19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

Sirs:
I believe your article on the Olympic Games payoffs will force the International Amateur Athletic Federation to take corrective action in redefining amateurism. IAAF Rule 53 (vii) states that "any person who... receives, directly or indirectly, any compensation for using or recommending the use of any merchandise... is ineligible to take part in amateur competitions." If this rule is enforced, only four of the gold medal winners in track and field competition will be eligible for the 1969 track program.

Since Bill Toomey is one of the athletes who did nor receive payoffs, his statement concerning "shamateurism" carries special significance.

Congratulations to John Underwood and Anita Verschoth for a journalistic masterpiece.
MORT TENNER
Chairman, Men's Track and Field Committee, Southern Pacific Assoc. of the AAU San Pedro, Calif.

Sirs:
Leave it to a pair of feuding "shoemakers" to further foul up the ideals of amateurism. This corner has nothing but contempt for the unholy competition that created the shoe scandal so ably covered in your article. This stupid vendetta mocks amateur athletics and presents officials with a dilemma too hot to handle: an example of the far-reaching effects of hatred.
BARNEY BERLINGER
President
Quaker City Gear Works
Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

?For those readers who may not be old enough to remember, Barney Berlinger was the Sullivan Award winner in 1931 and the national AAU decathlon champion of 1933.—ED.

Sirs:
Too bad about John Underwood's feature story No Goody Two-Shoes. It furthers the general impression abroad in the land that everything and everybody is for sale. Amid the facts, not to mention the many fancies which the piece contains, there is left the distinct impression that all athletes wear only the shoes of the highest bidder with no regard whatsoever for any other deciding factors such as quality or performance. Though this may be true in the limited area in which the two manufacturers mentioned operated, it is far, far from a general truth. Most pros wear what they want regardless of what they may honestly endorse as "O.K.," and high school and college athletes, and other great athletes across the country and around the world, pretty much follow suit. I think it would be fair to say that few of them have kicked off their favorite soles, or sold their souls either. Despite all the machinations in Mexico City disclosed by SI, there were plenty of Goody Two-Shoes there—many more Goody than No Goody.
HENRY A. REEVES
Director, Advertising and Sales Promotion Converse Rubber Company
Maiden, Mass.

Sirs:
Congratulations to the artist who designed the cover for the March 10 issue. He is a genius. That one photograph summed up the whole article.
MADELINE T. GRACE
Brooklyn

Sirs:
I'm curious to know where you obtained the old half-dollars used on the March 10 cover. I'm sure you know they are quite valuable, as they are all silver.
STEVE LOVELESS
Wilmington, Del.

?The coins are silver dollars, not half-dollars, and there are 753 (or 40 pounds) of them, each one valued at $2.50. They were rented by Photographer Phillip Leonian for the SI cover photograph from the Coen-Messer Co., a New York coin dealer.—ED.

RENEWING THE OLD
Sirs:
My congratulations for William Leggett's article and Michael Ramus' illustrations (Golden Days that Sustain the Dream, March 10). Again SI has come up with an authentic description of the good old game of baseball. With all of the bad publicity baseball has been getting recently, it is great to know how spring training is progressing—that's real baseball.
BRUCE SEVERANCE
South Kent, Conn.