THE POST PHONE—MAIN 21

_ JOSEPH

 

 

 

(44

NSIGNED letters belong in the waste basket. That’s where
they go, ordinarily. There’s an exception to every rule,
however. Despite its lack of signature, this letter, mailed

at a railroad postoffice, deserves an answer.
The writer identifies himself as “A DENVER POST reader”
' over the last ten years, and goes into Dr. Forrest C. (Phog) -Allen’s
charges relative to the alleged “throwing” of college basketball games
in Madison Square Garden. He writes: _
( AR you remember, after Ned Irish’s tournament in New York last
spring, Bob Considine came out with charges about the same as “Phog”
Allen’s, but not so broad. His complete charge was carried in THE
DENVER POST and he claimed that gambling was very bad: in these
_ basketball tournaments.: In fact, his words were similar to these:
“Gambling is rife and is all over the country, New York, Los Angeles
and in Denver, another eage crazy town.” He was speaking of basketball. ,

“As you have always insisted that sports be carried on the level in. 1
Denver, I waited patiently for your answer to Considine’s charges, but |
to date you have never mentioned anything. Surely if the above charges |
are not true. it is your duty. to defend PORN EE: If they are true I would
. keep. mum...

It is true there is “betting” on basketball games in Denver... But
betting here is of the “I’ll bet you a buck” variety. What Bob Considine
was talking about, and what “Phog” Allen is talking about are two
‘widely different things. Nobody—and I think this includes “Phog” Allen
—objects to wagers being made on ball games, even when these wagers |
‘are made by what we in Denver laughingly call “gamblers.”

What Allen is talking about is gambling syndicates, who have thou-
sands upon thousands of dollars riding on the points of a game—like the
fellow who rushed out on the floor in Madison Square Garden, kissing a |
Utah player whose basket, he said, made him $15,000.

A The plain fact is you can take all the so-called gamblers in

* Déenver—every last one of them—and I doubt if they own that much

* between them in cash, personal property and real property. Between

them they couldn’t raise enough ready cash to pay off anybody to

- throw a ball game. Nothing would give me more pleasure than:

* to name names—to list our so-called “gamblers” who make a habit

of betting on basketball games. The majority of them think they
have a big day when they wager and win five bucks.

To the very best of my knowledge, and I think I would know some-
thing about it if it ever happened, no so-called “gambler” in our town
ever approached either a member of or a team appearing in the National
A. A. Uy tournament. The principal reason is that any such approach
* would, in the first place, require something more in the way of cash
than the price of a beer—and that’s about ‘the extent of the wealth of