19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

TATES LOCKE
Sir:
I was the basketball reporter for the Miami University newspaper when Tates Locke (The Descent of a Man, March 8) became head basketball coach. Tates was a stern taskmaster, but he was a decent and moral man. Once he dismissed a player for legitimate disciplinary reasons. Subsequently, that ex-player was in a severe automobile accident. Tates gave him and his family all the support he could. Because I personally know of Locke's inherent goodness, I see him as a victim—in the sense of a victim in a classical tragedy. This is the country that worships the man who said, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

The hypocritical world of college athletics is merely a microcosm of our society, which pays lip service to rules and then expects triumph at any cost. Nothing excuses cheating or rule-breaking, but Locke is only the latest sacrifice on the American altar of victory.
JIM WEIGERT
New York City

Sir:
In 1967-68 I was a graduate assistant in the physical education department at Miami University and had contact with Tates Locke on an almost daily basis. I was always greatly impressed with his integrity, honesty and dedication to his profession. Later, when I was a high school basketball coach, Tates was never too busy to discuss a particular bit of coaching strategy or to talk about a prospect I may have recommended. I know what the real Tates Locke once was to college basketball, and can be again. I only hope that some university will give him the chance.
JOHN ALLENSWORTH
Tiffin, Ohio

Sir:
Tates Locke shouldn't feel too bad if, as he suggests, fans are comparing him to Frank James, a member, with brother Jesse, of the famous outlaw duo. What is so often overlooked is that, like Tates, Frank James reformed. He became the betting commissioner, that is, the man entrusted to bet the owner's money, for the famous thoroughbred racing stable of Sam Hildreth.

Hildreth wrote in his autobiography, The Spell of the Turf, that Frank James was "scrupulously honest.... When Frank quit being a desperado he washed the slate clean. He was going straight as a string when I knew him and there were plenty of chances for him to cheat me."
LANDON MANNING
Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

HERSCHEL'S BELT BUCKLE
Sir:
I am shocked that SI would run a photograph of Herschel Walker on the cover (March 1) and fail to notice what looks like a marijuana leaf on his belt buckle. This isn't the type of example that one of America's sports heroes should be setting. Your editors are as much at fault as he is.
CADET BRIAN D. JONES
West Point, N.Y.

?Hold it! There's no marijuana leaf there, although a number of readers jumped to the same erroneous conclusion. If there's any fault here, it lies with the camera and the shadows cast by the photographer's lights. What appeared on the cover to be a leaf is really a striped bronze trefoil, the trademark of Adidas, which is mounted in the center of the German silver buckle and surrounded by "Western scrollwork." The name Adidas appears in raised bronze letters below it (see above). The buckle, which isn't an Adidas product or authorized by the company, was specially designed by a friend of Adidas as a gift for a small number of Adidas representatives, one of whom, a friend of Herschel Walker's, gave his to Walker. The buckle isn't available commercially.—ED.

THE PIPELINE
Sir:
I had just returned from my first trip to Oahu's North Shore when my "surfing issue" of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED arrived (Thunder from the Sea, March 8). I was stoked! You presented a very good human interest story, but there weren't enough surfing pictures. Next time give more coverage to surfing contests and, please, more pictures.

By the way, why did the cover read "The Banzai Pipeline" when the cover photo was apparently taken elsewhere? Maybe it was Backdoor Pipe, but it wasn't the wave described in the article. Please explain.
JIM THOMAS
Carolina Beach, N.C.

?The picture was taken at the Pipeline. Most of the waves at the Pipeline come in from the north or northwest and break to the left, which is when surfing the Pipeline is at its best. But some swells come in from the northeast and break to the right, forming a more elliptical wave. Riding the latter, as the surfer is doing on SI's cover, is known as surfing "the Backdoor."—ED.