19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

THE STANDINGS:
	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts.
Algonquins	4	2	1	1	7	1	5
Bombardiers	3	2	0	1	5	2	5
Canadiens	3	0	0	3	4	4	3
Delawares	4	1	2	1	5	10	3
Esquimaux	2	0	2	0	2	6	0
THE SCORES:
Algonquins	0	Canadiens	0
Algonquins	4	Delawares	0
Algonquins	3	Esquimaux	0
Bombardiers	1	Algonquins	0
Bombardiers	2	Canadiens	2
Bombardiers	2	Delawares	0
Canadiens	2	Delawares	2
Delawares	3	Esquimaux	2

THE ICEMAN SPEAKETH
Sir:
Congratulations to Curry Kirkpatrick for his fine article on the San Antonio Spurs and George Gervin (Iceman Cometh and Scoreth, March 6). I would especially like to thank him for the examples of pro basketball jargon that he has been giving us lately. It might be fun to have Gervin and Bernard King (It's Whoooosh! Boom! Whoop! Time, Feb. 20) oppose each other in a debating contest.
DAVID GREENE
Montclair, N.J.

Sir:
Whereas the Iceman's gig is double-speak, otherwise Edwin Newman be comin' at 'em. With a club in each hand. Uh-huh.
WILLIAM PERRY
Roanoke , Va.

Sir:
George Gervin is a super basketball player, but his facts about the punching incident that ended his college career are all wrong. Being the recipient of that Gervin punch, I believe I am a qualified observer.

In your article, George says, "Whereas the cat bowled me, so I got up fast and he went down faster. Boom. TKO." The only accurate part of this statement is "Boom. TKO." The Roanoke College Maroons, of which I was a member, were beating the highly regarded Eastern Michigan Hurons with about seven minutes to go in the semifinals of the NCAA College Division tournament in Evansville, Ind. Gervin was having a super game (25 points), but he could not beat us by himself, and he became visibly frustrated.

I retrieved a rebound, Gervin came over my back and a foul was called on him. He punched me in the mouth, a flagrant foul was called and he was tossed out of the game. As I was walking upcourt to take my foul shots, Gervin came off the bench, eased his way through the players and hit me with an overhand right, a la Kermit Washington . I woke up five minutes later in the locker room with a black eye and swollen cheek.

Roanoke went on to win the national championship that year. I went on to have a fine college career at Roanoke and a short pro career. Gervin went on to make a mint in professional basketball.
JAY J. PICCOLA
Syracuse , N.Y.

IOWA GIRLS' GAME
Sir:
Girls Win, Boys Lose (March 6) was one of the most delightful pieces I have read in a long time. I grew up in southern Indiana with "Hoosier Hysteria" in my blood, but it never occurred to me that, beyond turning a few cartwheels or waving pompons, girls had anything to do with basketball. It wasn't until my family and I were living in Iowa and our daughters were in grade school there that I learned that "Hawkeye Hysteria" is just as fervent as the Hoosier brand and that the six-on-six game is just as exciting as the five-on-five variety.

Now we're living in Illinois with a ninth-grade daughter who's playing the five-on-five game in a small grade school gym across town from the big high school gym where the boys play before a "crowd" of 30 parents. I'm the biggest "feminist" in this town of 7,000, perhaps because my athlete daughter gets the leftovers. But I wonder if the feminist movement doesn't make a mistake by always assuming that equality means taking over whatever males do. Five-on-five girls' basketball will always get the leavings; the boys have a lock on it. But no boys will ever match those Hawk-eye girls in the peculiar beauty and excitement of the six-on-six game.
(THE REV. DR.) JOHN R. MCFARLAND
Hoopeston, Ill.

Sir:
Author Douglas Bauer almost had it right. Except that the town was Montezuma, Iowa , the year was 1954, the girl's name was Barbara and I couldn't make the boys' team.
TERRY MILLER
Alexandria, Va.

Sir:
Thanks for the beautifully done article on Prairie City, Iowa by Douglas Bauer. He missed the boys' heyday in Prairie City, however. As a former Prairie City High School coach—football, boys' and girls' (1946-47 only) basketball and baseball—allow me to point out that in 1946-47 Prairie City girls and boys won every high school contest at home (29 of them) in football, in boys' and girls' basketball and in baseball. The boys' football and basketball teams were state rated in 1946-49 and the football team was ranked the No. 1 six-man squad in Iowa in 1948.