UP AGAINST STEEL
Sir:
Paul Zimmerman's article Curtain Call for the Steelers (Nov. 5) should finally lay the Dallas computer to rest. As each new season unfolds, every preview and television announcer eulogizes the Dallas system. No wonder the pros are discussed like the stock exchange. I am surprised the Cowboys don't play in three-piece suits and hand off a briefcase. The Cowboys can't cut it against the Steelers.
JOE MORRONE
Clarks Summit, Pa.
Sir:
There is no doubt that Pittsburgh beat Dallas on Oct. 28. But to revert to the old computer clich�s and rhetoric is absurd. Should Tom Landry chuck the philosophies and standards he has developed over the past 20 years and initiate a draft of the non-thinking footballer whom Dennis Winston so eloquently described? Pittsburgh and Dallas are both good. The game was hard-nosed and tough. Let's leave it at that.
GARY J. STEWART
Dallas
Sir:
Heinz Kluetmeier's two-page photograph of the awesome Steeler defense is an SI classic. In my opinion it is surpassed only by another shot of the steel curtain—the spread in the article on the infamous "Snow Bowl" game against Cincinnati (Smashing Through the Snow, Dec. 6, 1976).
BARRY J. SCHEINHOLTZ
Philadelphia
KUSH
Sir:
It was refreshing to read your report on the situation at Arizona State (There's the 'Devil to Pay. Oct. 29). On Sunday, Oct. 28, some 1,000 of the Kush faithful marched to the Arizona State Capitol, where they presented, to a representative of the Board of Regents, petitions signed by more than 61,000 people requesting the reinstatement of Coach Frank Kush. Guilty or not, Kush was not given a fair shake in the matter, and we Friends of Kush support him 110%.
CRAIG J. NICOLAUS
Phoenix
Sir:
If Frank Kush is guilty as charged, he is not any guiltier than hundreds of other coaches throughout this country, all the way down to the youth leagues where the games stop and the wars begin. At issue is the major role sport plays in society today. When lives are threatened and college funds possibly denied because of an activity that was once known as merely a game, it is time for all of us to stop and think. Do we want a pigskin to govern our lives?
GARY ERLANDSON
Jamestown, N.Y.
Sir:
It is sad that we can corrupt so pure an institution as amateur sports. In major collegiate sports, the system of reward is based not on effort, but on victory. There seems to be an association in the minds of sports fans, at least in America, between outcome and effort. "If you didn't win, you didn't give 100%" is the misconception prevalent today. No wonder the NCAA has so much trouble upholding its principles—it has to face pressure from the public, from the moneyholders and apparently from the lawmakers (judging by the remarkable threats of the two Arizona state legislators).
The attitude of the student body and administration at Arizona State is to be commended; it's of some comfort to know that those most closely connected with that institution have not lost sight of the fundamental principle upon which their athletic program is based.
PHILIP S. BOUSQUET
Gambier, Ohio
Sir:
In reply to the statements of two Arizona legislators threatening to withhold funding from Arizona State University, your readers might be interested to know that this view is not shared by others.
As chairman of the State Senate Appropriations Committee, I can say that we consider Arizona State University first and foremost an educational institution. Athletics are important as part of a well-rounded program, but it certainly is not my intention to take punitive action, nor have I heard any member of the Senate committee express any desire to take such action.
The Kush affair is a matter now for the Arizona Board of Regents and/or the courts.
JOHN C. PRITZLAFF JR.
Member
Arizona State Senate
Phoenix
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