Joe Cumminsky, Sports Editor, PM, New York, W.Ye Am.sending you sports article which you may feel perfectly free to edit and also to delete any portions you think necessary. Am submitting two titles which may not be satisfactory. Use your own. Trust the article is satisfactory. Kindest personal regards. | Forrest C,. Allen, Varsity Basketball Geach and Head of Department of Physical Education, University of Kansas Dr. Forrest ©. Allen University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas. Dear Sir, The attached clipping appeared in the Lexington Leaders If it wasn't for the fact that the staff of the Thoroughbred Record sent you that ——e I would not have sent this to you. But we have here in Lexington and every one knows it, a hand book that furnishes odds on any college basketball, football and race any place in the UeS., Cuba and Mexico. Books on high school football and basketball games are also made. In fact he brags that on football games he has handled as high as $500,000.00 on the Saturdey games. They have an uncanny foresight in posting the odds on games. For instance on the Kentucky-Georgia Tech game they were giving Kentucky 25 points, if you wanted to bet on Kentucky. You would have lest if you bet on Kentucky, they won 51 to 32, but according to their points Georgia Tech won 55 to 51. They have three long distance phones and they can get St. Louis, New York, Chicage or New Orleans quicker than a General in the Armed forces can. Their phone bill, in normal times runs around $2000.00 to $3000.99 a month. . It is located in the heart of the city. The ground floor is a bar room. Whibh is just a blind for the upstairs activities. It is known as the Mayfair Bar, telephone 1121, located at 224 Hast Main St. You go straight through the bar and up the steps to the gambling room ever the bar. The phone book never carries any hand book in it. But their phone is ora They have a large black beard with all the games and odds posted on it. J am sure all the menbers on the staff on the Thoroughbred Record is = familiar with this place and I sure got a kick out of them sending you the telegram, os p Bookie Charge LAWRENCE, Kan., Feb. 1 uP)—| ir. Forrest C. Allen, the Univer-| sity of Kansas coach who last Sep-| tember predicted a “Black Sox’) gembling scandal in basketball, had his answer today for the staff of a |horse racing magazine who pro- tested his charge that bookies were going into intercollegiate athletics. | The staff of the Thoroughbred |Record, Lexington, Ky., wired Allen demanding that he either supply in- formation to substantiate his charge or retract it. In return, Allen shot back a wire urging the magazine to “have its operatives call at 510 North Dear- born street, Chicago, where you will find a nationally-known book- maker who has operated big time racing forms and who now is oper- ating big time basketball form charts, quoting odds on all of the important games played in the United States.” The record staff asserted that horse racing has been “accused unjustly in the past months of everything from the manpower problem to the gasoline shortage. We don’t think it is either legi+ ‘timate or decent of you to attempt shifting the blame for crooked- ness in your own game into a sport which is entirely innocent of the wrongdoing attributed to it.” To that, Allen said: “I assure you we are not attempting to shift the blame. We are putting it where it belongs.” Allen said he had in his pos- session horse racing form charts sent out by Milton J. Danenberg of Chicago. He said that Danen- | berg operated from the Dearborn street address and now was send- ing out form charts quoting odds on basketball games throughout the nation. The Record wired that “our in- formation is that neither Harry Rosen nor Harvey Stemmer, the men involved in the Brooklyn Col- lege case, has ever been identified with racing in any capacity.” Allen charged that there were several different syndicates operat- ing in the basketball betting picture and that “when one mob starts out to get another, that’s where the fixing comes in.” He declared that in Lawrence alone there were 20 different places —drug stores, confectionaries, gro- cery stores—where a bet can be placed on a basketball game. “And the storekeepers get 20 per cent for handling the bets,” he add- yon “just like the old slot machine cut.” Lexington, Kentucky 8 February, 1945. Dr. Forrest C. Allen University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas. Dear Sir, ‘The attached clipping appeared in the Lexington Leader. If it wasn't for the fact that the staff of the Thoroughbred Record sent you that telegram, I would not have sent this to you. But we have here in Lexington and every one knows it, a hand book that furnishes odds on any basketball, football and race any place in the U.S., Cuba and Mexico, In fact he brags that on foot- ball games he has handled as high as $500,000.00 on the Saturday games. They have an uncanny forsight in posting the odds on games. For instance on the Kentucky-Georgia Tect game they were giving Kentucky 235 points, if you wanted to bet on Kentucky. You would have lost if you bet on Kentucky, they won 51 to 52, but according to their points Georgia Tech won 55 to 51. They have three long distance phones and they can get St. Louis, New York, Chicago or New Orleans quicker than a General in the Armed forces can, Their a bill, in normal saver runs — ve a 00 to o. : * Hy It ts located ats heart of the city. The stat floor is a bar room. Which is just a blind for the upstairs activities, It is known as the Mayfair Bar, located at 224 East Main St. You go straight through the bee and up the steps to the gambling room over the bar. The phone book never carries any hand book in it. But their phone is 3750. They have a large black board with all the gemes and odds posted on it. I am sure all the members on the staff on the Thoroughbred Record is very familar with this place and I sure got a kick out of them sending you the telegram. no ti, February 15, 1945, Mrs Janes MoFarland, 110 = 35 ~ 72 Road, Forest Wiils, Long Island, N. Y. Dear Mr. McFarland: oc} Might heaninGAae Ine ema ree ie ie bad their toes a eet os ecauante an ula? Wak tau halts I hope some day in the future to goet and talk with you, as it would be a genuine pleasure. In the mean- time, we will keep hitting at the bad spots in our great national game. Drop mea line from time to time with any additional information that might come your way. With all good wishes, I am Very sincerely yours, Director of Physical ftduoation, PCA: AH Varsity Basketball Coach. JAMES A. MCFARLAND Dales Representative Wo aS TY i 7 286—FAtF HH AYENGE a NEW YORK 1.N. Y. Yi fp February 12, 1945. ~~ Mr. Jos Curmiskey, ). Sports ‘Miitor, mM 6 164 Duane Street, e Dear Joe; Thank you for the check which arrived in your letter dated February Gth. I am happy to get the tear sheet, wlthough had previously received several here | S 5 = 3 4 about Regarding my testifying before the Kings County Grand Jury, I could not possibly leave here before March 2nd. We play our last game, which is with Iowa State College, at Ames, on that date. I am enclosing a schedule of our gemes. If they should desire my teatinony before that they would hare take it Prom depositions here in Lawrence. : WHI you let me have sqne infermtion on when the Kings County Grand Jury adjourned? | I am glad to have your telephone number and will keep you ad- vised if any emergency arises. With, kindest regards, I am Director of Physical Education, PCAsAH | ; Varsity Basketball Coach. 12 PM, SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 4, 1945 NEW YORK Gamblers Menace All College Sports Kansas Coach Asks Czar For Campus Athletics Dr. Forrest C. (Phog) Allen, University of Kansas basketball coach, for several years has been a prophet without honor in his business. He had been tactless enou h to warn about the menace of professional gambling in intercollegiate sports. The “fix” scan- dal which broke last week and which caused the expulsion of five Brooklyn College basketball players has proven him right and his booers wrong. PM asked Allen to tell us what he thinks is wrong with inter- collegiate sports and what This is his story. By Forrest C. University ought to be done to remedy the evils. (PHoc) “ALLEN of Kansas Dept. of Physical Education It is now high time for the college presidents of America to drop their academic mantles and get realistic about college athletics, At the present time is is definitely known that on some of our college campuses: {| Gamblers hire, clandestinely, a member of the football squad to give them confidential in- formation on the esprit de corps and the physical condition of the players on the varsity team; The gamblers are hiring, clan- destinely, sports editors or writers on college papers to give them ad- ditional valuable inside informa- tion; 3 € Gamblers now have a central clearing house working through professional agents or dope col- lectors. They issue weekly form sheets which are synciironous with race forms. They set prices on wholesale information on college sports events throughout the Na- tion. : . With the race tracks of Amer- ica now closed there will be thou- to another institution where the subsidy is much larger. Big time football teams have liaison or con- tact men throughout the country, and when a star player appears on a college team whose subsidy is smaller than the big time team, agents contact this star player and offer him a ‘scholarship of much larger dimension if he will transfer. Baseball: In many _ institutions the head baseball coach is a scout for one of the major baseball clubs of the country. This is generally a sub rosa agreement. The coach is either paid a salary by ‘the big league team or he is paid from $300 to $3000 for the signing of a star “Phog” Allen made a bonanza for the big-time gamblers. Some contend that the appoint- ment of an intercollegiate high commissioner with the powers of a Judge Landis would tend not only to separate the athletics from the colleges more than ever but would require a huge enforcement agency to orevent cheatin, by those schools or athletic departments that wanted to cheat. Doubt is expressed also that colleges would give any one man the unlim- ited power that baseball gave Judge Landis. Fear of expulsion by the czar of some college or uni- versity from a conference after suf- ficient evidence of guilt by the os representative is another ear. The high commissioner would have under him the conference commissioners of the different areas. The conference commission- ers would be the deputies to en- force the law of the high commis- sioner. Instead of a school being expelled from a conference, the commissioners would fire the coaches or the law-breakers. - Judge Landis actually never put a club out of business but he tossed out club. owners. Neither would an intelligent high commissioner expel a school. He would dismiss the guilty individuals. The state bank examiner does not close a bank when some president or cashie~ ab- seconds with bank funds. The indi- vidual is brought to justice. So it should be with athletic malfea- sance. : In the late ’20s and early ‘30s the University of Iowa was expelled from the Western Conference and the University of Kansas was ex- pelled from the Big Six Conference, because of alleged irregularities. Both Iowa and Kansas were the victims of athletic politicians. Had a Landis been operating in these conferences, he would have brought individuals to justice rather than expel a school which had done no harm in itself. © Certainly this job of high com- missioner is one of dignity and could attract a Supreme Court Jus- tice or a personality of the type of Gen. Douglas MacArthur (after the war), or J. Edgar Hoover. This high commissioner should have a sympathy, a fondness, and a belief in the educational value of college sports rightly conducted. Carte blanche authority should be given this man to devise a work- able system whereby colleges could be brought into a scheme that would prove a mighty force in strik- ing out against gambling, proselyt- ing, illegal subsidizing and rank professionalism in college sport, and at the same time restoring the integrity of college athletics. The salary and tenure of such a man should be commensurate with that of Judge Landis. This high commissioner should, of necessity, be legally trained for the purpose of writing the consti- tution and by-laws under which the conference would operate. Conf- dence in his administration of col- lege athletics should become simi- lar to that in the administration of Judge Landis’s regime. The gam- blers would get a mortal body Blow because the united efforts together with the power of this organization would be working against them, whereas now the gambling mob has a free hand since there is no one in the college organizations who is capable of opposing them. Horse-and-Buggy The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. is still in the horse-and-buggy days, so far as the present status of college athletics is concerned. Faculty representatives were named years ago to make and ad- sands of gamblers looking for new rackets, and our college sports will _be the next thing they will try to take over. ‘For Sport's Sake’ The professional game, being a competitive business, not a. sport, creates the attitude that “the crime is in getting caught.” The college slogan, whether it is true or not, is “sport for sport’s sake.” Winning, while important from an educa- tional .standpoint, is not supposed to be the most important factor. “Not winning or losing, but play- ing it out” to the best of. one’s ability, develops strength of charac- ter and fortitude. In 1905 the then President Theo- dore Roosevelt saved the game of football from extinction when inter- collegiate football was on trial be- eause of physical dangers to the participants. The protest then was against too many deaths from in- juries. Dangers to Sports Today, with college sports on trial again, there is need of another militant leader. To offset this gam- bling menace to our college sports, it is essential that a courageous, farsighted band of college and uni- versity presidents assemble and give unlimited power to a high commissioner of college sport. Baseball gave unlimited power to Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, and he built confidence in a sport that had received a knock-out by the gamblers, who are trying to clean up on intercollegiate athletics. These are the dangers menacing our major college sports: Football: Proselyting, the lifting of a star player from one campus prospect. Naturally the. baseball coach draws from the country young baseball players with outstanding talent. Instead of the coach being a faculty member in fact, he is a glorified scout developing boys to follow baseball as a profession rath- er than dentistry; law, engineering or medicine. ‘Basketball: There is traffic in the 6 foot 10 inch basketball play- ers among the basketball coaches to the same degree that feverish activity is manifest among football coaches toward a star tackle -or for- ward passer who can thread the eye of a needle with his football pass. Track: A star track man on the east or west coast is much more valuable from a subsidizing stand- point than he is in the middle west because track has not developed in the midlands to the extent that it has on both coasts. No Promoters | Current opinion is that basket- ball teams should not play in large city auditoriums. There is just as much reason for college teams playing in city auditoriums or sta- dium as there is an excuse for col- lege football teams to play in the Yankee Stadium or any _ baseball park. The question is that these games should be under the super- vision of the colleges, and not the professional promoters. I know of no college coach in the major sports who has had any con- nection with gamblers. But the great evils which exist certainly could make a full-time job for a high commissioner. We cannot deny the fact that the emphasis on big-time sports created by the in- creased interest of the public has Akron Junks Promoters By Erwin The University of Akron is through with professionally pro- moted basketball games. In a telegram to PM, H. E. Sim- mons, the University’s president, said: “The University of Akron will compete in no more intercollegi- ate athletic contests where we do not contract -di- rectly with the educational in- stitution with whom we. are p ar t icipating. This is true from this date for- ward.” Akron thus becomes the first college Chase Ain’t Talkin’ Since the brib- ery scandal to quit the “trained flea” role in which cagemen of many of the es stitutions of learning have filled the big hippodromes like Madison Square Garden. General practice was for the premoters to go out and recruit’ a schedule, giving the col- leges that were willing a guarantee and percentage of the gate re- ceipts. : One of these games, Akron versus Brooklyn College, scheduled for last Wednesday night in Boston, blew the lid off. Five Brooklyn players admitted getting $1000 of a promised $3000 from a trio of rofessional gamblers, two of whom foe been, locked up, by agreeing Van Swou to throw the game to Akron. Dr. Simmons’ statement was a reply to queries by PM to the heads of 24 colleges, six in New York plans : Chancellor Harry Woodburn Chase, of NYU, would not com- ment. Dr, Frank S, Lloyd, director of CCNY’s Hygiene Dept., declared it “involved a matter of policy, and the Faculty Athletic Committee would have to answer.”’ None of City College’s administrative off- cials could do so, he said. The position of the small schools was indicated by Brother Richard, athletic director of St. Francis Col- lege, Brooklyn, who said: “We do not intend to pull out of, as you call it ‘professionally pro- moted games.’ I don’t see what is wrong with ‘professionally pro- moted.’ The big college football games that attract tens of thousands of spectators are almost profes- sional. So far as the smaller col- leges are concerned, we don’t make enough to be able to carry on with- out the few big games. Our court is so small, we never make any profit on home games. We couldn't get any of the big clubs to come here and play us.” Meanwhile the Kings County Grand Jury, which is probing the whole basketball setup, will con- ‘tinue to hear the opinions of sports writers and college coaches. Dan Parker, sports editor of the Daily Mirror, was the first to testify. City, as to their future basketball | minister the laws when football coaches and athletic directors were considered unqualified to reflect academic ideals. Today, nine out of 10 faculty. represenfatives are unqualified to cope with the present situation. They know no more about the ath- letic danger confronting athletics than the athletic directors know about the faculty : representative's main business, which generally is a deanship of his college. If. they had known more of this nasty business that now confronts us, it would never have happened because they would have seen the handwriting on the wall, and would have acted. The high resolutions passed at the last meeting of the NCCA in Columbus shows this. The talk of some college presi- dents of abolishing the game will not absolve them of their respon- sibility. Had we had vigorous ac- tion by college administrators, this thing never would have happened. The heart of the 15-year-old Amer- . ican boy is clean as a hound’s tooth. He -is still a hero-worshipper. We must preserve this ideal for him. Our boys in the many armed forces, upon the seven seas and the many battle fronts, are fighting to preserve the things they love in America. Sport of all kinds gets a hearty and tremendous response from our Yanks. Certainly, while they are fighting to preserve dem- ocracy they expect the home front to preserve the many sports free from encroachment of the profes- sional gambling rodents, chiselers, and tin torns. Cheap racketeers are ezting at the very foundation of our Amer- ican sports by “fixing” the players who participate. oe Forrest C. Allen Athletic Director University of Kansas _ Lawrence, Kas. ‘Dear Phogt Thanks for your promptness on filing the article for me last weekend. I am enclosing a tearsheet showing you the display agd also a cheek for ae es : hope _ is satisfactory. The whole mess back here bio up some Ais and about time, I'd say. There was talk you would be asked to come and testify before the Kings County Grand Jury. If and. when you are Called, ee telephpne me and let me know - ee “You ean get me at the office or at home: Haverneyer eee ‘Thanks again and I hope | something comes of = aie “With warmest personal rezards, I remain, Sports Editor February 27, 1945, Mr. Henry Hornsby, ; A Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington, Kentucky. Dear ire Fornsby : Thank you for your letter of the ‘20th instant enolosing tear - sheet from your Herald-Leader. I have an idea. sass bons talniods SNL etn a one nan camoatien to wine out uaeing in ‘collegiate ‘bascetbal, a oe oe up umntia the. ‘tine tak tm story bk today. y on the Brook -eotiege * erie’, F have: been accused of doing everything, sholdding. eye — a ‘gountatn : our. of | a mole hit, Bat singe last tall when you. ee first ade those utterances againet the: - Mooktee® and Nat ; Holman | made his player taice- is BALL. out of bounds to. savart the gamblers I have been nale ing a, careful study of the eine, I guess I am a basketball “nut ® — a poard official et al, and I would like to see the game flourish, et 2, ‘otty, of some 45,000 people is “rabid” for basketball and I have tried to give the _ Boston Garden, only 50 miles from here, ‘some good publicity, but, 4t now becomes extremely hard, - I notice that you stated that you would like to see a czar appointed for the college hoop sport, I thought I would write and tell you that those are my sentiments, Therefore, the sentiments of-one of the stropgest papers outside of the Hub. If I had my way I would: nominate you for the job as un until . now I don’t know of any basketball man who has done as much tobring % ' this terrible situation to light as you have, ‘ =~ “What would you. say if you were offered the post? It not pretending that we carry enought wot ght here to do any swinging on this thing, but, 4 thought you natgnt like to know the . sentiments of the hot men in thie part of the apuntry, they admire , % your stand immensely. _ And we will be in there pitching if the time should ever com when your. name might come up for consideration. Congratulations again on the prediction of the expose, 2 . s truly, sports editor \ February 15, 1945. Mr. Grantland Rice, me North American Newspaper Alliance, \ ‘Dear Mr. Rice: _. I have had the pleasure of meeting you in person when Mrs. Allen and I walked into your New York offices several years ago when you were editing the Golfing Magazine, among your other multitudinous duties. I have also had the pleasure of meeting you with Clyde MoBride back at the Louis-Baer fight, and upon a couple of other occasions, I do want you to kmow how genuinely I appreciate your article in which you suggest me as basketball commissioner. However, I have never felt that.we should have a cgar for college basketball. I have always ~ felt that we should have a high commissioner for all collegiate sports and that basketball would be only one of those things that needs the pro- testion and the guiding influence of a highly intelligent and forceful | administration. I have felt that they needed a much stronger man than I am for the job. This man, in my opinion, should be a Supreme Court just- . hee, a Douglas MacArthur, a J. Bdgar Hoover, or a Tom Dewey. To me, he would be ideal for the position because he is the only man that I know of who has busted rackets. | : I am not thinking of a prosecutor as the first consideration for this man. I am thinking of a man with eollege ideals and at the same time a man with the love of the game in his heart, - the real benefit of educa~ tion through play as it fits into the soheme of education. This man should be @ lawyer because he should be able to write both State and. Federal statutes so they would have the laws to prosecute. aggressively. the gangsters and tinhorn gamblers who endeavor to chisel in all college sports. | Proselyting, subsidizing (clandestinely), and overt professionalism in college athletios should be the first prime consideration. I have written enough for you to see my thought in guiding this position to the — very highest and most able man in the land, The position should pay from fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars a year and the pay would come from the colleges agcording to their student population. Naturally, it is the job of the presidents of the colleges and univ- ersities to initiate this. And instead of divorcing this job from the colleges, it would be an integral part and plan because the college presi- dents would select the mn. He would-be responsible to them but not be hampered in his administration in any way. : > peer page 2. | Then, and only then, would the cirtilaidbinsate Amerigan boy, the idealist, live in a happy sphere because then he would look to his hero - a real hero in fact because he would be observing the laws as they are written. And this high commissioner, through his deputy commissioners, would enforce the law in every conferenve and school that subscribes to this plan. The deputy comnissioners would not necessarily be men of high salary any more than they are at the present, but at the present time they have no power to enforce their findings. Therefore, the high commissioner would write the laws, organize, supervise and deputize, so . that all the deputy commissioners would do would be to oarry ov his. . | findings aecording to. the laws that were written, = = le I do thank you for your kindness in suggesting ne, ‘but I Nalaete that I could do very mush more by upholding the hands of the man in the right influence than i: eould by following the course that you suggest. ("Mery sincerely yours, = __. ad 4 a * ae ~ ie wee, Ae me “ & Ae : é Direotor of Physical Bdueation,' FOA:AH : Varsity Basketball Coach. International News Service GENERAL OFFICES 235 EAST 457TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY OFFICE OF THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF February 28, 1945. Dr. Forrest C. Allen Director of Physical Education University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas Dear Dr. Allen: Thanks very much for your nice letter of February 26. The assignment has been filled. I called Carver into my office and had him read the column as we had agreed, and he is properly repentent. I am sure we will never have this kind of a mistake on his part again. Thanks again for your understanding and cooperation in the matter. Kindest regards. Sincerely yours, jae Pebruary 9, 1945. Mr, Barry Faris, Editor-in-Chief, International News Service, 256 East 45th Street, New York City, N.Y. Dear Mr. Paris: shsheaiiies vent Retnee at dmaeds ORG ¥ eum ws were eek authority that Mr. Carver's article appeared in several first edition papers other than the San Francisco Call-Bulletin. I have never had any desire at any time te circulate your so-called side of my controversy. I realise full well that your organization has no malice - toward me personally. For e time I debated the extent of the injury. But after the Brooklyn College expose I have come to this conclusion: namely, that if you are willing to eall in the red-faced lir. Lawton Carver, your scintillating news service sports editor and have him sit on your paternal knee while he is pavnlinh Gs cask Ue vou On Geli Wa deeds trees exons on SS ae es on ee eee ular significance", . oo eer ee you willing to do this? Sineerely yours, : Director of Physical Sducation, FCA :AH : | Varsity Basketball coach.