19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

EMERGENCE(CONT.)
Sirs:
Martin Kane's recent article, A Very Welcome Redcoat (Dec. 19), was both informative and awesome—awesome because I feel that if others such as John Velzian were to help the Africans in sport they would walk away with the Olympic title. But I gather that it will undoubtedly be a long struggle, and I would like to help. I have a Held javelin that I bought and am unable to use, and I would like to send it to an athlete in Africa.

Will you give me John Velzian's address so that I may ship the javelin to him? Then Kenya will have two javelins and, maybe, top contenders in the 1968 Olympics.
ROBERT L. FAUX
Big Spring, Texas

•Coach Velzian's address is Marlborough Road, Box 30424, Nairobi, Kenya.
—ED.

Sirs:
Earlier last year my ship made stops at a few West African ports. The final stop before returning home was Dakar, where we were challenged to participate in a couple of sporting contests with the men from the Senegalese army encampment. We met the challenge with a basketball team from the U.S.S. Liberty (AGTR-5) and a volleyball squad, whose only practice sessions had been conducted on the fantail of the ship while under way. We journeyed to the camp and were pitted against a well-organized, fast-breaking basketball team, playing on the same court pictured in your article (Sport in Emerging Africa, Dec. 19). We lost 75-55. Results of the volleyball game were similar: we were completely outclassed.

Although the scores were lopsided, I must wholeheartedly agree that the Africans still lack proper coaching. The present staff of coaches is enthusiastic, but they lack experience in tough competition. When a prime coaching staff finds these talented men and works with them as hard as they are willing to work, then watch for a grand-style African emergence.
ROBERT CASALE, USN
Sonoma, Calif.

SILVER THREADS
Sirs:
Your December 19 Holiday Issue was splendid. However, let me add a footnote on two of your Silver Anniversary All-Americas.

Navy was undefeated when it came to Cambridge that year and Harvard was going to be massacred. However, Dick Harlow had devised his looping defenses and his line was good. Late in the third period (or may be early fourth) there was still no score, and the Crimson dared hope for the so-called moral victory. They came close to doing more.

Harvard kicked from its own 30—a high one. Bill Busik was back waiting for the ball, and down under it, coming fast and alone, was Endicott Peabody. Everybody thought that Busik would signal a fair catch, but, no—he figured he could get away with it. Peabody must have hit him about one one-hundredth of a second after he caught the ball. You've never heard such a crash, and Busik went back five yards. The ball and Busik separated, and Harvard recovered—I don't think it was Peabody—on the Navy 18. The stands went wild, but, as usual, Harvard had no offense and the game ended scoreless.
REGINALD KERNAN
Paris

Sirs:
No single football episode has remained so vividly in my memory as that of Princeton's Bob Peters crashing Bill Busik out of bounds after a long chase. Perhaps the commodore can still feel it—I don't believe he returned to the game. Although my subsequent trips to Palmer Stadium were "down from the hills of Hanover," I was very happy to read again of a Tiger who remains one of my alltime football heroes. And "Stubby" Pearson's selection should please all Hanoverians, for he occupies a special niche in the Dartmouth tradition.
ROBERT C. RINGSTAD
Brooklyn

Sirs:
William (Indian Bill) Geyer not only heads a prospering manufacturing company, with factories in many states, but also holds such honors as the vice-chairmanship of the Colgate University Board of Trustees and the presidency of the New York Touchdown Club. Please don't dismiss one of Colgate's favorite sons by merely saying that he raises funds for the college and hunts in Africa.
JOEL J. PARKER
Bronxville, N.Y.

VEE DAY
Sirs:
I was delighted to read Kim Chapin's article, The Bug Is Small—But Oh My! (Dec. 12). That the Formula Vee racing class has grown to the status of meriting a feature story in the nation's leading sport publication is a great personal thrill to me, for it is in a great measure due to my efforts and those of William S. Duckworth that the class was launched and has prospered.

Mr. Hubert Brundage, whom you mention as the creator of the class, asked me to assume responsibility for the further development of the car and the sponsoring of a class for competition in the Sports Car Club of America when his many interests precluded his devoting the time he felt the project deserved. He presented the Nardi car to us, and a corporation was formed, known as Formcar Constructors, Inc., with me as president and Mr. Duckworth as vice-president. The car was considerably reworked. Mr. Brundage greatly assisted us by making hard-to-get parts available, and he continued his interest until his unfortunate death in a motorcycle accident.

I wrote the original constitution and bylaws of the Formula Vee Association, basing them on the existing bylaws of the International Star Class Yacht Racing Association, adding the special technical data for the control of Formula Vee. These control rules remain in effect today.

We produced, under the trade name Form-car, the first 150 Formula Vees. During this time the SCCA accepted Formula Vee as an official class. With the class established, a number of other manufacturers also began to produce Formula Vees and, through an international network of dealers, Formcar introduced Formula Vee racing to worldwide competition. To date, we have sold over 400, and we are proud to say our cars have many wins to their credit.

It is not my intention to in any way diminish the part that Mr. Brundage played in the birth of this class, but only to complete the biographical sketch contained within Kim Chapin's fine article.
GEORGE M. SMITH
Colonel, USAF (ret.)
Orlando, Fla.

ANNUAL REPORT
Sirs:
I wonder if you have noticed the amazing improvement made by the "rabbit," Chris Blocker (Rabbits Chase Kings, Jan. 18, 1965), on the professional golf tour during the past year. While his official winnings of $8,361.89 are rather meager in comparison to those of some of the other professionals with whom he competes, it represents a growth of 119% over the previous year (SI, Jan. 17, 1966). At this fantastic rate he stands to win $18,312.54 (officially) in 1967 and become the leading money winner early in the next decade. That's what I call picking a winner.
BILL RAHMES
Mustang, Okla

VAAGGARIES (CONT.)
Sirs:
I read your article on James Van Alen's answer to grief in golf (Untroubled Sport Called VAAGG, Nov. 28) and was extremely enthusiastic about it—until I tried it. Although the system allowed me to knock about seven strokes off my normal nine-hole round, I found it only slightly more enjoyable than practicing at a driving range. VAAGG removes most of the qualities that make golf so enjoyable: 1) the feeling of power derived from a good drive, 2) the feeling of beauty derived from a high, arching approach shot, 3) the skill involved in selecting the proper club and the satisfaction of using it as it was designed to be used; and, most important, 4) the knowledge that every single shot counts. I cannot think of a sport where the participant gets a second chance every step of the way. It's just not competitive.

I agree with Mr. Van Alen's criticisms of golf, and it would be unfair of me to criticize his scoring system without submitting my own. It is as follows: the 100-plus golfer who wants to break 100, but doesn't want to be frustrated in the knowledge that he is cheating and losing good balls, should simply take mulligans where he deems them necessary, use inexpensive balls and improve his lie as he wishes. All that is important is that the golfer remember to mention, when relating his score to others, that he played the Klapman system rather than that of the USGA. Sol Klapman is my father-in-law. He uses the system, shoots over 100 anyway and enjoys it, as Mr. Van Alen apparently does not.
BOB BACHARACH
Santa Monica, Calif.

BY THE NUMBERS
Sirs:
As a helpful guide to the future UCLA opponents I have compiled some statistics on Lew Alcindor from the first three games on the UCLA schedule. They correlate the number of points scored by Alcindor in each of the three games, the number of players each opposing team assigned to guard him and the resulting margin of each Uclan victory.

[originallink:10535661:40685]

	POINTS	GUARDS	MARGIN
USC	56	1	15
DUKE (2nd)	38	2	20
DUKE (1st)	19	3	34

It is obvious that every additional player guarding Alcindor reduces his point output by 19. Thus a team can reduce him to no points whatsoever by using four guards. However, if this is done, UCLA will win by something like 60 points! Hence the opposite direction should be tried. Using no guards at all on Alcindor would give him 76 points, but would result in a closer game, with UCLA winning by only 11 or 12 points.

Is there any chance of beating them? Yes! It must be noted that USC scored one more goal than UCLA (39-38). UCLA's winning margin came entirely on free throws. Therefore, the intelligent way to beat UCLA is: 1) Don't guard Alcindor at all; 2) Don't foul; and 3) Score 77 points. The final score would be 77-76, and Alcindor would be so tired from carrying the entire load himself, he wouldn't be right for two weeks.
DONN B. KIRK
Los Altos, Calif.

Sirs:
I have discovered a way to stop Lew Alcindor! Tie his feet together, grease his hands and double-team him with Mel Daniels and Daddy D Lattin. Simple!
BOB DERLETH
East Lansing, Mich.

Sirs:
From the looks of your December 5 college basketball cover, it appears that UCLA is not exactly hurting in the cheerleading department, either.
ROB FREER
JON FREER
Garrett Park, Md.

THE GREATEST GOOD
Sirs:
We of the Sierra Club appreciate the support SI has given us in our goals and struggles. We likewise understand your perplexity about our Mineral King policy (Scorecard, Dec. 19), because the issue perplexed us, too. Our concern about overdevelopment of the primitively beautiful, avalanche-swept valley of Mineral King is part of our broad concern with the nation's moving into the future with a fair balance between mass recreation and the planned protection of the wilderness upon which high-quality recreation depends. Except for the accident of mineralization, once thought important to the area, Mineral King would now be part of Sequoia National Park and would be protected as the superb corridor it now is to some of Sequoia's finest back country.

Your headline, "For the Greatest Number," is a nice slogan, but it should not be detached from what went with it in the first place: "the greatest good ... in the long run." There are few, if any, mountain places in this country that have the unique summer attributes of Mineral King. There are many places where development for mass winter use can be begun or added to, and we have supported such development. To mass-develop Mineral King would be to eliminate its rare values permanently and substitute something of less value and certainly more common. In other words, it would wipe out an important minority right without adding enough new to what the majority already has, or can augment, elsewhere. There are no other primitive Mineral Kings anywhere.
DAVID BROWER
New York City