Letters
The Chief
Thank you for Alexander Wolff's excellent cover story about Boston Celtics center Robert Parish (Still Going Strong, March 11). In his 10-plus seasons with the Celtics, the Chief has been the team's heart and soul for one simple reason: Night in and night out he gives 100%. In an age of free-agent crybabies, underachieving enigmas and self-centered stat watchers, Parish is the consummate professional. Not only is there space in the Hall of Fame for him and a rafter in the Boston Garden for his retired jersey, but there also is a spot in the heart of every Celtics fan for No. 00.
DAVE DEL VAL
Huntington Beach, Calif.
Williams, Yastrzemski, Rice; Russell, Cowens, Parish. How lucky can a city be?
CHUCK HURST
Dedham, Mass.
Tony Gwynn
I may be in the minority in today's win-at-any-cost atmosphere, but as a true baseball fan, I'll take a fifth-place Padres team that supports a gracious champion like Tony Gwynn (Beginning Again, March 11) over a first-place team infested with over-paid, loud-mouthed jerks like Jack Clark.
BROOKE C. ASBELL
San Diego
If Clark thinks Gwynn is selfish, what will he think of his current three teammates, Me, Myself and Wade Boggs?
CHRIS CHRISTAKOS
Methuen, Mass.
How many teams has Clark played for? As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I fear that his antics will bring another season of woe. If he hasn't learned anything from Tim Kurkjian's article in SI, I hope he'll make a contender out of a Japanese team in '92.
BEN DAWSON
Lexington, Va.
Middle Child
I thought the cover story by Austin Murphy about my son Brett Hull was outstanding (Shooting Star, March 18), but there is one fact that needs to be corrected. Murphy says that Brett is the youngest of the Hall of Famer's three sons, when in fact he is the middle child of a family of five, four boys and a girl. By the way, Brett's younger brother, Bart, was drafted in February by the Canadian Football League. A running back at Boise State, he was the first choice of the British Columbia Lions.
JOANNE HULL ROBINSON
Blaine, Wash.
The Wirtz family, which owns the Black-hawks, also owns the First Security Bank in Elmwood Park, Ill., where I grew up in the '60s. Blackhawk teams of that era made an appearance at the bank each year to sign autographs, an event we kids eagerly anticipated. Every fan who showed up (and we were lined up around the block) received a yearbook complete with stats, pictures and the life story of each Blackhawk. We would then file past the players, talk to them and get their autographs on their pages in the yearbooks.
Brett Hull, age four or so, and his brothers were always there with their father, Bobby, on autograph night. We all thought, Wow! Wouldn't it be neat to be Bobby Hull's son! I'm glad for Brett that he realized that concentrating on being Brett and not on being Bobby's son was the best thing he could do for himself. Had we known how Brett's life would turn out, we probably would have asked him for his autograph, too.
TIM STARE
Evanston, Ill.
While reading your article about Brett Hull, I was surprised to see a mention of my marriage proposal to my girlfriend Mina that I had flashed across the scoreboard during the Blues-Flyers game on March 2. The entire night at the Philadelphia Spectrum as well as the clipping from your magazine will give us both many happy memories. Incidentally, despite the "raucous chants of 'No! No! No!' " she said, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
FRANK B. SOMMERER
Seaside Park, N.J.
The First
Even though I am proud that Reggie Williams and Michael Huyghue were named general managers in the World League of American Football (Out of This World, March 4), you are wrong in saying that they are the first black general managers in pro football. I am the first. I was the general manager of the USFL Houston Gamblers, a team I helped start, and I later became G.M. of the New Jersey Generals. Incidentally, the Gamblers won their division in their first year.
GENE H. BURROUGH
Houston
Classic Matchup
It was great to see Robert Parish finally acknowledged (Still Going Strong, March 11), but we were deprived of a picture of the Chief going at it with his greatest rival, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. We have heard a lot about the Larry vs. Magic matchup, but the two centers had their moments, too. May we have a picture of Robert and Kareem in action?
PETER T. KELLY
Milton, Mass.
•Here they are in the 1985 NBA championship series.—ED.
PHOTO
ANDY HAYT
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.