o2e

Ned Irish's professionally promoted tournament. The N.C.A.A. always con-
tended that the colleges should promote their own tournaments, and for
Ned Irish, a professional promoter, to do that was revolting to their
ideals. The travesty of the situation is now that the N.C.AsA. is going
hand in glove with Mr. Irish, not only accepting him but putting on their
own tournament in his own bailiwick.

I have no differences with Mr. Irish Slbebcklés, _— that
he is a professional promoter and he is not interested in stamping out :
gambling, only just keeping the criticism away from his tournament so far as
possible, Mr. Irish knows that if public opinion would get strong enough to |
prefent the colleges from entering his tournament, then he would be interest-
ed as a business man in stamping it out. But Mr, Irish's Madison Square
Garden is nothing but a gambling den where over sixty per cent of the people
attend for that purpose. The gamblers buy up blocks of seats and Mr, Irish
sells his tickets in a season ticket block. lr. Average Spectator never gets
those seats because Mr. Average Spectator cannot put out over e hundred
dollars for a season ticket for all the games, Therefore, the astute ifr.
Irish sells them in season ticket blocks, and the forty per cent of basket-
ball fans who go for the Ter and not for the gambling, get the poorer
seats in the place. .

The Worlds’ Championship (Chicago) that you mention is not a
worlds’ championship, it is only a national championship. We Americans are
prone to magnify and elaborate. low could it be a worlds' championship with
nobody competing, only people from this nation? But why should I tell you
these things? You know them better than I. You are in Chicago where one

of the big boys determines the odds on all betting events. The gamblers are ~
-the ones that the newspaper boys quote as to the odds on this or that team —

. all over he nation, regardless of any sport.

- Unless any one cf these orgenizations puts someone in Vakinnge
to organize a sport ina way that there is some power to fight gambling, then
these sports will go the way of horseracing where it is admittedly known
that horseracing could not exist without the gambling. But you will always
have enough gamblers following these tournaments to make them @ success, and
only the better people, so-called, suffer. All athletic directora and
coaches know this well enough, but you can get few of them to say so. The
Pollyanna attitude of these officers in high places in these organizations
is only lip’ Satu

rags ae your question #2, on the systems of officiating, t would
say that the present system is better because the officials follow the ball
more closely, and if there is good tesmwork between two highly efficient
officials then they are generally pretty much on tep of the plays and they
oan see the game better moving in and along with the plays than the sideline
or endline officials can see in a stationery position.

The crow's nest officiating would be perhaps helpful in using
the present system of officiating with the mon in the crow's nest being the
| arbiter should either of the two present officials conflict on a decision
that would be made on the same play. Even then I am not sure that it would
provide much aid. The difficulty, of course, is in getting good officials.
That is a very tough job and the gamblers have made officiating very, very