19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

What's more, they are as popular as they are valuable. Every time Angotti scores the stadium goes into delirium. My hat is off to Lou Angotti and Ken Hodge , supersubs on a superteam.
SCOTT GRAUNKE
Lyons, Ill.

TRIO OF HEROES
Sirs:
Your article on Dave Patrick (First Blood of a Classic Duel, March 20) was an extremely bad, one-sided article. First of all, I don't see how Gwilym S. Brown can call Patrick the true hero of the 1967 NCAA indoor track championships. It took as much courage for Jim Ryun to do what he did. I think they both should be called heroes, and they both should be commended for exemplifying our American athletes. I think that it would have been a much better race if Ryun and Patrick had run their half-miles when both were fresh. Then it could be decided who is better at that distance.

It also takes a good sport to do what Ryun did in his loss. It shows what our whole American system of athletics is really for: the development of good sportsmanship among athletes.

Nevertheless, I think the setup of the NCAA indoor championships could be better organized, and a day or two could be added to the meet. It isn't right for an athlete to have to run all his races in a single day. I know the competition is tough, but I don't think that one man should almost have to kill himself by running too many races just to compete in them.
STEVE WILLOUGHBY
Hutchinson , Kans.

Sirs:
If you are trying to tell me that even if Jim Ryun , the pending world outdoor record holder in the 880 at 1:44.9, had been fresh to run against Dave Patrick at the NCAA indoor championships on March 10, he still wouldn't have won, then I'm afraid that I vehemently disagree with you.
STERLING SPEIRN
Stanford , Calif.

Sirs:
In your article on the NCAA championships and the Patrick-Ryun duel, you failed to mention another hero of the meet. Wisconsin 's Ray Arrington smashed the 1,000-yard record by two full seconds. Although only a sophomore, Arrington has set an NCAA record that many experts feel will stand for a long time, unless Arrington himself breaks it. It seems to us that Arrington's feat is more important than Charlie Greene 's "not getting his usual explosive start."
ROD DEN BOER
JOHN M. GARTLAND
LaCrosse, Wis.

FLASHBACK
Sirs:
You should be commended on your foresight in the article, In from the Three I League (Jan. 30). Southern Illinois University proved to the nation that it can play basketball with the best, and you discovered it—second, after the Saluki fans, but before the rest of the country. Anyone who watched the NIT now knows which is the best team in the country in 1967.
GEORGE PEACH
St. Louis

AT IT AGAIN
Sirs:
While watching the National Invitation Tournament championship on television, March 18, I was sad to see the free flow of the game interrupted by "official" time-outs so that commercials could be inserted into the program. It is a rather bad commentary on the athletic organizations that they allow commercialization to control the pace of an amateur event. In this day and age when professional sports are completely under the domineering control of the advertising industry it is pathetic to see the same thing creeping into amateur athletics.
WALTER B. HOLLAND JR.
Washington

THE PEOPLE, YES
Sirs:
I would like to tell you how much I enjoyed reading Robert Boyle 's article on greyhound racing (Noisy Chase Discreetly Done, March 20). Having owned greyhounds for a number of years, I find it truly heartwarming to see the Capone stigma slipping away from a wonderful sport. I was a proponent in 1946 of a bill to legalize pari-mutuel betting on dog racing here in California , and the biggest single objection we faced in our campaign was the underworld connection with dog racing of the '30s. My congratulations to Glen Gaverick, owner, and Ray Randle, campaigner of Discreetly. As the old saying goes, horse racing is the sport of kings, and dog racing is the sport of the people.
H. C. STEVENSON
Aptos, Calif.

SOFTENING THE JINGLE-JANGLE
Sirs:
I have had an idea which I have tried to interest some professional golfers in, with hopes they might wedge it up through the PGA officialdom. But bureaucratic inertia being what it is, I suspect that a better approach might be a sideways angle through you.