19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

MAULE'S ALLTIME PICKS
Sir:
As an avid fan of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, I hate to see Tex Maule retire from your stall (Oh, That 200-Yard Run! Sept. 1). Reading his articles during the football season has been a great pastime. I will miss his insight into the game.
MARK LAVENGOOD
Grand Rapids

Sir:
The only pleasant aspect of Tex Maule's retirement is that we no longer will have to suffer through his annual prediction that the Dallas Cowboys will win the NFC title and pulverize some helpless AFC opponent in the Super Bowl. Enjoy retirement, Tex, but pick a new team.
RICK D. SMITH
Eureka, Kans.

Sir:
Tex put it the only way it can be said, "The best running back who ever lived was Jim Brown."
ED DEMAIN
Maumee, Ohio

Sir:
If Jim Brown ran, Gale Sayers flowed. If Brown powered through a string of potential tacklers, Sayers leaped over them. If statistics are what Tex Maule based his selections on, then perhaps Jim Brown could be classified as the best runner ever. However, if one is to consider performance, Sayers is No. 1. He was an artist who painted pictures on the field.
JONATHAN QUINN
Acton, Mass.

Sir:
As usual, Sonny Jurgensen's outstanding career has gone unnoticed. Tex Maule is certainly qualified to speculate on who were the best football players, but how he could have left Sonny off the list of quarterbacks, Ell never know. Jurgensen's passing and play calling were remarkable throughout his career.
MARK R. GRAVES
Accokeek, Md.

Sir:
I can find no fault with the sentiments expressed by Tex Maule. As a linebacker on the 1951 New York Yanks of the NFL I do, however, think an important point was overlooked. The average 1950 graduate could anticipate greater earnings in non-athletic pursuits than in sports. This is no longer the case. With the high potential earnings in athletics, a much higher percentage of graduates is now anxious to go into the pros.

Maybe today's 1,536 NFL players are in it for the money, but I feel the quality of their performance is equal to, or higher than, that of the 416 players of 1950 who, for the most part, were playing because they loved the game, selectivity notwithstanding.
JIM CULLOM
Piedmont, Calif.

RED RAIDER OUTLOOK
Sir:
How could you leave Texas Tech out of your Southwest Conference scouting report (Sept. 8)? The Red Raiders upset Texas last year and went on to the Peach Bowl.
HARVEY NATHAN
Lubbock, Texas

•Not only that, new Head Coach Steve Sloan has junior Quarterback Tommy Duniven healthy again after a midseason back injury in '74. Tech could be tough. Sorry.—ED.

POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
Sir:
I was extremely pleased to read Robert H. Boyle's article (Poisoned Fish, Troubled Waters, Sept. 1). Though the PCB problem has been the subject of nationwide hearings by the Environmental Protection Agency, it has yet to receive the public attention needed to eventually force a solution. Boyle's article will, I hope, begin the process.

Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources held hearings on Aug. 28 and 29 to discuss proposals to set effluent standards for PCBs. At the hearings I warned that considering effluent standards was only the first step in stopping PCB leakage into the environment. To effectively limit further PCB discharges, the multitude of PCB uses must be carefully examined, and where they exist, less toxic substitutes must be employed. In addition, essential uses of PCBs in transformers and capacitors should be critically reviewed to determine whether or not the PCBs are irreplaceable.

The PCB problem is symptomatic of all environmental problems. We are again trying to deal with ecological contamination and potential health hazards with hindsight, not foresight. Hundreds of new chemicals go on the market each year with little pretesting for possible adverse effects on the environment or human health. Only when adverse effects are documented, as with PCBs, are corrective steps considered. Toxic-substances-control legislation currently before Congress would require testing and screening of chemicals before they reach the marketplace. We must provide government with the tools of a Toxic Substances Control Act so that in the future we can act with foresight.
MARTIN J. SCHREIBER
Lieutenant Governor
State of Wisconsin
Madison, Wis.

Sir:
Thank you for the sparkling Sept. 1 issue featuring shotputter Brian Oldfield on the cover and hammer thrower Robert H. Boyle as the lead author. Boyle's sledges, always dead on target against marauders of our environment, have become classic rallying points nationwide for defenders of ecological sanity.

As an ecological scientist, I share with my colleagues across the nation the frustrations that Boyle so well reports. No one is really listening, yet the data have the roar of a million Niagaras. Several of Boyle's pieces have resulted in remedial action being taken on issues ecologists had flailed away at to no avail. I deeply hope that Poisoned Fish, Troubled Waters flows into this category. The U.S. Bureau of Outdoor Recreation recently reported that fishing is the nation's No. 1 sport. One hopes it has a future.

In 1969 a nearby manufacturer of environmental monitoring equipment ran a prophetic full-page advertisement in the technical journals. It showed a very dead floating fish and was boldly captioned TODAY THE FISH. TOMORROW.... It really said it all in four words. Only tomorrow was a lot of yesterdays ago. We still thoroughly lack any real commitment toward maintaining environmental quality in this country, from the very top on down. And for this lack we shall pay most dearly.
DOMINICK J. PIRONE, PH.D.
Director
Environmental Studies Program
Manhattan College
Riverdale, N.Y.

THE OLDFIELD IMAGE
Sir:
I am not much on writing letters, but this is one time I can't resist. While my sisters were thumbing through your magazine their attention was brought to the title page of the article about Brian Oldfield (Coming on Strong, Sept. 1). Upon reading Oldfield's statement about God's intentions, one sister replied, "If I looked like him, I'd kill myself." Sorry, Brian.
KEVIN SCUDDER
Omaha

Sir:
Who does Brian Oldfield think he is? Who does he think God is?
ED LANCE
Spencer, W. Va.

Sir:
Vanity is surely present in the Brian Oldfield model of man.
ROBERT J. ROMANO
Buffalo

Sir:
You should have put Oldfield's ego on the cover.
DONALD PALMERINE
Pittsburgh

Sir:
It's about time somebody recognized the greatest shotputter the world has ever known. Having witnessed Brian Oldfield's record-breaking 75-foot put last May, I feel that only Bob Beamon's 29'2½" long jump in the 1968 Olympics tops it in the history of track and field. However, when Brian "eternalizes" the world record in the shot at somewhere around 90 feet, which could happen as early as next year, Beamon's accomplishment will rank second.
MICHAEL C. BRAND
El Paso

TUNA TALES
Sir:
Pardon my delay in responding to George Packard's Article (There's Only One Kind of Fishing, Aug. 18), but I was away on a bluefin-tuna fishing trip. Captain Arno Rogers and I were fishing out of Boothbay Harbor, Maine aboard his Gertrude R when I hooked up with a 730-pounder about 14 miles out in the Atlantic. Five hours and 15 minutes later I had my tuna and quite a fish story. Thanks to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and George Packard for an equally good fish story. I understand it all too well.
SONNY LUDLAM
Fredericksburg, Va.

Sir:
Of all the sports I have ever participated in (skiing, motorcycle racing, etc.) bluefin-tuna fishing is by far the most exciting.
R. T. LAW
Coronado, Calif.

Address editorial mail to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, TIME & LIFE Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020.