19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

NEW THOUGHTS ON OLD FOES
Sirs:
While the editors of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED obviously thought deeply concerning the NCAA's advice against letting the pro football Steelers play in the University of Pittsburgh's amateur stadium (Focus, March 3), it occurs to me after deep meditation that you missed the heart of the matter.

Reflect: Dr. Gardner, President of the NCAA, is also Professor of Christian Thought at Drake University. Were the Steelers to play in Pitt Stadium they would meet the Detroit Lions in the course of the season. It is not inconceivable fit happens every season) that during such a game some of Dr. Gardner's young Christians, overcome with enthusiasm for the home team, might charge onto the field to obstruct a Lion drive. And there you have it: Christians pitted against lions in an arena, just as they were 1,500 years ago. Obviously a Professor of Christian Thought could not permit such atavism, or even the mere possibility of it.

Ain't it silly?
GUY F. D. RIPLEY
Needham, Mass.

Sirs:
I am in full agreement with your conclusions that the NCAA's unsolicited advice to the University of Pittsburgh respecting rental of Pitt Stadium to the pro football Steelers is way off base.

Dr. Gaylord Harnwell of Penn clearly indicated in a statement that it was none of the NCAA's business how a university leases its physical property and equipment. It is simply amazing how stubborn-minded the NCAA and its high command has become.
S. H. COPELIN
Philadelphia

DOG PSYCHOLOGY (CONT.)
Sirs:
Yes, Sparse—there is a dog psychologist (19TH HOLE, March 3)!

Perhaps the Freud of them all is Dr. Konrad Lorenz, also a Viennese, author of King Solomon's Ring and Man Meets Dog, Vice-director of the Institute for Comparative Ethology in Germany and erstwhile lecturer at Cornell University and Harvard Medical School.

In fact, if you own a dog, you are by way of being a dog psychologist yourself. What else are you when you say to Bozo, "Give me back my steak and I'll give you this nice biscuit"?

Never forget that dogs are good psychologists themselves, and what's sauce for the owner is gravy for the dog.

For instance. One morning last summer my neighbor and I left the dishes in the sink because we were so charmed with watching my young Doberman trying to hide a bone in the flower bed. She dug one hole after another, each time deposited the bone, covered it neatly, then looked up and saw us.