19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
MONTREAL'S GAMES
Sir:
The ideas (to some they may appear more like dreams) of Mayor Jean Drapeau (Montreal's Motto: Have Fun, June 3) truly are fit for the whole concept of an Olympics. Reading the article, I, too, was caught up in a new spirit concerning the Games.
It is refreshing to hear politicians speaking of games and, while using a practical idealism, connecting such games with our feelings about life. We do expect a certain peacefulness, as Mayor Drapeau suggests, but we are treated instead to displays of crass nationalism and trivial politics.
Yes, M. Drapeau, let us have some games in Montreal. Merci.
RICHARD G. KIEF
El Paso
Sir:
Had I lived in Colorado, I would have voted and campaigned against holding any part of the Olympics there or anywhere else. However, after reading of Yvan DuBois' plans and his statement, "These are games, not business," my faith has been renewed. DuBois' efforts will make the Olympics, once again, a human congregation for the participants, for the citizens of Quebec and for the world. The Games, which only a while ago seemed on the brink of expiring, will become inspiring. My money will be spent not to support our national team but to support DuBois' plans and our return to international humanism. I enthusiastically await the sale of Canada's Olympic coins.
STEVEN SCHENK
Waukesha, Wis.
IVORY'S RECORDS
Sir:
I certainly enjoyed reading the article on Ivory Crockett (Gold to Ivory, Ashes for Tony, June 3). However, I was dismayed to learn that there are still dissenters in the media on the West Coast who would insinuate that Tennessee clockers could not be trusted. Obviously, these people did not know the facts about this great record dash.
The Knoxville Track Club officials, who serve during most meets at Tennessee's Tom Black Track, have had more than 12 years' experience in clocking track events and are not to be doubted. Furthermore, Ben Plotnicki, the starter of the record run, has been starting track events for 28 years and, indeed, had called a false start on one of Crockett's opponents just prior to the record run. If Crockett had jumped the gun, you can bet Plotnicki would have called it.
Most notable are the recorded times of that run. The three clockers got Ivory in 9.0, 9.0 and 9.1. The electronic timer caught Crockett in 8.94. If anything, the clockers' times may have been a bit slow.
RANDY MOBLEY
Hixson, Tenn.
Sir:
After reading Pat Putnam's fine article on Ivory Crockett and Tony Waldrop, one would have to wonder about the NCAA officials who decided Crockett could not run the 100 meters in 9.6 seconds, so they moved his time up to 9.9, the world record but wind-aided. If he had run 9.6 in the Olympics it would have been a world record. Luckily Bob Beamon did not make his record broad jump in the NCAA championships or the officials would have decided that no one could jump that far.
KEVIN THOMAS
St. Petersburg, Fla.
FLEETING BEAUTY
Sir:
My compliments on your beautiful article Off the Shores of Gitche Gumee (May 27). In an age of industry and little true beauty, Robert H. Boyle has told it like it is. As a onetime resident of Minnesota and admirer of Lake Superior, I can attest to its beauty. The barges on the horizon at night, the early morning fog and the birds are all a part of the lake. I hope that taconite miners can take time out to see the utter beauty they are helping to destroy.
ERIC SHMITT
Kentfield, Calif.
RAINDROPS
Sir:
Re "The Wooing of Walton" (SCORECARD, May 27), how can you talk of the persistent rain of Oregon when Portland's normal annual precipitation is lower than—or at least no higher than—that of Philadelphia, Houston, Miami, Boston or New York? Perhaps it only seems to rain more in Portland because we have not yet paved over all of our grasslands or cut every tree.
LYNN HARMON
Portland, Ore.
CHAMPION TURKEY CALLER
Sir:
Please be informed that I represent Mr. Ben Rogers Lee of Coffeeville, Ala., who is currently the national turkey-calling champion for the United States and who won this title for the second year in a row at Yalesville, Ark. on the second Saturday in October of 1973.
I am writing concerning the article A Real Turkey of a Shoot, which appeared in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED the week of May 27. Said article, written by Dan Levin, portrays Harry Boyer as the current national champion.
It is my understanding that Mr. Boyer has never competed in the national championship, much less won it.
JOHN W. THOMPSON II
Attorney-at-Law
Butler, Ala.
•SI agrees. The title that Mr. Boyer has been credited with is Eastern Open champion, 1973.—ED.
POINTED ARROWS
Sir:
I am offended by your article on the National Intercollegiate Archery Championships (Robin Hood Would Quiver, May 20). Not only do the women archers who participated in the tournament deserve as much recognition as the men, but mention of the facts that intercollegiate archery was founded by women and that the majority of archery coaches are women would have made your article at least a little less biased. One woman makes a joke about arrows with rubber tips, and you make it sound as if no woman can coach archery because "it isn't as simple as baking a cake." Surely you are aware that the winning teams, Arizona State and San Bernardino Valley College, are coached by women. It would be nice if you could pay them their due respect.
DEBORAH KITZINGER
Highland, Calif.
•Arizona State Coach Margaret Klann, co-founder (with SBVC Coach Lorraine Pszczola) of intercollegiate archery, told the joke to emphasize the advancement in archery equipment.—ED.
WHOLELY CONFUSED
Sir:
You reported in FACES IN THE CROWD (June 3) that Tom Crowe has had 13 holes in one. Now that can't be right. He can't get more than one hole in one. Also I rather doubt that he has 13 holes in ones; nor does he have 13 hole in ones. Let's just say he has made a hole in one 13 times. But then it wasn't the same hole. So maybe he has made holes in one 13 times. Or would it have to be holes in ones 13 times?
Please advise me how this should be correctly said. I will need it after just 12 more you-know-whats.
JOE SHERMAN
Clemson, S.C.
COLLEGIATE BOWLING
Sir:
The Worcester Polytechnic Institute bowling team (SCORECARD, June 3) certainly is more than a ragtag outfit. Bowling and other lifetime sports do not get the coverage that the spectator sports do but they are nonetheless growing in popularity among participants on campuses. WPI bowlers had to beat some tough competition to make it to the nationals in Gainesville, Fla. They beat out the U.S. Military Academy in the last match of the season to win our 12-team Tri-State College Bowling Conference title, and then went on to beat Bernard Baruch College to win the Eastern Intercollegiate Bowling Conference team title. They may not have had natty uniforms or recognition from their own school, but they did not lack in class or experience. They are a great credit to the growing sport of collegiate bowling.
DICK BURNS
Secretary
Tri-State League
Springfield, Mass.
STROKING FOR HARVARD
Sir:
Dan Levin's statement (Psych Warfare Out West, May 27) that "no U.S. university has a stronger crew program than Washington, or a more competitive one" may be open to debate. At the Eastern Sprints, Harvard won the varsity heavyweight, the jayvee heavyweight, the varsity lightweight, the jayvee lightweight and the freshman lightweight races. This is in addition to Radcliffe having the national women's champion crew.
If such overwhelming power over substantial competition is not indicative of the nation's strongest crew program, it would be difficult to determine what is.
JAMES W. REINIG
Cambridge, Mass.
DEEP DOWN
Sir:
Bil Gilbert (Journey to the Center of the Earth, May 20) has again shown an extraordinary sensitivity to man's reactions to the awesomeness of unspoiled nature. His thoughts on the curiosity of man and the self-realization gained in facing the profound and accomplishing the arduous capture the essence of caving. Indeed, his article is more perceptive than most of those found in speleological publications.
Without suggesting that Gilbert has been reckless in his writing, certain points about caving need to be emphasized.
Despite the relativity of the concept of "wilderness," caves readily fit under that description and their preservation is threatened by wide-scale, if well-intentioned, promotion. More than any other natural wonder, a cave is a non-renewable resource (within the lifespan of a human) and, for all its stony rigidity, a fragile and unique ecosystem, and there just are not enough caves to go around.
Novices who venture into a cave alone or ill-equipped are taking their lives in their hands. As Gilbert says, caving can be dangerous, confusing, panic-creating, and is always tiring. Consider the plight of the athletic Beth in the article. Caving is not for everybody, nor are all caves for all cavers.
Since Gilbert's article will undoubtedly create more than a few new cavers, allow me to make two suggestions to them: If you've never seen a cave, do. But go first to a commercial or state-run cave for a tour. You may not like the feeling of being enclosed and you'll save wear on wild caves.
If you are still sincerely interested, contact your local Grotto (Chapter) of the National Speleological Society. There you'll find fellowship and expertise and a continuing effort to preserve our underground wilderness. It is against N.S.S. policy to recruit non-cavers, but I fear the recruiting has here been done for us.
WARREN HOEMANN
Boulder, Colo.
GOOD LORD
Sir:
Lord Alexander Hesketh and his comrades—so regally presented to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED readers by the erudite ("Primogeniture produces strange hegiras") Robert F. Jones (Lord in the Pits, May 13)—represent a value system and sporting philosophy of a bygone era which is sadly vanishing from our ultra-commercial, super-professional latter 20th-century technological age. Last autumn, when the Grand Prix circus again visited North America, the ebullient atmosphere permeating the pit of the Hesketh Racing team at Mosport and Watkins Glen was in vivid contrast to the seriousness, uneasiness and solemnity pervading the surrounding pits. The fun, the quest, the grand and glorious adventure of it all brought Don Quixote to mind.
We live in a time when it seems that more sport news is made in the courtroom than on the playing field, where the influx of millions of dollars is required for the very existence of many competitive events (indeed, for the existence of entire sports), where many professional athletes pursue a cornucopia of riches beyond their wildest dreams with much more alacrity than they seek to improve their psyches and physical conditioning. It is most gratifying to discover, in such a time, sportsmen who in their sincere efforts to win still cling to a philosophy which incorporates the spirit of "winning one for the Gipper" or "giving it that old college try."
JOHN A. SCHNEIDER JR.
Bay Village, Ohio
Address editorial mail to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, TIME & LIFE Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020.
