19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

CRYSTAL CLEAR
Sirs:
A couple of years ago, after pro-football experts Tex Maule and Edwin Shrake incorrectly tabbed the pro champions, I became contemptuous of their abilities. Let me say, however, that this year's success more than made up for past transgressions. Maule especially was uncanny in his pre-Super Bowl reports (Stop Those Chiefs! Jan. 16). He not only correctly predicted the difference between the two teams in the touchdown department, he also accurately described how the victory would be accomplished. Congratulations!
DON FISCHER
Chattanooga

Sirs:
You were right. The Green Bay Packers do not blow a million dollars.
KENNETH B. BURNS
Elkhorn, Wis.

Sirs:
Your most erudite writer, Edwin Shrake, makes quite a case for the NFL as compared to the AFL (Still a Long, Rough Road Ahead, Jan. 30). Because of the blackout of Ram games here in southern California, we fans look almost exclusively at the TV games of the AFL—that is, when we are not watching the college games (which cannot be beat for color, interest and satisfaction).

Perhaps we do not see as precise professional execution in the AFL, but we do enjoy the games, probably to a greater extent than do those who watch the "superior" league.
WILL SPENCER
Yucaipa, Calif.

Sirs:
If the Super Bowl game showed something of the relative strength of the AFL and NFL, it also disproved the notion that the Packers are a colorless and dull football team. If the Packers' precision football is dull, then so was the conducting of Arturo Toscanini.
BRUCE H. KARNOPP
Toronto, Ont.

YES, VIRGINIA
Sirs:
Congratulations on the article, Belle of the Mushers (Jan. 23), by Virginia Kraft. It was wonderfully written, with superb photographs. Although I have never even seen a dogsled, let alone a sled-dog race, I could feel the tension, the tug of the dogs at the harness and every icy rut along the trail, just in reading this.
ROD THOMPSON
Parsons, Kans.

Sirs:
This is one of the most absorbing accounts of sports participation I have read. If ever there was a case for someone finishing last to receive first prize, this is it. But being No. 1 Lady Musher is probably the greatest compliment of all, after that ordeal!
PETER J. M. BARR
Toronto, Ont.

Sirs:
Virginia Kraft's adventure is still vivid in my mind. But where to now, since Roberta Bingay got to the Boston Marathon first? Please think up something quickly for those of us who admire Virginia's spunk and the grace with which she relates her experiences.
MARALYN GILLESPIE
Wallingford, Pa.

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
Sirs:
It will never replace duck hunting, but Bil Gilbert's article on hawk watching (Visit from a Proud Stranger, Jan. 16) is thrilling to an armchair ornithologist. My only regret is that you did not show a picture of his imperial golden eagle, although subsequent bikini presentations in the same issue were a delightful eyeful.
PAUL C. WRIGHT
Denver

?See below.
—ED.