19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

As founder and coach of the first women's track and field team at Trenton ( N.J.) State College in 1968. I became aware of questionable recruiting of top runners (including transfers) by those who preferred stealing to developing. I was an administrator responsible for the women's intercollegiate athletic program at the University of Pennsylvania at the time Title IX was initiated, and my colleagues and I expressed our fears and concern, but our warnings fell on deaf ears.

Unfortunately, as happens in the case of improprieties and illegalities in the men's programs, it is the lives and the idealism of young adults that suffer.
ROBERT H. MCCOLLUM
Director of Recreation and Park Administration
Illinois State University
Normal, Ill.

Sir:
Those AIAW member-institution representatives who abide by AIAW rules but know about others who don't are just as guilty as the rule breakers. I am tired of hearing "I could turn in 100 violators tomorrow." Start doing it!
SUE MCDONALD
Trainer, Volleyball Coach
University of Georgia
Athens, Ga.

MAX BAER
Sir:
Many thanks to Ron Fimrite for his superb article on Max Baer (Send in the Clown, March 20). There is no doubt in my mind that if it hadn't been for Baer's clowning and tragedies, he and Joe Louis would have traded the championship belt many times over. I'm not taking anything away from Joe, because I still think he was the greatest of them all, but wouldn't it have been wonderful to see Max and Joe battle it out twice a year for more than a decade?
KEN SNYDER
Altoona, Pa.

Sir:
As a teen-ager, I witnessed Max Baer's tragic fight with Frankie Campbell, peering through the chicken wire on top of the right-field wall at "Old Rec."

By the way, Lou Nova can be included along with Bob McAllister and Gentleman Jim Corbett as a former representative of the San Francisco Olympic Club.
ED THALL
Redwood City, Calif.

Sir:
The article glamorizing Max Baer as a gentle giant who hated fighting and had no mean streak in him draws a dissenting vote from this corner. I have been a fight fan for more than 50 years and have seen most of the good fighters of this era. In college I was captain of the boxing team and had the pleasure of being taught by Jack Britton, the old welterweight champion, so I feel fairly well qualified to speak about the game.

In 1935 I was visiting a fight camp in Los Angeles. Steve Hamas, the heavyweight from Penn State, was training to meet Lee Ramage, a local hero. Max Baer showed up at the camp, and at the urging of those present suited up for a workout with one of the young sparring partners, a tall stringy kid who weighed about 180 pounds. When the bell rang the kid moved around, popping out ineffectual left jabs, most of which bounced off Baer's headguard, while Baer stalked him around the ring, never throwing a punch but constantly testing the kid's reactions with head and shoulder feints. The kid finally jabbed and let his left hand drop. Baer whipped a murderous punch into the kid's jaw and the kid went down as if shot, arms and legs sprawling almost without relation to the body and his head hanging grotesquely over the ring's edge. An unquestionably great puncher displayed his full talent against a virtually helpless opponent, whose brains were scrambled at least for the rest of that afternoon. To my mind, it was a vicious, cruel act by an egotistical show-off.
WALTER M. COLLERAN
Massapequa, N.Y.

MARK'S MARKS
Sir:
In a recent issue (FACES IN THE CROWD, Feb. 13) you stated that Juan Salazar of Oakland Park, Fla. set a county record for most goals scored (eight) in a single high school soccer game. That record was broken a week later by Mark Schwartz of Miramar, Fla., also in Broward County. Schwartz scored nine goals. In addition, Schwartz now holds the county and state season-scoring records of 54 goals, two more than Salazar.
JANEEN MCALPINE
Miramar, Fla.

ROCK CLIMBERS
Sir:
Chalk up a vote for Sam Moses as Writer of the Year. His fascinating piece on rock climbing (Stone Walls, Stout Hearts, March 6) provided a picturesque view of a sport I previously knew nothing about. After reading the article, my impression of rock climbers is that they are people with an abundance of courage and self-control and a keen sense of reality. One who can forget the problems of everyday life successfully enough to conquer obstacles encountered in rock climbing has my admiration.
MICHAEL J. WEBER
Milwaukie, Ore.