19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
VINCIBILITY
Sirs:
My two sons and I just returned a week ago from a very successful fishing trip at Great Bear Lake. On Sunday I shot almost a par round of golf (not counting the hole I picked up on) and, in the meantime, I witnessed a walk on the moon by the astronauts and their safe return to earth. This morning I went to work feeling a little bit despondent. All I had to look forward to now was work. Certainly anything else that could happen would be anticlimactic.
Then I picked up the July 28 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and began to read the article on Vince Lombardi by John Underwood (We're Going to Win—You Better Believe It). This story about a coach and his team keened my enthusiasm to an emotional outburst of laughter until my sides hurt, about Len Hauss and his sudden urge for push-ups, and Ray McDonald's determination to prove he could withstand the pain. My emotions changed to tears, when Sonny Jurgensen began to see himself for the first time.
Yes, today is another day and there is more to it than just drudgery; John Underwood has seen to that.
FRED T. LOVING JR.
Crummies, Ky.
Sirs:
The Redskins? Just because Vince Lombardi is there doesn't mean that they're going to be great this year. Look at their '68 statistics. Their defense was pitiful. You can't say much about their offense either. An unfinished puzzle is what they are. People say to watch them this year. Well, I'm watching, I'm watching.
ANDREW KIMMEL
Norwalk, Conn.
ON THE RUN
Sirs:
Just concluded Tex Maule's article A Jog-In for Dear Life (July 28). I solved the embarrassment of a fat man jogging around the great outdoors. I designed a course that starts in my living room, goes through the kitchen, then the family room and down a hallway to reenter the living room.
I also have my wife involved. She sits in the kitchen and, at the end of every 15th lap, hands me a can of beer as I pass. On the 25th lap she brings out platters of cold cuts, chicken and whatever can be handily grabbed en route.
Since my doctor suggested this program two years ago, my weight has gone from 187 to 236. I am 5'8".
BOB CORBETT
Roseville, Calif.
Sirs:
That has to be the best article Tex Maule has ever written. You don't suppose he's taken up jogging to escape all of his AFL enemies, do you?
RICK HEYING
Overland Park, Kans.
Sirs:
For some unaccountable reason Tex Maule's report on jogging fails to mention Dr. Thomas K. Cureton, director of the University of Illinois Physical Education Research Laboratory, who has probably done more to promote physical fitness generally than anyone else in the world.
Maule says: "Probably the two foremost experts on the rehabilitation of heart patients by exercise are Dr. Herman Hellerstein of Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Viktor Gottheimer of Tel Aviv." In SI of Sept. 21, 1964, George Crozier wrote: "Dr. Hellerstein used to be as cautious and skeptical as any. Now he is an ardent advocate of the testing of more radical rehabilitation methods. What converted [him] was the discovery that one of his patients was also enrolled in a 'continuous movement' program following the Cureton doctrine, at Cleveland's Central YMCA, and was suffering no ill effects."
Because Dr. Cureton preaches that age is no barrier, I started jogging at the age of 64, and at 72 I am still jogging and running from 2½ to three miles a day.
ROBERT T. HERZ
Dallas
Sirs:
I would like to correct the statement, "Lieberman believes strongly in jogging in place." This is wrong, it tenses the muscles. In all my pamphlets I advocate moving while jogging. When in a room, jog in a circle or back and forth. Jogging indoors gives the same results as jogging on the road or in the countryside. You convert distance into time—10 minutes equals one mile.
SEYMOUR LIEBERMAN
Houston
ED AND ERNIE
Sirs:
As a devout baseball fan, I have been delighted all year long by the New York Mets' sudden rise to respectability. Still, I was disturbed by certain aspects of the Mets' story as told in SI (The Mets Go Bump in the Light of Day, July 28). A ball club can become successful only by combining excellence on the playing field with good sportsmanship. Since the Mets are a young team, unused to success, certain indiscretions are excusable, especially in the light of Ron Santo's recent remarks. However, I was greatly distressed by Ed Kranepool's cruel mocking of Ernie Banks, the one man who best exemplifies everything admirable in sport and in life. For 17 years Banks has brought joy, enthusiasm and professional excellence to countless fans. When the Mets can bring to baseball anything near what Ernie Banks has, then they will be a great team.
WILLIAM MCKENNA
Jenkintown, Pa.
Sirs:
The fact that Ed Kranepool, ersatz fence crasher for the "amazing Mets," will never reach Ernie's lofty plateau of 490 homers, 1,563 RBIs and two MVP selections is superfluous. The real difference between the two is that Ernie Banks will be on the steps of the dugout smiling and singing, "What a beautiful day to play baseball" no matter what team has a three-game lead.
ARTHUR SHERRER JR.
Chicago
IRELAND AFTER DE GAULLE
Sirs:
Pat Ryan's article (Le Grand Charles Slept Here, July 28), showing how General de Gaulle's visit to Ireland brought a great influx of tourists to that country, is truly a masterpiece of its kind. The author has the rare gift of making each locale live for the reader, either through description or anecdote or both, with the article's overall atmosphere as distinctly Irish as the shamrock.
G. M. W. KOBBÉ
New York City
Sirs:
I thought your story of General de Gaulle's travels through Ireland did justice to the country (and to de Gaulle), but I thought you might like to know that Richard Stanford, The Heron Cove proprietor during the general's visit, looked over his shoulder, saw the bailiff at his front door and departed in late July. Unless things have changed since then, any tourists who wish to follow Le Grand Charles' travels will have to bypass his first stop. A sign on the gate at Heron Cove says CLOSED TODAY.
JOHN HORGAN
Dublin
BOUTS AND VICTORIES
Sirs:
Curry Kirkpatrick does an injustice to Christy O'Connor in his report of the British Open (Liege Lord of Golf, July 21) when he states that the 44-year-old Christy is "a Dublin veteran of as many drinking bouts and clubhouse scuffles as he is of British tournaments." O'Connor's bouts are legendary and few. His victories on the British circuit are numerous.
Christy could be regarded as the Sam Snead of this side of the Atlantic. He has won all the major tournaments (and many of them a number of times) except the big one.
FINBARR SLATTERY
Killarney
UP TO DATE IN DAYTON
Sirs:
I would like to compliment Anita Verschoth on a fine article on the women's AAU track and field championships (Dashing Dolls in Dayton, July 14). I was also impressed by the performances and the records that were set at Welcome Stadium. But I feel there has been an unjust description of Dayton. Miss Verschoth obviously did not know where to find some miniskirts or swinging establishments. From my own personal experience, I can assure the nation that Dayton is not a town where "the miniskirt has yet to arrive!"
I would like to invite Anita to accompany me on a tour of the Pine Club, the Colony Club, the Whisper Lounge, the King Cole, Timothy's, the Bookstore and various other hot spots the next time she is in Dayton.
ROBERT E. GOWDY JR.
Dayton
OFFICIAL DECISION
Sirs:
I find John F. Waters' letter (19th HOLE, July 21) a fine example of inaccurate, unsubstantiated generalizations. I shall leave it to stopwatches, tape measures and psychologists to determine if athletes really have gotten "swifter, larger and more intelligent." But I cannot let go unchallenged the generalization that officials remain "slow, incompetent" creatures who have fallen behind the times and who desperately need guidelines.
One Coaches All-America game does not make all officials "bad." Rather, a full season of the NFL stop-action camera seems to indicate just the opposite. I invite Mr. Waters to follow an NFL official through his arduous weekend of work. Better yet, our armchair critic may wish to attend any of the ECAC basketball clinics for its officials to see some guidelines being given and to meet a group of dedicated men neither slow nor incompetent.
All generalizations arc dangerous—even that old poem which ends, "Letters are written by fools like me, but only God can referee."
EDWARD M. WARREN
Rochester, N.Y.
Address editorial mail to TIME & LIFE Bldg., Rockefeller Center. New York, N.Y. 10020.
