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February 15, 1945.

Mr. Grantland Rice, me
North American Newspaper Alliance,

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‘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. :

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