set to work gorging on the banquet he had so skillfully earned. This was the only time I have ever seen a hawk kill a full-grown jack—mice, small rabbits and birds many times, but this was a spectacular, breathtaking, once-in-a-lifetime sight for me.
MARK LINTZ
Big Springs, Neb.

Sirs:
The Hunters of the Sky was one of the worst articles I have ever read, and it sure wrecks a good magazine like yours. To me falconry is a very cruel sport, if you can call it sport to hunt game birds like the pheasant that way. Why can't they track down crows, or are crows too smart? You can tell your friends with the feathered weapons not to let their pride and joy within 40 yards of my 12-gauge's reach.
WILL F. GEER
Seattle