Scorecard

Twice an NCAA discus champion at Washington State, John Van Reenen, 6' 5" and 265 pounds, has decided to turn out for football this fall. Though Van Reenen, who is a South African, will be trying to play the first game of his life in one of the nation's toughest conferences, Football Coach Jim Sweeney is delighted. After all, the young man's physical credentials are in excellent order.

Football requires more than physique, of course. Courage, for one thing. Does Van Reenen have courage? His summer job provides an answer. He's a high scaler, which is to say he hangs on a rope slung from a 200-foot cliff over the Snake River Canyon and clears loose rocks that could fall on trains or tracks. Rattlesnakes infest the rocks and take umbrage at being dislodged. One of the rattlers almost got him the other day, Van Reenen concedes, but he shrugs it off.

"When you come from South Africa," he explains, "you don't worry that much about rattlers. We have some real snakes back home. Cobra, you know, and mamba." Of the mamba, Van Reenen says, "When he hits you, you have about three minutes left."

So much for courage.

ROUGHING IT-1969 STYLE

The 30,000 boy scouts encamped at their current Jamboree in Farragut State Park in Idaho will not have to rub sticks together to start a fire. Or do much of anything else.

Arriving, they found 200 tons of charcoal briquettes, 7,912 outdoor grills, 26,034 dozen eggs, 3,514 pounds of sausage and uncounted steaks, chicken, hamburger, hot dogs and pie, plus who knows how many gallons of milk, orange juice, lemonade and grapeade.

Mosquitoes and mice were cleared out of the area before the boys got there. There was a 200-bed mobile hospital, complete with doctors and dentists, and 18 ambulances and two helicopters to whisk away the injured.

Best of all, perhaps, the scouts could fish in Buttonhook Bay, at the southwest tip of Lake Pend Oreille, for 32,000 rainbow trout planted for the occasion and then fenced into the area by a special holding net. Reverent, obedient, helpful fish—presumably.

CLOUDED CRYSTAL BASEBALL