Scorecard

THE PAX MacARTHUR

After nine hours of uninterrupted debate—no lunch, no dinner, no candy bars—the war between the AAU and the NCAA was settled Saturday night. The settlement ended the boycotts and suspensions which have threatened our Olympic program in recent weeks and it forced the AAU to share a chunk of its previously exclusive power as well as to recognize the newly formed U.S. Track and Field Federation.

Pretty much by fiat of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, appointed by President Kennedy to resolve the dispute, an Olympic Eligibility Board will be formed, with three members representing the AAU and three representing the USTFF, the latter as agent of the NCAA and affiliate members. The AAU continues as international representative to the International Track and Field Federation, world governing body, but its policies in that area, insofar as the 1964 Olympics are concerned, must be formed with the assistance of the colleges.

The solution is all to the good, and very close to what we have recommended as making obvious sense—very close, in fact, to what was negotiated by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy when he attempted to mediate the dispute. That mediation, accepted by the AAU negotiators, was repudiated by the AAU membership, a rejection that led to the President's power play. When General MacArthur took over it was not as a mediator but as an arbitrator, and he will remain arbitrator until after the 1964 Olympics, when an athletic congress probably will be called by the President to devise a permanent plan for peace in sport.

Not since 1905, when Teddy Roosevelt called in representatives of Harvard, Yale and Princeton and told them to clean up football or else, has the prestige of the presidency been so used in sport. It is unfortunate that grown men could not have settled their problems without government intervention. It is unfortunate that even now they cannot be trusted to build an Olympic team without an all-powerful arbitrator to force them to make intelligent decisions, or to make them himself if they cannot. In a democracy such power should come from the freely given consent of the governed. The AAU and NCAA did not freely give consent to arbitration but, in a way, they asked for it.

FISH FINDERS
The seven-pound steelhead that Ken Buntrock had just landed from the Mattole River in California was still wriggling on the bank. Suddenly there appeared from the brush another fisherman, a stranger. After examining the fish, the stranger unslung a walkie-talkie from his shoulder and began to broadcast. More walkie-talkie bearers converged from the trees in answer to the scout. When the group numbered seven, and they all had their rods ready for action, Buntrock silently picked up his fish and took a walkie.

STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW

Gadgetry in sport often is an affliction. The simplest gear usually is the best. Now comes an archery gadget, unveiled this week at Chicago's Sporting Goods Show, that may be an exception to the rule. It is a telescopic sight, to be attached to the bow just above the archer's grip, and it is said to do wonders for accuracy.

Dr. O. A. Stiennon, a Madison, Wis. radiologist and archer, dreamed it up and Norland Associates Inc., an engineering firm that devised an electric can opener, developed it.

The sight, weighing only 5� ounces, magnifies the target either two or four times, depending on the model, and also, with the aid of a pair of prisms, enables one to tilt the bow at just the right elevation to get the proper trajectory. A graduated dial lets you set the range at anywhere from 0 to 125 yards without moving the sight on the bow. Instead of the usual sighting dot, or cross hair, the bowsight injects a tiny beam of red light into the center position in such a way that its rays are parallel to those coming from the target. The dot seems to be planted right on the target.