19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

UPS AND DOWNS
Sir:
Michigan is No. 1 (College Football 1976, Sept. 6). Thanks, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. We needed that!
KEVIN P. BENNETT
Kalamazoo, Mich.

Sir:
Michigan? The Wolverines have enough trouble trying to beat Ohio State and win the Big Ten. Now you have them winning the national championship. Come on!
DAVID FORSYTH
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Sir:
Just raise Nebraska three notches and add Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma State for a complete Top 20.
DAVID THOMAN
Blue Springs, Neb.

Sir:
I was thoroughly shocked that you failed to rank the UCLA Bruins.
KEVIN CRAMER
Van Nuys, Calif.

Sir:
Alabama wouldn't be second in the Big Eight.
JIM CAZIER
Onaga, Kans.

Sir:
Thank you for recognizing the University of Maryland, which has a fine football team and a great overall athletic program.
ROBERT J. MURPHY
Germantown, Md.

Sir:
Maryland ahead of Penn State and Pitt?
NEAL S. SCHIFF
Alexandria, Va.

Sir:
You stated that, except for Maryland, "ACC football is still out in the cold." North Carolina surprised your 17th-rated Miami of Ohio 14-10.
JOHN P. SHEEHAN
Scott AFB, Ill.

Sir:
Notre Dame could field its best interhall team, play without coaches and go back to the one-platoon system and still have a better team than Miami of Ohio.
GREGORY T. EINBODEN
Bexley, Ohio

Sir:
You said Memphis State hopes to upset Mississippi and Tennessee but "don't bet on it." Memphis State 21, Mississippi 16.
BARRY STAFFORD
Memphis

LINGERING MELODIES
Sir:
The article on college marching songs (Sing a Song for Alma Mater, Sept. 6) gave me a bang. Nothing can touch the Washington and Lee Swing on the dance floor, and nothing can touch The Victors anywhere.
GEORGE B. JOHNSON
Buffalo, Wyo.

Sir:
Robert Cantwell credits Caleb O'Connor with writing the Yale football song Down the Field. I was a freshman at Yale when the song was introduced at a mass meeting, and I never heard of Caleb O'Connor. The composer of Down the Field was Stanleigh P. Friedman.
CLIFFORD H. BISSELL
Berkeley, Calif.

•Friedman (Yale, Class of 1905), who went on to become a lawyer and a vice-president and director of Warner Bros., wrote the music in June 1904. O'Connor (then a student at Yale Law School) wrote the words in the fall of 1905.—ED.

Sir:
It is unconscionable that Robert Cantwell could "sing a song for Alma Mater" and not include either one of the greatest college tunes in America, The Spirit of Aggieland and The Aggie War Hymn. The latter was composed by J. V. (Pinky) Wilson while he was standing guard on the Rhine as a member of the American Expeditionary Force after World War I. The songs are so popular they are played by high school bands all around the country.
DAN B. GRIMLAND
Carmel, Ind.

FERTIG'S RECORD
Sir:
As usual, SI's college football issue (Sept. 6) was an informative and colorful package, especially John Underwood's article New Boys on the Block. However, we at The Way It Was television show would like to set the record straight regarding former USC great and new Oregon State Coach Craig Fertig. He was not the man who quarterbacked USC to a national championship in 1962 and he never played in a Rose Bowl game, much less "starred" in one. Craig was a sophomore that year and was learning the ropes from Pete Beathard and Bill Nelsen.

In 1964, Craig's only full season as a starting quarterback, USC had to beat undefeated and No. 1-ranked Notre Dame to finish with a 7-3 record and a tie for the conference championship. The Trojans accomplished this feat in one of college football's greatest upsets (a game featured on an upcoming The Way It Was episode) but the Athletic Association of Western Universities selected the other team to go to the Rose Bowl, and Craig had to watch the Pasadena classic on television. The other AAWU team, incidentally, was Oregon State.
GARY BROWN
Producer
The Way It Was
Hollywood

KICKS AND CROATS
Sir:
The article on the North American Soccer League's championship game (Minnesota Had to Eat Croat Meal, Sept. 6) indicated that "the league brass was hoping for a win by the Kicks" and that there was an anti-Croatian and/or anti-Canadian feeling among league officials.

I assure you there is no such feeling.

The league was not at all embarrassed by the appearance of a fine Toronto team. The league and all its member clubs were justifiably proud of the accomplishments of Minnesota in its first year, but were not necessarily hoping for a Kicks win. We were hoping only for an exciting game to end soccer's most successful season in North America, and we most certainly got it.
PHIL WOOSNAM
Commissioner
North American Soccer League
New York City

TEED OFF
Sir:
In regard to the article on Dick Siderowf (A Plain Man's Fancy, Aug. 30), I was appalled at the reference to Mr. Siderowf's "running feud with the greenskeeper about the patchy condition of the practice tee." I would like to make it clear to Mr. Siderowf that greenskeepers are now known as golf course superintendents. They are educated professionals in their field who provide quality turf for better golf for players both professional and amateur such as Mr. Siderowf.

Furthermore, I would like to add that the "patchy condition of the practice tee" would no longer exist if Mr. Siderowf would replace his divots.
EDWARD CONSOLATI
Golf Course Superintendent
Birchwood Country Club
Westport, Conn.

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