Letters

SPORTSWRITERS ON TV
I always look forward to Rick Telander's articles. It seems the less serious his topic, the better he writes. His piece about The Sportswriters on TV (Not Just Pretty Faces, Feb. 5) was so good I thought I could actually smell the smoke of Bill Gleason's cigars as I read it. Turns out, though, the neighbors were burning brush.
STEVE LAWTON
Santa Cruz, Calif.

I am a law student at Ohio State and found Telander's article to be the perfect antidote for legal brain buzz. The show is great. Telander's writing is great. Unfortunately, my laughter caused the librarian to restrict my reading of Telander to a location away from where one reads Blackstone, Marshall and Learned Hand.
MICHAEL A. SCHROEDER
Columbus, Ohio

I can't tell you how surprised I was to be reading Telander's article and to come across quotes from a column about the show that I wrote more than two years ago in The Fulcrum, the student newspaper at Broome Community College in Binghamton, N.Y. I feel greatly honored. I am currently a senior English major at the University of Texas.
PAUL FIRENZE
Austin, Texas

Ten pages on those buffoons?
TED DAMIECKI
Bridgehampton, N.Y.

SHOEMAKER S GOODBYE
Although I grew up in the shadow of Santa Anita Park, I had never been there until the Oak Tree meet in the winter of 1976. I was home on Christmas break from college that year when one of my school's economics professors telephoned to ask if I would like to earn some money doing marketing research on attendance at the track. Of course I said yes.

One of the pluses about the job was being able to watch the horses being paraded and to see the jockeys take their mounts before each race.

I'll never forget the wry little grin Willie Shoemaker (The Long Goodbye, Feb. 5) always gave the crowds, especially the children, that gathered to watch as he took his mount and slowly moved off to the track to enter the starting gate.

He did as much to win fans for horse racing with his prerace politeness and graciousness as anyone ever did on the track. He will be greatly missed.
STEVEN RAY GARCIA
Alhambra, Calif.

GEORGE PERLES
I have been an avid Michigan State Spartan fan all my life. Like many alumni ('81), I was pleased to read William F. Reed's analysis of football coach George Perles's power play in your Feb. 5 issue (POINT AFTER). The damage done to this fine university will long outlive the short-term benefit of keeping Perles.

With the increasing alumni pressure to win at all costs, it is more important than ever to have checks and balances in collegiate athletic departments. Aren't the trustees aware of the problems other schools have encountered with the NCAA when the coaching and athletic-director duties have been combined? Shouldn't the president have the final say in hiring university personnel? There are many qualified alumni who would jump at the chance to return as athletic director. What will Perles want from the school the next time he is wined and dined by the NFL?
KEVIN G.LEHMAN
Noblesville, Ind.

Reed has a simplistic, one-sided view of Michigan State's decision to make Perles its athletic director. I believe the trustees' decision was correct, because Perles has built a highly respected, clean program with academically oriented priorities. Even though he is well regarded by the NFL, he opted to take the athletic director's job, without a pay increase, in lieu of millions from the New York Jets.

The bad thing about the decision was that university president John DiBiaggio and the trustees hashed out their disagreement in the media, where it became a power struggle. Michigan State should be ashamed, but not because it chose Perles as athletic director.
BOB MILLER
Okemos, Mich.

WHERE S STEPHANIE?
I was disappointed that you had no picture of last year's most beautiful model, Stephanie Seymour, in this year's swimsuit issue (Down by the Seaside, Feb. 12). What a mistake. If there's an explanation, I would like to know it, because I expected Stephanie to be on your cover.
LARRY BOWLING
Pittsburgh

•When the models were being photographed, Stephanie was pregnant with her first child. She and her husband, Tommy Andrews, are now the parents of one-month-old Dillon Thomas.—ED.

PHOTO

CRAIG MOLENHOUSE

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.