19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

LIKE IT WAS
Sirs:
Your 1969 College Football Issue (Sept. 15) was terrific! The best yet. A job well done.
THOMAS KOCINSKI
Chicago

Sirs:
Congratulations for The First 100 Years, another great in-depth story on football. Thank you for telling it like it was.
PETE JOHNSON
Baltimore

Sirs:
It's sort of futile to pick an All-Century football team from many thousands. Three who just can't be left off an alltime team are Brick Muller, Ernie Nevers and Jim Thorpe, although you put them on the best elevens of their respective decades.
FREDERIC M. EPLEY, D.D.S.
San Francisco

Sirs:
As a loyal Notre Dame fan who can appreciate a poke at our proposed canonization for all Irish All-Americas, I cannot help asking if you would print what one reader would propose if the South Benders were given all 11 places on the All-Century team: Leon Hart (E); George Connor (T); Jack Cannon (G); Dick Szymanski (C); Bill Fischer (G); Kevin Hardy (T); Jim Seymour (E); Johnny Lujack (B); Paul Hornung (B); George Gipp (B); Nick Eddy (B)?

I hope I have not started something.
STEPHEN BURKE
Fort Wayne, Ind.

Sirs:
A backfield of the '30s without Jay Berwanger, University of Chicago, the first Heisman Trophy winner? You've gotta be kidding.
ROBERT E. FITZGERALD, M.D.
Vancouver, Wash.

Sirs:
How about the great Syracuse running backs of the '60s: Ernie Davis, first Negro Heisman Trophy winner, who averaged 6.6 yards per carry rushing for 2,386 career yards (1959-61); Floyd Little (1964-66), three-time All-America, who had 4,947 total yards gained; and Larry Csonka (1965-67)?
R. W. VIVIAN
Palm Springs, Calif.

Sirs:
Based on the premise that your selection of George Gipp and Leon Hart is correct, then there are two obvious errors in later selections. Missing from your team of the '60s are the two men who broke the records of the aforementioned. Ever hear of Hanratty and Seymour?

Apologies will be accepted.
WILLIAM C. KANE
Tonawanda, N.Y.

PEPPERY WORDS
Sirs:
Last fall, after our game with Nebraska in which Coach Bob Devaney made a bold gamble that later turned out to his disadvantage, I made this comment in the locker room: "I always knew Coach Devaney was courageous, but I never thought he was that courageous." One of the writers at the back of the group misunderstood what I said, and he came out with a story quoting me as follows: "I always knew Coach Devaney was crazy, but I never thought he was that crazy."

Fortunately other writers present related to Coach Devaney what I had actually said, and our friendship was not damaged.

In your College Football Issue one of your writers said that I believe Coach Dan Devine of Missouri "has a tendency to choke in the big games."

I have never said such a thing. I do not entertain such a thought, and if I did I most certainly would not say such a thing because it would only tarnish a friendship with a great coach and rile up our oldest rival both on the field and on the recruiting circuit.

A lot of people said I was crazy when I failed to kick a field goal in the Orange Bowl last January. I may be crazy, but not this crazy.
PEPPER RODGERS
Head Football Coach
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kans.

HIGH HOPES
Sirs:
If your No. 1 prediction for Ohio State holds true and Woody Hayes' forces win another national championship, your next task should be to start advocating the termination of the Big Ten policy prohibiting repeat Rose Bowl appearances by conference champions. This policy will eventually lead to the complacency that Hayes fears.
PATRICK DE STEFANO
New York City

Sirs:
It's gonna take a heap of complacency for the Nittany Lions to wind up behind the Buckeyes and the Longhorns.
HAROLD K. WILLIAMS
Carlisle, Pa.

Sirs:
USC is washed up. Cal, UCLA and Washington have as much chance as USC does.

My prediction: Stanford vs. Indiana.
DAVID BURNETT
Sunnyvale, Calif.

Sirs:
I take offense at your mention of the Air Force Academy as one of the "laughers" on Notre Dame's schedule. Need I remind you that the "laughers" beat your 17th-ranked team, SMU, 26-22 on national television in the first game of the season? The Cadet Wing expects to go to the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day with a 10-0 record intact.
GARY J. BUTSON
U.S. Air Force Academy
Colorado Springs, Colo.

Sirs:
For a football team with "no depth, no passer, no defense and no hope" Wake Forest University performed a miracle Saturday night, Sept. 13, when it upset the Atlantic Coast Conference's No. 1 team, North Carolina State University, 22-21 at Raleigh.
OTIS SKIPPER
Winston-Salem, N.C.

MOMS' SUPPORT
Sirs:
After having raised three now-grown daughters and being presently blessed (?) with a lone, 15-year-old, gangling, lumbering, heavy-footed, 170-pound 6-foot son, I arise to heartily applaud Katherine Carlson's magnificent, amusing and oh-so-true article (Why Mom Supports the Game, Sept. 8). It should be required reading for at least a million mothers and two million fathers.

While Mrs. Carlson does not exactly express approval of the whole system, I'm sold on it. In spite of the obvious faults and frequent inequities, it gives boys of this age a much-needed direction, exposes them to the authority of someone outside the home (other than the regular schoolteachers), while allowing them to gainfully run off their excess energies. It shows them the necessity and value of cooperation with others, instead of plodding their own individual ways. It also makes them aware of the necessities of keeping their schoolwork at least within reason to retain playing eligibility no matter how weary they are and the discipline of having to do something they would greatly prefer not to do.

While football is very often harder for the mother to live through than the boy, I'm all for it.
VIVIAN LEONARD
Monte Vista, Colo.

DART FEVER
Sirs:
Joe Jares' marvelous article, Closing the Missile Gap in U.S. Pubs (Sept. 8), took me back a few years to my days as a junior officer on the aircraft carrier Hancock. When the ship put into the port of Kobe, Japan, some fellow officers and I happened to stumble into an English-type pub called the King's Arms. This tavern had several dart boards with lively games in progress at each board. After striking up a conversation with several of the Limey dart throwers over a few draughts, we were invited to try our hand at this "foreign" game. Naturally, our performance was rather spastic when compared to that of our hosts. However, we were bitten by the "dart fever" bug.

Our next port of call was Hong Kong, where we were able to purchase several sets of darts and a dart board in a sporting-goods store. From then on while at sea, Foxy Frank, Fast Eddie, the Animal, Turk, the Duck and other junior officers would gather in Foxy's stateroom after the evening meal to "toss a few." We all became reasonably proficient with a dart.

Thanks, Joe, for helping me to dust off a few memories. Now let's see, where did I last see those darts of mine....
ALAN L. WILLIAMS
Syracuse, N.Y.

Sirs:
A loud hurrah for Joe Jares' article on darts for its areas of enlightenment—followed by the Wet Noodle award for its obvious provincialism and sensationalism in emphasizing Eastern "characters" and hustling. How you could concentrate on isolated groups of players in the East and virtually ignore the more than 1,100 organized players in California is quite incomprehensible.

When will someone emphasize the sportsmanship learned and friends made through the universal game of 301? The pitiful efforts of a handful of local hustlers are looked upon with disdain by our membership, while those from out of town are "grapevined" within hours after their arrival and are soon gone.

In what other game will you see tears in the eyes of a nonathletic type winning his first trophy ever—as part of a team?

We would welcome inquiries from those readers needing instruction or assistance in forming leagues.
DICK MITRUEN
President
Southern California
Darts Association
Culver City, Calif.

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