Letters

THE FIGHT
The recent heavyweight fiasco (He Got Up and..., Feb. 19) is yet another testimonial to the ruination of pro boxing, courtesy of Don King. In his attempt to control the heavyweight division, King has provided Mike Tyson with trainers unfit to train a club fighter, much less the heavyweight champion. To be a winner again, Tyson needs Kevin Rooney, who had trained him since he was 14.

It hurt me to see the world's best fighter on his back, and I was outraged to see King smiling and jockeying for a position next to the new champ, Buster Douglas, after the bout. Then came the ridiculous long-count business. Boxing needs to get rid of backstabbing manipulators like King before he destroys more careers.
DAN POWDERLY
Jericho, N. Y.

What if the events of the fight were reversed, and Tyson had gone down in the eighth round instead of Douglas and had then gone on to win in the 10th? Would King, in his great concern for accuracy and fair play, have made sure that the WBC, WBA and IBF were aware that Tyson had gotten a long count and therefore should have lost the fight and the title? I didn't hear that question asked during the postfight news conferences.
BOB H. BROWN
Cincinnati

Buster Douglas knock out Mike Tyson? Yeah, sure, when Nelson Mandela is freed and the Soviet Union abolishes one-party rule.
RANDY EARLEY
Naperville, Ill.

101 POINTS
As a junior high and high school coach for the past 21 years, I found your article on Lisa Leslie's 101 points in a basketball game (She Was Truckin', Feb. 19) incomprehensible. It never ceases to amaze me how you glorify such feats. If this is what American high school sports is all about, we are all in serious trouble.

What I find even more difficult to understand is Miss Leslie's callousness. What possible satisfaction can she derive from doing what she did against a group of defenseless, overmatched opponents? She even went so far as to ask South Torrance coach Gilbert Ramirez to continue the game so she could score more points.

Ramirez should have been commended, not suspended. I would have pulled my team after the first period or as soon as it was obvious what Lisa Leslie's team was doing. Players should not have to be exposed to such an obvious effort to humiliate them.
PAUL J. FORTE
Bishop Kearney Girls' Basketball
Rochester, N. Y.

Lisa Leslie might be a fine basketball player and student, but her coach, Frank Scott, is an embarrassment. There is no excuse for running up the score against a weaker team just for the glorification of a single athlete. What is even more disturbing is that California State Senator Diane Watson would further humiliate the South Torrance players by saying that the team was "so in fear, it had to leave." It is unfortunate that basic team sportsmanship has been forgotten by the people who should be promoting it.
KENNETH P. WALTON
Cockeysville, Md.

NOTRE DAME AND TV
From all the anguished cries we're hearing about Notre Dame's TV contract with NBC (We're Notre Dame—and You 're Not, Feb. 19), one would think a corporate raider had just taken over college football and was tucking away the profits in a Swiss bank account. One year of tuition, room and board at Notre Dame is nearly $15,000. Without significant funding for scholarship programs, the school will not attract a diverse student body. If this be greed, so be it. But it's not money to build a better athletic program; it's money to build a better university.
T. DAVID MCGOVERN
Spring Valley, Ohio

Until all College Football Association schools can equal Notre Dame's near-perfect graduation rate and spotless athletic programs, arguments about fairness on or off the field are invalid.
CHRISTOPHER BURNS
San Diego

I've been a proud Notre Dame fan for a long time. The Irish's emphasis on academics, sportsmanship and teamwork always seemed to place Notre Dame in a class by itself. When Notre Dame won, I felt it was a win for all college athletics. Unfortunately, the new leadership relinquished its integrity and sacrificed a once-proud tradition with the defection to NBC.
FRAN SIMCIC
Vernon, Conn.

KID DYNAMITE
Isn't it ironic that the only man ever to defeat Kid Dynamite (your nickname for Mike Tyson on his first SI cover, Jan. 6, 1986), is Dynamite's kid, i.e., Buster Douglas, the son of Bill (Dynamite) Douglas? Is this a new type of cover jinx?
JOHN LENHART
Midland, Mich.

PHOTO

MANNY MILLAN

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