19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

BUCCANEER SPIRIT
Sir:
Thank you for recognizing the Buccaneers' dramatic turnabout (Time for Good Times in Tampa Bay, Oct. 1). The change has been as big as the change in the Tampa weather shown in your photographs. Up here in Minnesota it is hard to get news about teams other than the Vikings, but when I got my copy of SI in the mail and saw Dewey Selmon on the cover, it was like being back home in Florida.
PHIL HATLEM
New Brighton, Minn.

Sir:
I have looked at your Oct. 1 issue more than 100 times. From 0-26 to the cover of SI in less than four years! How sweet it is.
KENT LE BLANC
Orlando, Fla.

Sir:
The recent success of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can be attributed to many things, but two of the most important factors are faith and patience. Faith on the part of the Bucs' management in Coach John McKay. Patience to let a young team develop through its mistakes and growing pains. Perhaps the Bucs will be an example to others and help curb the almost fanatical drive for overnight success, which often results in many coaches being overnight failures.
OTIS GOODIN
Oxford, Miss.

Sir:
Sure, Tampa Bay has some great players, but it takes more than a handful of players to make a good team. Buccaneer fans would really find out what kind of team they are cheering for if Tampa Bay played such teams as Dallas, Pittsburgh, New England and San Diego. About the only way the Bucs can make the playoffs is by being in the very weak NFC Central Division.
DAVID BENNETT
Cheraw, S.C.

Sir:
In recent issues I have read comments about which team has the ugliest uniforms in the National Football League (the Seattle Sea-hawks). But no one ever mentions which team has the best-looking uniforms. In my opinion it's Tampa Bay.
JEFF HARKLEROAD
Powell, Tenn.

PRODUCTS OF JACKSON STATE
Sir:
You omitted two great athletes who are Jackson State alums in the article on Perry Harrington (Harrington Is Unharried, Sept. 24): Pro Bowlers Ben McGee, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Willie Richardson, formerly of the Baltimore Colts.

It may interest you to know that as tremendous a player as Coy Bacon is, he was overlooked on the bench at Jackson State because there was so much talent on the team.
PAUL T. B. HEMPHILL
Columbus, Ohio

DEFENDING LOYOLA
Sir:
Coles Phinizy (We Know of Knute, Yet Know Him Not, Sept. 10) is somewhat inaccurate in relating the recruitment of Notre Dame All-America Halfback Marchmont Schwartz by Knute Rockne in the late '20s. Phinizy quotes Schwartz, who had originally enrolled at Loyola University in New Orleans to play football, as saying that he left that university for Notre Dame when he "found out that there were about 10 players on the [Loyola] squad who were taking only a one-hour course at night and were still eligible.... I wanted to leave after two weeks."

In fact, there were 21 players on the freshman squad that included Schwartz, and of these, 19 are listed in the university registrar's records as being enrolled as full-time students (12 or more semester hours). One carried five hours; one carried three hours. The varsity squad of that year (1927) was comprised of 24 players, and of this group 21 earned degrees from the university. These records hardly support the implication of the quote attributed to Schwartz.

The remark has surely done a disservice to Loyola, an institution of long-standing integrity. I am happy to set the record straight for your readers.
FELIX A. GAUDIN
Past President
Loyola University Alumni Association
New Orleans