#5 Mr, John R. Tunis
February 27, 1935

. The basket ball games that I mentioned
were college sports played by amateurs - collegians. The tennis
‘match that you mention was more than tennis, It was a duel be-
tween two professional super-champions, Tilden and Cochet. You
ought to know that.

| 3 In spite of the fact that in dividing |
your article into epochs, you state that the super-champians
passed away at the end of 1930. Yet, you state the basket ball
games were exhibitionisms and not sport. I maintain that these
games were and are more than exhibitionisms, - they are both —
ee _— participation sports and are entitled to the bene-
its of both, | a

Again I ask, when for years basket ball >
over the United States has been both a fast growing attendance.
and participation sport, why you utterly ignore it as either?
However, I note that you concede basket ball to woman-competition.
This is some. concession, é

v Of course, you can be excused for your
undue liberality toward tennis. Perhaps you can say the same thing
for me concerning basket ball, You might be interested to know
that at the University of California, Prof. Clifton Price, a tennis
and not a basket ball enthusiast, in his letter to me of January 7,
1955 states, “That we have only 12 tennis courts for 11,750 stu-
dents at Berkeley.” In contrast to this they have built a new .
mammoth field house for basket belll at Berkeley, which seats over
8,000 spectators. |

! Most of our mid-western state universi-
ties have field houses which accomodate from 5,000 to 15,000
tators at their conference semi-weekly championship basket ball
games, The legislators and school board members are the real :
Sports Promoters of Basket Ball. With a thorough working public
school system, requiring compulsory sical training, one has
the explanation of the astounding of basket hall throughout
the United States. Every new public school building is equipped
with a gymnasium outfitted for basket ball. And most of the pri-
vate schools have them, as do many churches. Basket ball is in-
expensive to the player. The state pays the overhead. The expense
to the player is a cotton gym shirt and a pair of tennis shoes or
sneakers. One basket ball will last a whole season, } )