LETTERS

MINNESOTA'S VICTORY

That was a fantastic article on the World Series by Steve Wulf (Sweet Music, Nov. 2). I've read it twice and will undoubtedly read it again.

Many of us in Minnesota are still having trouble believing that this victory really happened to us and our Twins. No matter how many other championships we win in the future, none will ever be like this one. The odds were stacked so high against us.

I'll save this copy of SI, along with my Homer Hanky, my Game 6 ticket stub, my World Series button and my championship T-shirt. Thirty years from now I'll take them out and show them to my grandchildren.
DOUG THOMSEN
St. Cloud, Minn.

Three Twins covers in a row (Oct. 19, Oct. 26 and Nov. 2)? Unbelievable! I'm sure all Twins fans are especially savoring your Nov. 2 one billed THE CHAMPS! You've brought us full circle since a previous Twins cover billed BEST OF THE WORST (July 5, 1982) celebrating "Rookie Sensation Kent Hrbek of the Terrible Twins." How sweet it is!
ED fIX
West Fargo, N.Dak.

How many teams have been featured on three consecutive SI covers?
ALAN STORROW
Fort Thomas, Ky.

•Four. Before Minnesota, the last one was the 1986 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears (Jan. 20, Jan. 27 and Feb. 3, 1986). Two other Super Bowl contenders, the '85 runner-up Miami Dolphins (Jan. 14, 21 and 28, 1985) and the '82 champion San Francisco 49ers (Jan. 18, Jan. 25 and Feb. 1, 1982) also scored the hat trick.—ED.

CINCYS EXPERIMENT

Amen! As a professional physical educator, I could not have been more elated over your article on the Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education (The CAPE of Good Hopes, Oct. 26). The unprecedented success of this academy does not surprise me, however, because for years our profession has preached the benefits of the whole-child concept. Regular physical activity improves health, fitness and mental alertness and is a vital dimension in the lives of children as well as adults. Business and industry recently have discovered this fact; many companies now have physical fitness programs, and healthier, happier and more productive employees are the result. Is it really any wonder that it works with schoolchildren too?

It's time for school boards around the nation to wake up. Physical education is not a frill. It is a discipline in its own right that can significantly elevate the level at which all people operate.
NORRIS M. RUSSELL, PH.D.
Chair, Division of Health, Physical
Education and Recreation
Oklahoma Baptist University
Shawnee, Okla.

For too long, those of us in Ohio who follow high school sports had known little about the Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education except for its name and its impressive record in interscholastic football. Our lack of information led us to believe that CAPE was the jock tech rival coaches spoke of. Thank you for enlightening us. In an era when overemphasis on high school and college athletics is the norm, it is good to learn that an academy geared toward physical development can also have a strong academic curriculum and uphold high standards of academic eligibility for its athletes. I think the fact that similar
academies are being founded in other cities speaks for itself.
DAVID M. SOBECKI
Bowling Green, Ohio

SPORTSMAN
A suggestion for Sports Illustrated's 1987 Sportsmen of the Year: the Minnesota Twins! Who else?
BILL CAVANAGH
Wayzata, Minn.

How about Jeffrey Leonard for Sportsman of the Year? He brought challenge, excitement and fun to the National League championships, and he backed it all up with his glove and bat. Isn't that what it's all about?
ALAN R. EAGLE JR.
Philadelphia

I suggest Jimmy Connors, the old man of the tennis courts who is still doing himself proud. He may not be a big winner anymore, but he's still in there scrapping with the best and giving the fans more than their money's worth.
MICHAEL B. WALL
Bonn

Speak now or forever wish you had. Martina Navratilova is the Sportswoman of the Year. Who else has done more in this decade?
STEFAN G. WALTERS
Alexandria, Va.

What a novel idea, putting the Sportswoman of the Year on the cover of your Sept. 14 issue. With her Pan American Games and World Championship performances, Jackie Joyner-Kersee merits such advanced recognition.
FRANK GOODE
Fort Worth

Ben Johnson is the 1987 Sportsman of the Year.
PHILIP ANDREWS
Sudbury, Ont.

Recent events in the sporting world have made the choice for 1987's Sportsmen and Sportswomen of the Year an obvious one. In a year that has given us millionaire football players on strike and major league baseball players using cork and sandpaper on bats and balls, one group of individuals has personified the honorable and admirable aspects of sport: the Special Olympians (They Came Up Roses, Aug. 17).
BILL BARKER
Chicago

ROBINSON AND PAL

I read Kenny Moore's article on John Robinson (Double Dip for Daly City, Oct. 26) with great interest. Robbie and I served together as assistant football coaches at Oregon from 1968 through '71. As John said, his days at Oregon were very special, for all of us.

It should be noted that Robbie had a flair for winning even as a freshman coach at Oregon. In the fall of 1960 he guided a squad of fledglings to Oregon's last undefeated freshman season. That team included two eventual All-Americas, Bob Berry and Mel Renfro.

I am also proud that I was Robbie's first recruit. He has been a positive factor in my life ever since.
RONALD J. STRATTEN
President and C.O.O.
The Pace Center for Career Development
San Diego

I noted a glaring omission in your story on John Robinson and his boyhood chum, John Madden. Madden played football, baseball and basketball at Jefferson Union High in Daly City, Calif. He may not have been so graceful, but he played a mean game.
LOU SHEHI
Jefferson '54
San Rafael, Calif.

•Here's starting center Madden as depicted in the 1954 Jefferson Union High yearbook.—ED.

PHOTO

COURTESY JEFFERSON UNION HIGH SCHOOL

Letters to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and should be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020-1393.