19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
NOT QUITTING
Sir:
I was disappointed in the article Look What's Up and About (Sept. 8). Your offhand comment that the University of Dayton is one of three schools that "may yet throw in" can do a lot of harm to the re-vitalization program that is under way. My father, Ken Mosier, and Tom Pyper have spearheaded a local businessmen's committee to promote Dayton football. As a result, season-ticket sales are up 30%, an average of close to 11,000 people have paid to see the first three games (capacity 12,000), enthusiasm is high in the community and UD is anticipating an excellent year.
My father owns an industrial distributorship. Tom Pyper owns a beer and wine distributorship. Neither man is a UD graduate. Their only reward for devoting a lot of time and money to promote UD football is a continuing program.
K. C. MOSIER II
Dayton
Sir:
As the new athletic director at Boston University, I would like to update you relative to our football policy.
The Yankee Conference, of which BU is a member, has requested that all its teams be upgraded to NCAA Division I status. BU heartily endorsed this decision.
BU has now completed a $150,000 stadium renovation project. BU also has instituted a student activity policy whereby all full-time students have received an activity book enabling them to attend, without cost, all home athletic contests. Prior to this, students were charged for each game they attended. And we have upgraded our 1975 schedule to 11 games and added an intersectional contest with the University of Louisville for 1976.
As a former BU athlete, class of 1950, I saw enough evidence of a total commitment to football and athletics in general to encourage me to apply for and accept the post of athletic director. I can report to you in all honesty that the Boston University football situation is healthy.
JOHN B. SIMPSON
Boston
RISKS AND REWARDS
Sir:
As a former Yale football player who two years ago suffered a crippling knee injury that I have never fully recovered from, I was deeply moved by John M. Barry's article (It's All a Part of the Game, Oct. 6). Injuries, unfortunately, are a part of the game, but this in no way excuses cold indifference on the part of coaches toward injured players. I am grateful that I chose to attend an Ivy League school where I was treated as a person first and a player second. And I am proud that I played under a coaching staff (Carm Cozza et al.) that was concerned enough to visit me daily while I was in the hospital and that was interested in my welfare long after it was known that I would never play again.
STEVE WOODSUM
New Haven, Conn.
Sir:
I have never been so affected by an article. I went down as a junior in high school with what was diagnosed as a severely pinched nerve. After a brief rest, I returned and finished the game. With my nerve still bothering me, I later had X rays taken and discovered that I had risked serious injury (possibly paralysis) by playing with a crushed disk in my neck.
Now in my senior year in high school, I have been debating playing again, but your article made me realize it couldn't possibly be worth it.
BRAD A. MATTER
Lakewood, Calif.
Sir:
I am a mother of five boys who is opposed to contact sports. The article came in very handy. Being a football hero is still the big deal in our schools. I look forward to the day when our educational system pours financial support into lifetime sports such as golf, tennis, track and swimming, which benefit youth and promote good sportsmanship much better than team sports.
CONSTANCE LYNCH
Haverhill, Mass.
Sir:
I played two years of club football (the club folded in my senior year) at Queens College, Flushing, N.Y., and most of the team played injured. The reason was not a lack of conditioning but a lack of players. Half the squad did not leave the field. But the questions remain: Why did we play, and why did we play hurt? The answers are that we loved the game and fully understood the chances we took. Where else could students at a commuter school like ours gain the same sense of brotherhood and the feeling of helping one another? We received a lot of lumps, but to us it was worth it. It also was a lot of fun.
GEORGE J. CICHY
Brooklyn
WATKINS GLEN
Sir:
Folks down here Schuyler County way shore do owe Mr. Robert F. Jones one heap o' gratitude (A Mix of Cool and Cornpone, Oct. 6). Thanks to him, all us farm folk are now educated; had to spend the whole Granpree weekend leafin' through the pages of Mr. Webster's tome.
We now know, and it's as clear as the aroma from the chicken barn on a hot, wet morning, that this here Mr. Jones is the epitome of one intoxicated with the exuberance of his own verbosity. Yessirree, Bob!
Incidentally, the rain didn't hurt the rhubarb. It's already been canned.
ALBERT D. RONDINARO
JACQUELINE P. RONDINARO
Watkins Glen
Sir:
I don't know how many U.S. Grand Prix races Robert Jones or Arnold Roth have been to, but they sure captured the mood. The article was one of the most enlightening and truthful about Watkins Glen that I have ever read. Also, being from the area, I would like to advise Mr. Jones to watch his driving far more closely in Millport than in Horse-heads.
JIM LAZENBY
Horseheads, N.Y.
BELIEVE
Sir:
As a Tennessee alumnus and longtime football follower, I was offended that you would use a phrase like "believe it or not" in conjunction with the Vols' achievement as the winningest football team in the last 50 years (SCORECARD, Oct. 6). Most football fans are aware that General Robert Neyland built one of the best records of any college coach during a career that spanned four decades in Knoxville. I would add that in the last 10 years the Vols have finished in the Top 10 more times than not.
RANDY MOBLEY
New Orleans
Sir:
The Vols are a very consistent team. What caused disbelief on my part was SI's failure to rank them in the preseason Top 20.
EDWARD C. GEORGE
Nashville
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