ag eh

_ Baseball 21,889

#4 Mr.John R. Tunis
February 27, 1955

Golf, tennis and baseball grounds re-
quire maintenance. Even a school boy must pay to play golf on
a public course. That same boy can play basket ball all winter
in his sehool or church for nothing, And in summer with a pair
of hoops nailed to an upright 10 ft. from the ground in his own
backyard he can continue the development of his health and
skills with this versatile game, In a tournament in Indianapolis
alone 600 teams engaged in basket ball. In the same city 15,000
people paid admissions each day for a high school tournament last-
ing three days, and the doors were closed while hundreds were
turned away, |

| I am sending a recent copy of "Health
Rays" of the K.C, Missouri Public Schools, showing marked spaces
devoted to basket ball. Please refer to page 3, wherein it states
that 2,500 adult players have been playing basket ball recently.
In one of the high sehools alone, the Paseo High School, Kansas

City, there are 112 organized teams of basket ball,

. ‘ - I am enclosing a sheet from Iowa State
College Daily Sports Service wherein it statés there are ninety
intramural teams there, Also, you will find enelosed the Decem-
ber issue of the Kansas Athlete, page S, wherein it shows that
there are 644 organized competitive teams of basket ball out of a
total membership of 657 senior high schools in the State of Kan-
sas. Mr, E,A, Thomas, Executive Seeretary of the Kansas State
High Sehool athletic Association, estimates that there are 16,000
high sehool boys and 4,000 high sehool Girls playing basket ball
in the Bigh schools of Kansas this year. He further estimates
there are 2,500 junior high school youngsters participating,

Incidentally there is more newspaper |

space devoted to basket ball in the mid-western papers in the

winter than that given to all other sports combined - bowling
included, )

In looking over your manufacturer's
list regarding the ten fastest growing sports in the United States,
i thought it might prove interesting to you to submit Mr. Fred
Turbyville's figures on the numbers taking part in intramural —
events in the different sports among the college people of America.
This is a compilation from 255 colleges and universities in this
country, published under the title "The Blue Book of College Ath-
letics” and edited and published by McNitts, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
In 255 colleges the number taking part in intramural events in
the different sports are: