Portis, Kansas,
February the 26th,
nineteen hundred forty-two,

 

DR ® F, Cy ALLEN,
Lawrence, Kansas.
University Kansas:

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DEAR DOCTOR ALLEN:

Your letter of a few days ago together with the copy of the letter to
Max, came yesterday and it was read by me with considerable interest, and
also a lot of sorrow, I guess the sad part of it to me was, that you had
been forced to write to Max that way, and the sadder part was that to me
it signalled his demise from the basketball stage and erased from view any
dreams I might have had (and did have) as to him being a ‘sometime clever
basketball player,

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I had seen the handewriting on the wall, though, for some time, even as
far back as last year, when I felt he did not do much in Freshmen basketball,
but of course I managed to try to think that he would some time hit a atride
that would equal what I thought he might be able to do. Then after a visit
there on the Hill recently and seeing Max on the court for the first time
in about two years, I realized that he just did not have the stuff to play
with your team or to ever make a player of Big Six caliber, The last picture
I had in my mind of Max in connection with the gamewas that of a driving,
feinbing, fighting player who could get his hands right up around the goal
to lay and cut them in there, and he seldom ever missed them more than a hair
when he missed, It did not seem to me that it was the same fellow, though
I'll admit I likely expected too much. I did not think he was fence post
out on the floor, but he was not getting any of the results which he did out
here the last two years in school, I know, too, that you will say-4That
was high school out there and no competition; down here it is different.!

SS A alia eae an asi

I was glad for your letter and also glad that you had written Max, and
I hoped that you had also collared him personally on the subject, though I
spose you have that sort of thing figured out the best way. I was greatly
surprised, though, at the portion of the letters which referred to his neglie
gence and lack of interest and lagwk of condition, and I JUST CAN'T figure it
out. I never did go in for that sort of thing. I do not know what you
mean by 'bulksessions! but take it to be 'a gathering of male animals,.'
If it is for tom-f6o0lery, hell-raising, tobacco, beer or any of that stuff
that goes with it, I am opposed to the whole thing. And I always thought
that Max was too. Out here he was a good trainer and radiated all sorts of
enthusiasm on the floor, There I thought he was rather slow and lagging
and it seemed to me he never did raise himself off the floor. Also in tak-
ing the ball (3 men) across the floor, his passes were poor, and instead of
hitting the waisteline, the other fellow had to reach for them, up, down,back
or something. He seemed to be fumbling, while out here I thot he gathered
them in like an octopus. On one of the nights, in the pre-game warm-up
when your men would go under the goal for shots, they made I think over a
hundred straight, except that Max missed some 7 or 8 of his in a row, He
was letting loose of the ball low and I don't think he ever got up there and
laid it with one hand as I have seen him do here regularly. Once he even
splattered the ball up thru the nets from below. e might have been nervous
or it might have been an off-night and I wished I might have seen a scrimmage ~
session and I might have formed a different idea, Out here in pre-game werm-up
he would at times go thru without a single miss of any type of shot. And we
thought he could pass and his eye for the goal was almost errorless, if such
a thing can be said, without exaggeration.