‘younger playerss

burden of this matter of foul and foul-cail

basket-making and where the fouls called are few and far between, that

 

December 25, 1953,

Mr. Floyd A. Rowe, Chairman
Joint Basktenall Rules Comaittee, —
Cleveland, Ohio. | : 3

Mr. Rowes«

I am but one of the many basketball officials who have
labored long and sincerely "out in the sticks"; who has always been an
advocate of galling them close and as you see them and who called them
that way even in the good old days when the rule book wasn't quite as
specific about what constituted fouls as it is now; and who continues to
officiate because he loyes the game and the contact it gives with the

 

sibiidiniasitiantle xia

I am also one of the many who have read with interest,
and who have taken to heart the instructions that have come from that :
reading, your reports of the past two years concerning your investigations
~ and because you ask for reactions I am taking the liberty of
writing yous | :

&) é = d 9,
sadhana

The study you are making is a timely one, and is needed,
yet I believe that you haven't made your study comprehensive enough, and
the reactions of your comnittee are apt to mislead the public, not to say
anything about the average sport writer, for in publishing your findings
one is apt to get the idea that it ie the official that is to blame for
the fact that fouls have heen called and because games seemingly are won
by the free throw routes Whether or not it may have been the intention =
of the coumittee, at least a reading of your findings seens to put the “em
“calling upon the officia .

etc BM

  

if he makes the game in its entiresy.

I believe that the average fan (and the average sport
writer} feels quite keenly that the official does make or break the game
by his whistle-blowing, forgetting that originally the players themselves __
and the type off play that they have due to their coaching actually make the
gage, and ag an official I feel that these last named factors have more to
do with the game that the officiating. : |

For example. How many times doesn't it happen after a
game has been played by two teama,who put a premium on ball handling and

 

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everyone, including the coaches, comes after the game and congrathlates _
the officials for the wonderful game worked. And on the other hand, after
&® game that has been a bruising one and where fouls have been eallied, ™_
sentiment is just the opposite. eS, )

The fact of the matter may be that the officials may have

    

 
    

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