The Question: There's Been A Lot Of Talk About Anti-intellectualism. Are You Anti-intellectual?

EDDIE ERDELATZ, U.S. Naval Academy
Football coach
"I'm not anti-intellectual. But a sound athletic program helps the academic in developing healthy minds and bodies. At the USNA, high intellectual requirements come first. However, athletics helps to mold into character the resourcefulness and teamwork required of our future leaders."

YOGI BERRA, N.Y. Yankees
Catcher
"Anti-intellectualism? Never heard of it. Am I an anti-intellectual? Who cares? If a guy wants to be a genius, that's his business. It won't help his batting average. My business is to be the top catcher and hitter in the league. I like comics and I'm crazy about Jackie Gleason on TV."

LEO DUROCHER, N.Y. Giants
Manager
"Anti-intellectualism! What's that? Don't let this dinner jacket fool you. I love the comics and westerns. Sometimes I read a good book to impress Laraine. And I read everything on sports that I lay my hands on. That includes SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. If that makes me anti-intellectual, okay."

PETE KOHUT, Brown University
All-Ivy League quarterback
"Of course I'm not. Brown's faculty puts a great store on intellectualism. The only really new college course in years, 'The Identification and Criticism of Ideas' was the brilliant contribution of the late Bruce M. Bigelow, vice president of Brown. Perhaps athletics has gone a bit too far."

HORACE STONEHAM, N.Y. Giant
President
"Somewhat. That applies to too much education. A little knowledge is dangerous if improperly used. But too much education is more dangerous if it is impractical. Many are swayed by it. Robert M. Hutchins, who hasn't forgotten the 'boy wonder' tag is an example of impractical intellect."

DAZZY VANCE, Hall of Fame
Former Brooklyn pitcher
"In baseball, you get old too quick and smart too late. We had to make college boys over. I'm anti-intellectual in that respect. The great Joe Jackson who couldn't read, was asked to spell a simple word. Instead, he hit a long triple. He grinned and asked: 'How do you spell triple?' "

JOE DIMAGGIO, Hall of Fame
Former Yankee outfielder
"No. I'm not an intellectual, which everyone knows. But I'm not anti-anybody or anything, which some people don't know. I can get along with anyone. I may seem reserved, but I like people and I want them to like me. When they don't, I figure there's something wrong with me, not them."

WILLIE MAYS, N.Y. Giants
Outfielder
"I've never heard of it, but I think I know what you mean. That anti-guy thinks that a man with a lot of book-learning who doesn't know how to use it is an egghead. Maybe he's right. Books won't teach you baseball. You do that naturally, like throwing to the right base without thinking."

AL LOPEZ, Cleveland Indians
Manager
"I haven't heard of anti-intellectualism. Neither am I anti-intellectual. Many college boys like Ralph Kiner, Alvin Dark, Allie Reynolds and Al Rosen have raised the intellectual level and sports level of pro baseball. Why should any people in baseball be anti-intellectual?"

STEVE OWEN, Oneida, N.Y.
Former pro football coach
"I once had a great intellectual play football for me. The lessons he learned on the football field saved him. The dreamy intellectual, with too much impractical learning, is usually a selfish person. He remains aloof from we ordinary mortals. Am I anti-intellectual? I'm pro-football."