Dr. Forrest C. Allen | = De February 16, 1944

active plays aAsanons to the baskets. Such rules might offset some

of the advantages of the extra tell players, but, I believe, there

is another way and a better one could be used fairly, giving the youth
of middle or under-average height a more equal chance with the super-
tall players.

I have noted, in checking over the box scores of hundreds of
games that quite a large percentage of the games are won by a margin of
from only 1 to 6 or 8 points. Many of these games could have been réversed
by better foul shooting on the part of the losers. In other words, good fou
shooting is now, and could be made, a more decisive factor in a very large
percentage of the games. The placing of a premium on good foul shooting
and giving the short player oe advantage in foul shooting over his taller
opponents would go a long way in emlatee the chances of the players under
average height against their taller rivals in the matter of scoring. I would
suggest accomplishing this end by the following procedure.

A foul shooter of average height of college boys, say 5'10", would
shoot fouls from the 15-foot mark, one 5'11" tall from the 16-foot mark, and
one 6'0" tall from the 17-foot mark, and so on, until the player 6'6" tall,
or over, would shoot fouls from the 23-foot mark which is suggested as the
maximum handicap for foul shooting. Likewise, the player under normal size,
5'9® tall could shoot from the 14-foot mark and for each inch shorter in
height a reduction of one foot could be made for the foul hecktas, down to
say ll-foot for the player 5'6" or less in height. Such a rule would encour-
age the short players to practice tel shooting and with the advantage of
the shorter range, many small players would become experts, and a team with
good foul shooters, even though they were under normal boicks, yeald stand

a reasonable chance of winning against super-tall players handicapped by