19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

PAGE THE GIPPER
Sirs:
As an old Iowa fan who is now a student at the University of Illinois, I need a lot of prodding to feel sentimental about Notre Dame, but Dan Jenkins' article (That Legend Is Loose Again, Nov. 7), did it. His short history of Notre Dame tradition and his description of the present-day campus was a delight to read. The bit about Christ's raised arms indicating "six points" really got me. Though it pains me to admit it, modern college football seems to start and end at Notre Dame. If coaches like Parseghian and Ray, and players like Hanratty, Seymour, Eddy and Conjar, keep popping up in South Bend, it looks like Notre Dame's future will be at least as great as its past.
JEFF MERRICK
Urbana, Ill.

Sirs:
Congratulations to Dan Jenkins on recapturing some of that elusive and long dormant Notre Dame spirit. But why did Dan fail to give the figure of Christ in the huge mosaic on the library the name by which He is best known to all students and alumni—"Touchdown Jesus"? Was he afraid of offending ND alumni?
JOHN B. POWERS
Manhasset, N.Y.

Sirs:
Dan Jenkins has done a beautiful job. His story was a joy to read. Even those who are not, or were not, Notre Dame fans should have felt a slight tingle. Three cheers for the Notre Dame spirit and legend from a Notre Dame fan.
INEZ LOPEZ
Espanola, N. Mex.

Sirs:
We note with interest that SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is now a fiction magazine. Granted that Hanratty and Seymour are talented sophomores, don't you feel they're a bit untested to have them casting shadows as great as those from the Golden Dome?

Your Biblical prophet Ara Parseghian and his Irish will need all the touchdowns that Christ can signal when they enter Spartan Stadium November 19. There are 22 Spartans eager to prove this Notre Dame legend a myth. Any bets on the national champion?
DAVID F. SPALDING
CHRIS A. McAFEE
East Lansing, Mich.

Sirs:
Your article has established the fact that Jim Seymour and Terry Hanratty are immortals. The gods of Olympus were immortals, too. They were never defeated in battle, but they never fought the Spartans, either. I wish your legend good luck against MSU on November 19.
ROY M. DALES
East Lansing, Mich.

Sirs:
It is pleasant to read about a football team that can do more than wave a rebel flag, that doesn't boast about beating Louisiana Tech and that doesn't own a big-mouthed Bear.
DICK ELLERS
Covington, Ky.

WANDERING JUE
Sirs:
In your scouting report on the Lakers (Oct. 24) in which you mentioned their move to Inglewood next year, you implied that Inglewood is the home of the topless pizza joints. As Assistant City Engineer for Inglewood and one who knows the precise location of the boundary line, I conducted a scouting trip of my own.

With a gluttonous appetite for pizzas as well as the finer points of life, I was motivated to visit all of the local topless joints in the interest of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. Satiated with seven pizzas, a corned-beef sandwich and a Tootsie Roll, I wearily report that all topless pizza joints, or topless joints of any kind in this district, are located outside the city limits of Inglewood. In fact, the most renowned one in the area is located in that shrinking Sports Capital of the West, the city of Los Angeles.
R. KENNETH JUE
Inglewood, Calif.

FOWL PLAY
Sirs:
My congratulations to Duncan Barnes and SI for the fine article on the ultimate dangers of feeding migrating ducks and geese (Please Don't Feed the Waterfowl, Oct. 31). I wonder if the U.S. hunters who strongly advocate baiting realize that, if it were legal to feed ducks in Canada and enough money were available, we could keep 75% of the ducks that now migrate to the southern U.S. right here in Canada all winter long. Then these so-called sportsmen might really have something to cry about.

I hunt along the St. Lawrence and on the inland lakes, and I believe that we in Canada have a good solution to feeding ducks. If the conservation officers or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police find that a blind has been baited, they post signs, and anyone caught shooting in these posted areas is given a heavy fine.

We Canadians are getting damn sick of raising ducks only to have them slaughtered in those so-called private hunting clubs in the U.S.
NEIL McCARNEY
Gananoque, Ont.

GROSSO INJUSTICE
Sirs:
Before Mark Mulvoy's article (The Off-court Uproar in Dixie. Nov. 7) came out, I read numerous accounts of the Mike Grosso-South Carolina situation in the Columbia, S.C. press. It still seems to me that if the Atlantic Coast Conference committee had issued a steadfast ruling on the young man's status as soon as possible after it became known that he was basketball material and a key to USC's basketball hopes, the awful situation that now exists could have been easily avoided.

I, as well as countless other South Carolina students and fans, feel that Grosso has been (pardon the expression) grossly wronged by the lack of forethought and foresight on the committee's part.
HENRY S. ROSE JR.
Florence, S.C.

Sirs:
If Commissioner Weaver has concrete evidence on which he bases his decision regarding the eligibility of Mike Grosso, he should let it be known to all. If he does not, I certainly hope that he is aware of the tremendous injustice he is dealing not only to Frank McGuire and the University of South Carolina, but even more to Michael Grosso, whose future is at stake. Mike is the one who will bear the brunt of this decision.

I'd like to think that a commissioner of a conference as well known as the ACC would not let personal feelings toward someone else dictate a decision that might affect a young man's life and career
JAMES P. HOWELL
Columbia, S.C.

THRUST AND PARRY
Sirs:
As mayor of Parry Sound, I feel obligated to write you to express my disappointment in Frank Deford's description of our town (High Price for Fresh Northern Ice, Oct. 17). He must have been here somewhere around 1850 A.D.

This is primarily a tourist town with all the beauty and sports that it is possible for nature to provide, and I am sure that not only we who live in Parry Sound, but the thousands of people who spend their vacations here will realize how ridiculous Mr. Deford's description is.
GEORGE SAAD
Parry Sound, Ont.

Sirs:
As one of the girls doomed to "turn fat before they grow old" in this "sad, friendly little place," I hope that the future brings those of us on both sides of the border a better understanding of each other's country. I must confess that Canadians tend to regard Americans as somewhat arrogant egotists.
DONNA GROSKORTH
Parry Sound, Ont.

DATES AND INDIFFERENCE
Sirs:
Perhaps I can explain the behavior of Dartmouth students at Harvard, which Crimson Quarterback Rick Zimmerman so disdains (A Day to Bile the Dust, Oct. 31). It is nothing but a reaction to the blasé, lack-of-spirit attitude of the Harvard men. Where else but at Harvard can you ask undergraduates what the quickest way to the stadium is and have them reply they don't know because they have never been to a game? Where else but at Harvard can the loser's postgame reunion draw more partisans and spirit than the winner's? Where else, finally, but at Harvard can one of their own players be hurt and carried off the field on a stretcher to a standing ovation from the visitors' side and meek, sitting applause from the home side?

As for Zimmerman's remark that Dartmouth men act as if it's easy to steal the Harvard boys' dates, it is!
BILL MUTTERPERL
Hanover, N.H.

SHINNY AND SHANKS
Sirs:
I was glad to see that Dwight Eisenhower gives the grand old game of shinny some credit for developing his mean golf swing (PEOPLE, Oct. 31). As the ex-President says, it was a crude form of Held hockey played with a battered tin can and a crooked stick. In my day a good shinny stick was prized highly, and the best ones were made of hedge cuttings. Here in Kansas, where all the hedges were of Osage orange, we called it hedgewood. The French trappers called it bois d'arc, because the Osage Indians made their bows of it. The best stick you could have was one with a knot at one end—a natural.

Shinny was a rough game. There was always the hazard of being hit by the jagged tin "puck," and, if you didn't shinny on your own side, an opponent was entitled to yell "Shanks!" and rap you across the shins with his stick.

Thanks to Ike and to SI for awakening memories of some good shinny games played on the vacant lots of Topeka 55 to 60 years ago.
HAL EVANS
Larned, Kans.