19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

...Only those of professional skill are ever the subject of amateur controversy. Ironically it would seem that the best protection an amateur has is to keep his proficiency under control.
JAMES R. LOVE
Peoria, Ill.

OLYMPIC BASKETBALL SQUAD
Sirs:
I liked the article The Tournaments by Roy Terrell (SI, Feb. 20). Reading about the team to be sent to Melbourne, I thought of my 14 players who could win here and in Melbourne. I would like Roy to name his 14 players. Here are my 14 best: First team: Lennie Rosenbluth ( North Carolina), Ronnie Shavlik (North Carolina State), Bill Russell ( San Francisco), Si Green (Duquesne), Hot Rod Hundley ( West Virginia). Second team: Tom Heinsohn (Holy Cross), Bob Burrow ( Kentucky), Dick O'Neal (TCU), Darrell Floyd (Furman), Robin Freeman ( Ohio State). And my last four, Willie Naulls ( UCLA), Joe Capua ( Wyoming), Lowell Davis (Wake Forest), and last, but not least, Big Bill Uhl ( Dayton).
GARY B. DEESE
Durham, N.C.

? Terrell's own first five would be Bill Russell ( San Francisco), Tom Heinsohn (Holy Cross), Lennie Rosenbluth ( North Carolina), Si Green (Duquesne) and Robin Freeman (Ohio State). To fill out his squad of 14, he would give serious consideration to Shavlik, Naulls, O'Neal, Floyd, Hundley, Uhl, Burrow and Capua, but also keep an eye on K. C. Jones ( San Francisco), Temple Tucker (Rice), Julius McCoy ( Michigan State), Joe Holup ( George Washington), Charles Tyra ( Louisville), Paul Judson and Bill Ridley ( Illinois), Don Boldebuck (Houston), Jerry Harper and George Linn ( Alabama), Terry Tebbs ( Brigham Young), Joe Tebo (Brown) and Chuck Rolles (Cornell).

Actually the Olympic team will be selected in this manner: the 14 All-Stars will meet the AAU champion and runner-up teams and the Armed Services champions in a four-team round-robin Olympic Trial in Kansas City, April 2-4. The team winning this tournament will supply not less than five and not more than seven players for the 12-man Olympic basketball team; the other three teams in the tournament supply the rest of the squad members.—ED.

FID FACTS
Sirs:
Fee, Fie, Fid! Boats and Bronze (SI, Feb. 6) was a grand article but a fid is a short bar or large spike which passes through a hole in the heel of a topmast or bowsprit to hold it in position.

Your caption defined a marlinespike, which is a similarly pointed instrument but which is used for pinning up the strands of a rope and for tightening or loosening the pins of shackles.

Let's not further confuse an already confusing glossary....
WM. G. AMBROSE
Orange, N.J.

?Although the fid may at one time have been used to secure topmast or bowsprit, those were days beyond even the recall of its manufacturer, Merriman Brothers of Boston, who define the fid or hollow spike as used to open strands of line for splicing.—ED.

DISTAFF GOLFERS
Sirs:
In response to Mr. Wind's plaint (SI, Feb. 27), I've coined a few terms for professional golfers, distaff type. Perhaps one of these will suit him to a tee:
Galfer
Golfress
Golfrix
Golfer pro fern.
W. R. ANDERSON
Chicago

?Nominations, please.—ED.