THE EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY
OF THE UNITED STATES

HOME OFFICE NEW YORK,N.Y.

THOMAS |. PARKINSON, PRESIDENT

WILLIAM J. GRAHAM
VICE-PRESIDENT

GROUP INSURANCE DEPARTMENT
GROUP ANNUITIES
A. T. ACKERMAN, DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR
J. A. STEELE, ASSISTANT DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR Chicago, Illinois
CENTRAL DEPARTMENT
120 SOUTH LA SALLE STREET, CHICAGO, ILL.

March 16, 1938

ir. Forrest C. Allen,

Director of Physical Education,
Varsity Basketball Coach
University of Kansas

Lawrence, Kansas

Dear Doctor:

I hope you will pardon the delay in my answering your letter of February 19,
but I have been out of the city most of the time since then and it has seemed

as if I would never have time to take care of any of my personal correspondence.

Since we are not now taking any Kansas City or Lawrence papers, it is rather
difficult to follow the activities of basketball in the Big Six, so I always
just assume that you are winning another championship. I am glad that the wire
that was sent to you was of some assistance and I can see you now in the dress-
ing room before the Oklahoma game, as, of course, I can still see you in the
game that we had in Columbia in 1923.

From all reports,you are gathering together a good organization which should be
ready to go for the 1940 Olympics. It is hard for people from Indiana, Wiscon-
sin, and other states up here to realize that basketball is played any place
but in this locality, so it would give me a great kick if your gang would come
up here sometime and show them how the game of basketball should be played. I
personally believe that you could take these Indiana boys because they always
play that shinney game and want the other team to shoot it out with them; I be-
lieve that you could prevent that. As a matter of fact, I didn't get to see
Purdue play this year, but Dutch Lomborg tells me that Piggy Lambert has been
experimenting with a system of bringing only four men back on the defense and
always leaving a "sleeper," or stationary forward, as we used to call them,in
the old days, expecting the four men to handle the defense as best they can and
depending on a long pass to the "sleeper" down the court. I mean that the
sleeping forward would not take any part whatsoever in the defense. Dutch says
that Lambert tells him that the percentage is in favor of the "sleeper" on the.
court. I personally am inclined to disagree with him, although I have noticed
that the scores of the Big Six have been bigger than they used to be.

‘ ever ,
As I remember it, we always figured if we could get,20 points we could “pin them
and thinking back, it seems to me that in almost all of the games we played, we