Letters

I eagerly await your 50th-anniversary issue, which, I trust, will include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays.
HUGH M. RODGERS, EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.

Top 40
Your list of the 40 individuals who have most influenced sports during the past four decades (Forty for the Ages, Sept. 19) was sure to be controversial. No doubt it was a daunting task to compress 40 years into such a small list, and I commend SI for the effort. Here's to 40 more years!
JIM JIVIDEN, Ada, Ohio

What? Don King but no Willie Mays? By what standard? I guess this really is the age of the antihero.
STEVE SILVERMAN, New York City

How can you select five NBA players and not select Wilt? He revolutionized the game and rewrote the record books.
JOHN A. BUYARSKI, Medford, N.J.

To bemoan the exclusion of Mays, Mantle and Chamberlain and not that of Roger Bannister, Jean-Claude Killy and Juan Manuel Fangio is to dismiss the opinion of the world's sports audience.
TOM WELLS, Orinda, Calif.

Curt Flood, by paving the way for free agency, affected the sports world more than any other individual.
JOHN E. DUCKWORTH, Dittmer, Mo.

How about Walter O'Malley? By moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, he engineered the end to an age of innocence in sports, ushering in an era of unparalleled cynicism and skepticism.
RICHARD G. KENT, Bridgeport, Conn.

If one person did more to change the image of pro football than John Unitas, please let me know. He took a dull Sunday-afternoon game and transformed it into America's biggest spectator sport.
GEORGE L. RALPH JR., Salisbury, Md.

Why is O.J. Simpson not on the list?
LIZ BROWN, Frederick, Md.

What about Vince Lombardi? His five NFL titles in seven years, including three in a row, is unmatched.
G. STEVEN LARSON, Madison, Wis.