19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
TRIAL AND ERROR
Sirs:
Holy slush fund! My alma mater guilty? Certainly. She admitted it and begged for leniency as a first offender (The Fighting Illini, March 6). She ran afoul of certain holier-than-thou Big Ten athletic directors who, having been slapped prettily for worse excesses, now seek revenge for slush dealt out not too wisely but too well. Yea, what of the enlightened 20th-century dream of rehabilitation? The Big Ten still wants to chop off hands for stealing a loaf of bread and ruin a man's career for $21,000. The solution is not to lop off the heads of Elliott, Combes and Braun in vigilante execution. It is either to finally admit that college football is too big to treat as amateur sport, or to entirely condemn slush funds, the Alabama "Hilton" for football gorillas, etc., and return this great game to the players.
RONALD E. COHEN
Montclair, N.J.
Sirs:
I feel sorry for the University of Illinois students and staff because of the position they find themselves in. I fear that all this has provided an airtight case by which to teach a lesson to other Big Ten schools and, perhaps, schools outside the Big Ten. As a result, the lesson they will learn could very well be: don't keep records of irregular athletic funds.
KEN WELCH
Rockford, Ill.
CUSHIONED RIDE
Sirs:
While I, too, enjoy stock-car racing and appreciate the skills of Richard Petty and the entire Petty stable, I question the use of the word "athlete" in connection with a race-car driver, and especially the insinuation that an individual may be an athlete because of the "physical punishment" he takes during a race {Champ with a Feel for the Rattlesnake, Feb. 27).
The words "athlete" and "sport" incorporate a wide variety of activities, but I hesitate to associate either automobile racing or the men who drive the cars with either term. The emphasis in automobile racing definitely lies with the car and its mechanical parts, not with the training or physiological functioning of the individual who operates it.
Certainly we must maintain the concept that an athlete is one who is trained to take part in an activity, the outcome of which will be determined by his own skills, fitness and preparation.
L. IRVIN WILLIAMS
Richmond
MOONSTRUCK
Sirs:
You really know how to hurt a guy, don't you? After reading Coles Phinizy's article on Tom Johnston's Caribbean home, Moonhole (Two Rebels with a Lovely Cause, Feb. 27), how can anyone ever be satisfied with four walls again? I thoroughly enjoyed your article, and I will forever be looking for my own Moonhole.
JAMES V. MOSER
Needles, Calif.
GREENE AND SMYTHE
Sirs:
Congratulations to Tom Brody on a great article about a great runner, Charlie Greene (That Last E Is for Easy, Baby!, March 6). When Easy, Excellent, Extraordinary Charlie captures the world marks for the 60-and 100-yard dashes I can just imagine how those upturned thumbs of his will appear ahead of the pack as he glides past.
DAVID LICHTENBERG
Hempstead, N.Y.
Sirs:
Your article on Charlie Greene was very interesting. However, one thing puzzles me. In one of your closing paragraphs it was pointed out that Tommie Smith "zoomed by" Greene on the anchor leg of a 440 relay. If Greene is so fast, how could this possibly have happened? I believe the answer is fairly obvious: Tommie Smith is faster than Charlie Greene with an E.
DAVID SWEENEY
Berkeley, Calif.
NEXT QUESTION
Sirs:
Although Frank Deford's article (In Search of Naismith's Came, March 6) failed to answer the questions it proposed to answer, it did answer some of the questions I had about basketball. Among them:
1) Is there a Helpy Selfy Launderette in Richmond, Ky.?
2) Are pompon girls the same as cheerleaders, and does he really think the Kansas girls are more beautiful than California girls?
3) Should Negro players stage a sit-in on college-basketball benches? (Perhaps if De-ford had spent less time ogling the pompon girls, he would have noticed Negroes on both the Kansas and Missouri benches.)
4) Is SPORTS ILLUSTRATED putting us on?
MIKE ANDERSEN
Lawrence, Kans.
Sirs:
In between the Helpy Selfy Launderette and E. A. Diddle's lipstick marks, the fleet Gingerbread Man and the Frankie Avalon cheerleaders was an interesting basketball story.
RICHARD BRENNER
Berea, Ohio
THIS WEEK: JOPLIN
Sirs:
You stated in your last issue (PEOPLE, March 13) that the Celebrities Art Exhibit was here at Newman's department store recently when, in fact, we are having it this week.
W. S. SCHWAB JR.
Joplin, Mo.
•The latest word is that the show runs March 14 through March 18.—ED.
ENTER MUIRHEAD
Sirs:
It was not my intention to appear derogatory to the late Architect Dick Wilson in the article you published on the new golf course architecture (New Twists for an Old Art, Feb. 20). In my opinion Mr. Wilson was not an innovator, but there has always been room for first-rate eclecticism and I always thought that, when he was at his best, his courses were magnificent. It is true, however, that he applied the same type of greens and traps to every site that he worked with.
Also, if I said I might be in a position to be patronizing in two or three years, I was not in complete command of what came out. Anyway, I withdraw the remark—nobody ever has a right to be patronizing.
Unfortunately, anyone can call himself a golf course architect and everyone is beginning to do so. The vast majority of the gentlemen masquerading under this title are unbelievably poorly equipped in both talent and training to undertake the work.
As far as reader R. W. Beaty's comment about Architect Robert Trent Jones (19TH HOLE, March 6) is concerned, Mr. Jones does get wonderful sites to work with, and he does a careful job of course layout. However, the public still confuses him with the great golfer, Robert Tyre Jones, who is, as some of us are aware, an entirely different person. This hardly seems fair to me, even if it is not his fault. I mean Robert Trent Smith simply does not evoke the same aura.
DESMOND MUIRHEAD
Newport Beach, Calif.
Sirs:
It is nice to see an artist of the proven quality of Desmond Muirhead enter a stagnant field like golf course architecture.
RAPHAEL S. SORIANO
Architect
Tiburon, Calif.
BOXING BALLOT
Sirs:
I disagree with Charlie W. Stovall's suggestion (19TH HOLE, Feb. 27) that the score be posted between rounds in a boxing match. I think that the present system is superior for two reasons.
First, time isn't wasted arguing in the middle of a bout because of a dispute between the boxer or his handlers and the judges over the score. Second, the boxer's concentration on beating his opponent is not broken. A boxer, under the present system, may think he is ahead, but rarely is he sure enough of his lead to stall and clinch in the last few rounds.
Who knows, if Notre Dame hadn't known the score toward the end of its football game against Michigan State, it might have gone for the win.
BOB DAILY
San Marino, Calif.
Sirs:
I suggest that, since the next Clay fight will be on television, we could just have one round of boxing and then let the network put the results through a computer and tell us who's going to win, just like they do during the elections.
R. V. McGRATH
Champaign, Ill.
SHORT LONG STORY
Sirs:
It was with interest and amusement that I read the letter from Bill Long (19TH HOLE, Feb. 27). Being only 5'1", Bill must certainly have to hustle to stay with his larger eighth-grade teammates. But I believe Bill and other "shorties" among your readers might find this equally interesting.
On Feb. 25 Texas Western students named their MVP for the 1966-67 basketball season. The player selected has been described by one coach as "one of the greatest outside shooters in the country," and a sportswriter has called him "the indispensable player." He bombs in set shots from 30 feet and jumpers from 20. On a fast break, he drives the lane and "dunks it."
Since he is a guard, he is principally a playmaker. At this he is without equal. He passes a basketball the way Sandy Koufax throws a baseball. When he feeds inside, his fakes are flawless, and the points mount up as the percentage shots are played. Yet, he is second (to David "Big Daddy" Lattin) in scoring and has the highest single-game score of any team member (34 points).
Everyone knows that to play for a national champion (NCAA 1966), you have to be a "big man," and "Wee" Willie Worsley is—though he views the hardboard circuit from a majestic height of only 5'6½".
BOBBY D. WELLS
Alamogordo, N. Mex.