19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
WINTER GAMES
Sirs:
Thanks to what William Johnson termed "one of the tackiest and most depressing-looking sports facilities anywhere" (Ice-Cold Games and a Solid-Cold Girl, Jan. 31), SI had an exciting and beautiful cover featuring Annie Henning, and the U.S. has some high hopes for gold medals in speed skating at the Winter Olympics at Sapporo. West Allis and Wisconsin are proud of our country's only refrigerated Olympic rink. If West Allis truly is a "dreary suburb of Milwaukee," Mr. Johnson should attempt to buy a home there; I did, and the closest available was in neighboring New Berlin.
DAVE HUTCHISON
Editor and General Manager
West Allis Star
West Allis, Wis.
Sirs:
Congratulations on a fine article. It was refreshing to see Cindy Nelson's name mentioned as a future Olympic prospect in Alpine skiing. Cindy is from Lutsen, Minn., a small town 18 miles west of my hometown of Grand Marais, and has provided many exciting moments for the ski fans in that area. We share Alpine Director Willy Schaeffler's opinion that Cindy is a future great.
RICHARD DORR
Ely, Minn.
Sirs:
You predict that the U.S.S.R. will win the hockey gold without any trouble from Sweden. But this year Sweden has a new coach, former NHL player Bill Harris, and what he has done for the team is really fantastic.
JAN EJDEMO
Pitea, Sweden
SUMMER HOPE
Sirs:
Thanks to Jim Kaplan for bringing Pat Matzdorf into the public eye (Getting Up in the World, Jan. 31). This article brought Pat only a portion of the acclaim due him. He will gain the rest of that acclaim this summer when he helps the U.S. to sweep the high jump in the Olympics.
JOE DYE
Beloit, Wis.
HOOSIER HYSTERIA
Sirs:
Peter Carry illustrates the fact that Indiana is the undisputed basketball center of the world in his article about one of pro basketball's greatest franchises, the Indiana Pacers, and the enthusiasm generated by basketball in general in Indiana (A Little Hoop and a Lot of Holler, Jan. 31).
The state has produced the greatest basketball player in the history of the game, Oscar Robertson, not to mention such notables as Tom and Dick Van Arsdale, Rick Mount, Louie Dampier, Jon McGlocklin and George McGinnis. Next year's crop of rookies may include even more promising Hoosiers: Jim Price (Louisville), Bob Ford (Purdue), Jim Bradley (Northern Illinois) and Joby Wright (Indiana). One cannot mention this great game without referring to some aspect of Hoosier Hysteria.
DAVE HIGHMARK
Indianapolis
TOP BILLING
Sirs:
Right on! The Pittsburgh Pirates' come-from-behind victory in the 1971 World Series was the most exciting sporting spectacle of the year ("Show of the Year," SCORECARD, Jan. 31).
MARK BALAWEJDER
Pittsburgh
ANTIFREEZE
Sirs:
So far this winter I have been snowbound in three different towns, and most of the time it has been very difficult, if not impossible, to tell if the creature walking toward me was a man, woman or grizzly bear. Therefore, your Jan. 17 cover and related article (It May Be Nautical, but It's Not the Navy) were like finding an oasis in a desert. I beg you to keep an eye on our Wyoming winter. If no letup is in sight during the next month or two, a follow-up article would be greatly appreciated.
MARSHALL THAYER
Cheyenne, Wyo.
MYSTERY SKIERS
Sirs:
Here's to Neil Leifer and his camera for capturing the dazzling beauty of those superskiers flying down and off the slopes (Take It Right from the Top, Jan. 24). After a recent trip to Vail, Colo., I felt a bit frustrated at not having more time to devote to this fantastic sport. Now, after paging through your article, I am psyched all over again.
PIERRE DeGRUY
New Orleans
Sirs:
Thank you for identifying those mystery skiers who leave their tracks on the impossibly steep slopes to humble and haunt us whenever we think we might be getting good. It is the best article on skiing SI has done.
RICHARD TERO
Irving, Texas
KENTUCKY'S TEAMS
Sirs:
It seems as though University of Louisville Coach Denny Crum stuck his foot in his mouth by saying that he was not overly impressed with any of Kentucky's freshmen and that his own Allen Murphy, a 6'5" black from Alabama, would "eat any of them alive" (A Crum Could Take the Cake, Jan. 24). Less than a week after Crum's statement, the Louisville frosh beat the Cincinnati frosh by a mere two points, 77-75, in the last seconds of the game. Just two nights later the University of Kentucky freshmen played the same Cincy team and won 127-57.
KENNEY CURRY
Anchorage, Ky.
Sirs:
Thanks for your great article on the University of Louisville basketball team. Johnny Wooden, here we come.
NICK SIMON
Louisville
HARASSMENT
Sirs:
You mean it took a group of 15 Houston Rocket fans to bring the "Harass them" cheer to your attention (SCORECARD, Jan. 17)? Head Yell Leader Eddie Anderson taught us that one (probably made it up, too) while I was a junior at UCLA (Lew was only a sophomore). Eddie brought a new dimension of entertainment to the art of cheerleading with his imaginative, innovative cheers. I think that by the time he took over, UCLA students had become too sophisticated to yell such banal chants as "Hold that line" or "We wanna touchdown." Ah, those were the good old days.
BYRON TRIST
North Hollywood, Calif.
Sirs:
To the best of my recollection, the cheer "Harass them, harass them, make them relinquish the ball" was originated in support of the Cal Tech juggernaut many years ago. It was used with great gusto by the rooting section of University High in Los Angeles and by a small but hardy group at UCLA in the mid-'60s.
ROBERT J. ALTIZER
Las Cruces, N. Mex.
Sirs:
The cheer was in vogue during my high school years (1961-65) and, considering our four-year overall record of 13-21-2, we chanted it quite often.
When the opponents failed to relinquish the ball, we would counter with a second cheer: "Agitate them, agitate them, force them into a blunder."
JIM SBARBARO
Philadelphia
Sirs:
In the years 1960-63, some of the boys at my alma mater, Boston Latin School, were oft heard to urge on our football teams with: "Pursue them, pursue them, make them relinquish the spheroid." I wonder which old BLS alumnus has made the big jump to the NBA rafters in Houston.
GERRY HARPEL
Boston
Sirs:
It appears those Houston Rockets fans have done a bit of borrowing from the much-maligned Ivy League. Where else could a cheer like "Harass them" have originated? This poignant plea has been bellowed from the bowels of the bleachers at Brown University football games for many seasons. But somehow the cheer fails to convey its message—as the Rockets' present record and Brown's undaunted finish as the leader of the nation's Bottom Ten will testify.
JACK BLAZYK
Providence
Sirs:
To the best of my knowledge, the cheer was started by the Wildcat matching band at Northwestern University, where it has been used for at least the past several years. Two of our other cheers are: "Fight fearlessly, fight flawlessly and with reckless abandon" and "Advance, advance, ambulate over the turf." Even Harvard couldn't have come up with those! The rest of our cheers, I'm afraid, would not look too good in a national magazine.
SCOTT GOLINKIN
Evanston, Ill.
Sirs:
When I was a student at Williams College 10 years ago, we had pretty much the same cheer going, the only difference being that our cheer was for football and went, "Repulse them, repulse them, make them relinquish the ball."
The Wishbone formation may well have been born on the plains of Texas, but if you want the latest in cheers and effete enthusiasm, go East, old man.
STANLEY T. HUTTER
Oakland
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