19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
THE EARLY ALI
Sir:
As a free-lance photographer, I applaud Michael Brennan's Ali and His Educators (Sept. 22). The photographs are compelling postscripts to the careers of these obscure men. The shot of Sonny Liston's grave humanizes an unfortunate soul more than any portrait of his baleful glare ever did. Brennan has done some knockout work.
RICHARD S. GOLOMB
Pittsburgh
Sir:
Michael Brennan's photos and text on Ali constitute one of the most visually stunning and emotionally moving pieces I have ever seen in SI. It's really all anyone needs to know about American boxing. Superb, and sad.
RON SULLIVAN
Tewksbury, Mass.
Sir:
How come you show Sonny Liston's gravestone with the dates 1932-1970, yet on the next page report that he died on Jan. 5, 1971?
TOM PACE
Cincinnati
•Liston's body was found in his Las Vegas home on Jan. 5, 1971, which is thus the official date of his death. The coroner estimated, however, that he had actually died as much as a week earlier, hence the tombstone date.—ED.
JUST FOR KICKS
Sir:
You have made an error in your FOOTBALL'S WEEK column of Sept. 22. Ali Haji-Sheikh does not place-kick for the University of Oklahoma. I attend the University of Michigan, so I'm afraid I didn't tie the score with Kentucky after Sooner Chet Winter's TD run.
ALI HAJI-SHEIKH
Ann Arbor, Mich.
•Haji-Sheikh did, however, kick a field goal and two PATs in the Wolverines' 17-10 win over Northwestern the same afternoon.—ED.
WRONG USC?
Sir:
As an avid Gamecock fan, I appreciate the article about our Heisman candidate, George Washington Rogers (Oh, No, Here He Comes Again. Sept. 22). In South Carolina, we're just as proud of Big George as Ohioans are of Art Schlichter. Rogers is a hero of everyone in this state.
Against Southern Cal, Rogers gained 141 yards on 26 carries. I heard someone say that if Rogers played for that USC (University of Southern California), instead of the other USC (University of South Carolina), he would win the Heisman by a landslide. The Heisman should be given for talent and achievement, not for whom you play for. The dude from Duluth, Ga. deserves it.
CURTIS CAMERON JR.
Lancaster, S.C.
QUESTION OF EMPHASIS
Sir:
In regard to the item about me in your SCORECARD column of Sept. 15: I did not quit my soccer coaching position at Davidson—I was simply not rehired. I certainly would never quit coaching at an institution because of its emphasis on academics.
KARL K. KREMSER
Miami
HOLD ON THERE
Sir:
If anyone wonders what a really good holding job by an offensive lineman looks like, he need only glance at the picture of Ohio State's No. 78, Ron Barwig, on page 22 of the Sept. 22 issue. Could this be the reason the hole over left guard for Ricky Johnson is so big?
LAYNE NEWMAN
Dallas
LET GEORGE DO IT
Sir:
One of the continuing enigmas in the world of pro football is how chronic losers like Bart Starr (Thanks, Bart Needed That! Sept. 15) can "coach" for years on end while one of the most consistent winners in the history of football and a coach who has never had a losing season. George Allen, is apparently blackballed from the NFL. It seems some of the league's owners don't want a winner. What a shame!
DON CHUY
San Francisco
WAHOOS, ETC. (CONT.)
Sir:
In his article on the University of Virginia (It's V-I-R-G-I-N-I-A-A-A-A!, Sept. 15), Frank Deford leaves out the most important part of Stonewall Jackson's full title as a professor at Virginia Military Institute. It is true, as Deford states, that Jackson taught philosophy, but his actual title was "Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Artillery Tactics."
Deford appears to take with a grain of salt the belief of Virginians that only the death of Jackson prevented Lee's army from being in Albany. N.Y. "next Tuesday." Heck, if Lee had had Jackson, who was something like 28-0-1 against the North (figuring a draw at Antietam), he'd have been in Albany by next Monday.
LANDON MANNING
Saratoga Springs. N.Y.
Sir:
Frank Deford cited an article in Playboy magazine that ranked the top party schools in the country. Apparently Deford confused the University of Virginia with West Virginia University. It was WVU that was rated in a class by itself by Playboy, not the University of Virginia.
NINTH FLOOR
Summit Hall
West Virginia University
Morgantown, W. Va.
•Both Deford and the Ninth Floor have apparently been taken in by the pervasive and enduring myth that, at some time in the past. Playboy published a ranking of the best party schools. There is no such list, says Playboy, which fields dozens of inquiries a year on the subject, and never has been.—ED.
LIONS ROARING
Sir:
I would like to thank you for your excellent article about Detroit Running Back Billy Sims (Revved Up and Running, Sept. 22). Detroit is for real. The Lions have three major ingredients this season that were painfully missing last year: a great running back in Sims, a superb field-goal kicker in Ed Murray (who booted a 52-yarder against L.A.) and an outstanding quarterback in Gary Danielson. I am convinced there is no team in the NFC that can challenge them. Detroit fans finally have a team they deserve.
TIM WRIGHT
Kankakee, Ill.
THE ROCKAWAY WAY
Sir:
Michael Crosby's vivid account of Rock-away-style basketball in the '40s and '50s (NOSTALGIA. Sept. 8) made me recall my days on the courts of 108th Street in New York's Rockaway Beach, waiting with other hapless challengers for a chance to play against the best. We knew we hadn't a prayer of making it to the big leagues, but to be able to say that you were faked out by a Bob Cousy or a Dick McGuire.... Thanks for the memory!
KEN LIVINGSTON
Lieut. Commander, USN (ret.)
Port Townsend, Wash.
Sir:
I grew up in the Rockaways and spent a lot of time on the basketball courts of Rock-away Beach. The pickup games Michael Crosby reminisced about sound familiar, except that the games I watched took place in the mid-'60s, at a time when Crosby claims the games had petered out. I vividly recall giving up courts in 1966-68 to guys who rode the subway down from the city (Manhattan). Included in those groups were a young man named Lew Alcindor, another named Dean Meminger, and the likes of Kevin Joyce, John Roche and Tom Owens.
Although urban renewal may have physically changed the Rockaway Beach Al and Dick McGuire knew, the Rockaway way of life has not ended. The basketball may be faster and the players of a different style, but the spirit lives on.
TOM MORRISON
Tampa
STICKING UP FOR STRONG MEN
Sir:
I disagree with your labeling of the CBS World's Strongest Men competition as "trashsport" (TV/RADIO, Sept. 8). You do a disservice to the athletes and to fans of strength sports. The World's Strongest Men competition allows performers from diverse sports—weightlifting, powerlifting, football, bodybuilding, wrestling, track and field—to compete on an equal footing. The use of such a common object as a refrigerator or an automobile, which could normally only be lifted by three or four men, tends to sharpen the viewer's appreciation of the competitor's effort. The events draw on the rich heritage of the strong man in the circus and vaudeville, men like Sandow and Saxon, who lifted cannons and pianos and bent steel bars.
The competition is simple, intense and entertaining. There are no player strikes, salary holdouts or intrusive owners. The impressionable young athlete will never see these men high-sticked, sucker-punched or beaned by an opponent. Though athletes from Communist countries, most noticeably Verily Alekseyev, do not compete, the event is international. SI should find a writer who appreciates displays of great strength and send him to watch the World's Strongest Men competition. I'm sure then you would drop the trashsport label for good.
ED MILLER
Raleigh, N.C.
PHOTO
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