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Just win a few
Sept 27, 1972
Inquirer
Phillies fans have modest demands
By HAROLD J. WIEGAND
Contributing Editor
The Philadelphia Phillies have made it a nice gesture to the die-hard fans who have turned out, game after losing game, despite adversity. The customers doubtless appreciate the thought, as well as the prizes, awards, batting helmets, caps, autographed baseballs, bumper stickers and other paraphernalia the management has heaped on them during a succession of losing seasons.
What the fans would really appreciate, however, is a team that can play, at least half the time, winning baseball.
The Phils have not won a pennant in 22 years, which is a long time to sit in the stands and cheer Bob Carpenter for supplying high-wire walkers, free bats, .167 hitters, and other entertainments.
There should be a Fan Appreciation Day every time the Phillies play at home before people who love the game so much that they pay to witness the kind of baseball this team manages, somehow to play.
When the club can amass a season attendance of more than one million while it is busily digging a hole in the cellar,
AVOID THE OCTOBER RUSH,
ORDER YOUR PHILLIES
WORLD SERIES TICKETS
NOW!!!!!
Eternal optimists
...rooting for perennial failures
the iron constitutions of Philadelphia fans and their courage in the face of doom are incontrovertibly confirmed.
Philadelphia sports fans have picked up the reputation, in some circles, as notorious boo-birds.
If this town's fans boo a lot, it is because they have a lot to boo about. There are many occupants of seats in the Vets Stadium who find themselves hoarse before the end of the first inning. When you see an outfielder get hit on the head by an easy catch; when a shortstop forgets to step on the bag for a simple double play; when a player steals a base
already fully occupied: what is a fan to do, sing "Dixie"?
Philadelphia fans have been given a bad rap. Instead of career masochists who go to a ball game for the sheer torture of it, they are warm-hearted human beings whose only fault is that they instinctively know more about baseball than any manager since Connie Mack.
Our fans grow up in the knowledge that the Phillies will probably be 37 games out on Labor Day -- in a good season. But they live with unconquerable hope. They remain convinced, despite bumbling managers and blundering players, that a pennant winner will somehow, some day, miraculously emerge at the Vet, in between the handouts of batting helmets and other souvenirs.
If you don't think the Philadelphia boo birds can cheer, you have never seen them when Steve Carlton is pitching. They know class and they respond to it. They are not like the fans in, say, Houston, where they even applaud foul balls.
Give them a decent pitching performance, or a fine fielding play, or a grand slam by a Phillies batter (when did that happen last?), and you won't need fake cannon fire and water spouts to lift them from their seats.
Phillies fans deserve a winner. That would be real Fan Appreciation.
TO MY SIX SCIENTISTS....
Before I left Philadelphia some years ago...I informed Stan Hochman of the Daily News, sports writer...that I would force the Phila. Eagles, the Phila. 76'ers, and the Phillies (pro football; pro basketball; pro baseball teams, respectively) into being losers...year after year. (I also informed all of my regular contracts of this.)
Now the power I am using...is the same as used by the ancient Egyptians to place a "curse" inside a tomb, to protect the tomb from robbers.
You can see how well my psi-force attack on these three pro teams have worked. As usual, the Phillies are on the very bottom. The Eagles are in about the same shape. Too early this season to measure the 76'ers...but I can tell you that, season in and season out, they have not been winners! They've been losers, all the way since I started on this.
I add this file...just so that you can see the potency of the powers that I use.
Owens
4 X PK Man?

=== **Page: 2 of 7**

Monday, Oct. 2, 1972
□ 17
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Tose Guarantees Win as
Eagles Face Giants Tonight

By GORDON FORBES
Of The Inquirer Staff

The Eagles can commit the
unforgivable sin tonight at the
Vet by embarrassing their
boss in front of 30 million tele-
vision viewers.

Len Tose, their compelling
owner, has guaranteed a vic-
tory over the New York
Giants in perhaps the most
unattractive of the highly pop-
ular Monday night pro foot-
ball series on ABC.

"Yep, I'll guarantee a vic-
tory over the New York
Giants," said the brash Tose
pleted 68.6 percent of his at-
tempts.

There is considerable irony
to Snead's appearance. Two
years ago, he inspired the
Eagles to a 23-20 upset victory
over the Giants in the most
talked about Monday night
game of the season. More-
over, it was Len Tose who
accelerated trade talks that
sent Snead to the Minnesota
Vikings.

In seeking to upgrade their
rush, the Eagles will return
Richard Harris to left end and
switch Ernie Calloway back to
earlier in the week. "We'll
win because I expect a lot of
scoring and us getting to the
Giant quarterback whoever he
may be."

THE TOSE prediction,
which fashioned the walls of
the Giant dressing room, may
be the only arguable point in
a match of two teams grop-
ing for their first win.

"I think it's time for the
whole team to put it all to-
gether," claimed Eagle line-
backer Ron Porter. "It's the
time of year for us to win a
right tackle.

"The rush when you look at
it in films hasn't been as bad
as it seems," said Calloway.
"The quarterback has been
throwing off balance. We've
been just a step away."

GIVEN TIME, as he was in
last week's loss to Dallas,
Snead can demoralize a zone
defense. He flicked scoring
passes of 55 and 94 yards to
Rich Houston, a fast and dan-
gerous receiver who must be
handled by cornerback Al Nel-
son.

The Eagle defense must
game. It is important because
we need a boost to get in the
right frame of mind for the
rest of the season."

Neither the Eagle offense
nor their pass rush - the two
Tose particulars - has been
Lineups, Rosters-Page 19

impressive in losses to the
Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland
Browns.

ROOKIE quarterback John
Reaves produced the only
Eagle touchdowns in an excit-
ing second-half rally last week
against the Browns. Coach Ed
also cope with two proven
runners, Ron Johnson and
Charlie Evans. With that in
mind, Khayat has reshuffled
his linebackers and will start
Steve Zabel despite a knee
handicap in the middle and
quick, second-year player Bob
Creech on the weak side.

Tackle Wade Key has re-
covered from a twisted knee
and will improve the blocking
protection for Liske and
Reaves. The game plan likely
calls for the Eagles to try to
get the ball to Harold Jack-
son, who enters the game
Khayat leaned towards start-
ing Reaves but is believed to
have changed his mind in
favor of veteran Pete Liske.

"Pete is going to start,"
said Reaves. "I knew that all
along. He's the first-string.
Besides, anybody can have a
bad game." Liske is trying to
recover from a bruised right
shoulder which has impaired
his passing.

FORMER EAGLE Norm
Snead has won the Giant
quarterback job off two im-
pressive though losing per-
formances in which he com-
with 16 catches for 292 yards,
and to both backs, Po James
and Larry Watkins. The run-
ners will be working against
three inexperienced lineback-
ers.

Playing on national televi-
sion has twisted the Eagle
work schedule into six days of
preparation for the Giants and
only four this week for the
stronger Washington Redskins.

"But even a fool would be
conscious of playing on TV,"
said Calloway before heading
for the barber shop Saturday.
"It's better than champagne."

=== **Page: 3 of 7**

Injunction
Stay Asked
By Atlanta

By Virginian-Pilot Staff Writer

The Virginia Squires were in Colorado Springs, The Atlanta Hawks in Baton Rouge, La. Both pro basketball teams were on the road for exhibition games, but Julius Erving, the middle man in a tug-of-war, was in his Atlanta apartment. Wailing.

Erving, who has jumped the ABA Squires for the NBA Hawks, was idled by a Monday court decision granting the Squires' plea for a temporary restraining order, preventing Erving from playing for Atlanta or any other NBA team. The NBA has awarded Erving to the Milwaukee Bucks, who drafted the ex-Massachusetts star.

Early Tuesday, the Hawks filed for a stay of the injunction in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. There was no word as to when that decision would be rendered.

PK Man Ready

CAPE CHARLES—At least one Virginian has an idea of how to get superstar Julius Erving back into a Squire uniform.

Ted Owens, the PK Man, said he would use his powers to "get inside Erving's brain" and make Erving want to play for Virginia again.

Owens uses, he says, mental power called psychokinesis (mind over matter) to make things happen.

Although a federal court ruled Monday that Erving may play only with the Squires, Owens feels the 6-7 forward might not return in the best frame of mind.

"Erving would probably play poorly, hoping the Squires would get rid of him," Owens says. "So I would use my powers to make him want to do well."

"I want to work with Mr. (Earl) Foreman (Squires owner) but so far the Squires have not been very interested. I could save them a lot of money," Owens said.

The Squires have been reluctant to pay Owens, and the PK Man does not work for free.

Eagles Make Owner 'Sick';
Recovery Is Not Guaranteed

PHILADELPHIA (UPI)—Versatile Ron Johnson of the New York Giants runs inside and out, catches passes long and short and makes fools of braggarts like Leonard Tose.

The dapper Tose, who took $16 million from his trucking fortune to buy the lowly Philadelphia Eagles three years ago, went around town all last week "guaranteeing" his club would finally win a football game Monday night before a national television audience. Johnson proved Tose's "guarantee" was as worthless as the warranty on a secondhand truck by scoring four touchdowns in the Giants' first victory of the season, 27-12.

To top everything off, the Giants were under the direction of Norm Snead, a quarterback traded by the Eagles a year after Tose took command.

"I can't believe that bleeding Snead beat this team," Tose said afterward. "I'm sick. I just can't believe we're this bad."

What the Eagles lacked was a sense of opportunism. With rookie quarterback John Reaves starting his first game after two losses under Pete Liske, they moved inside the Giant 30-yard line seven times and had first downs inside the 25 six times. They scored only on a five-yard Reaves pass to Po James in the third quarter and field goals of 27 and 15 yards by Tom Dempsey in the first half. A missed field goal, an interception in the end zone by Spider Lockhart, a fumble recovery by Willie Williams and an interception by Jim Files spoiled the other Eagle chances.

The Eagles' one bright spot was the play of wide receiver Harold Jackson, who maintained his league pass catching lead with nine for 138 yards.

Johnson set a club record with his four touchdowns on Snead passes of 16, 9 and 15 yards and a five-yard run. He carried 36 times for 124 yards and added 60 more on five receptions.

Johnson, at full strength after being idled by leg injuries last year, said his performance "was a big emotional lift because I was playing cautious until now."

Tose, whose boisterous talk contrasts sharply with the silence of head coach Ed Khayat, blamed the loss on a lack of team "character."

"This team played like they don't have any character," Tose said. "I think our players have the ability to win and I don't know why they're not winning. But it is not the fault of the coaching staff or the front office."

Asked whether that let the players to blame, Tose snapped, "You're damn right."

TO MY SIX SCIENTISTS....
Re (2)...

Lest Monday afternoon, after reading in the papers that Len Tose had guaranteed that the Eagles would beat the Giants that same evening...I telephoned the Phila. Daily News, the Phila. Inquirer, and the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot...sports depts...and notified all three that that evening I would personally go "one on one" with Len Tose and his team...and beat the Eagles, in a "weird game". Well...at game time, over TV, I did just that. The Eagles should have won...note in the above how many times they were in scoring position. But my psi-force attack kept them from scoring each time...they would drop the ball, fumble, throw an interception, etc. And so they were beaten. And I won, in spite of Len Tose's guarantee. Some critics say, oh, but the Eagles are a bad team. Well, who do you think keeps the Eagles a bad team? I do, that's who. Same as I keep the Phila. Phillies on the bottom, year after year! Think for a moment...how could the Phila. baseball and football teams (pro) both stink, year after year...in spite of changing coaches, changing players, etc? Phila. is a huge city. It spends a fortune on its sports teams. Yet how could the Eagles and Phillies be at the bottom year after year? Because of my psi-force, PK attack, that's how! (And the 76'rs can't get anywhere, either.)

Owens
The PK Man

=== **Page: 4 of 7**

Nov. 27, 72

FRANK DOLSON

Can Philly Win One for Ripper?

THE EAGLES GAVE UP 67 POINTS SUNDAY, and it might as well have been 162. Their record is 2-8-1 and falling. The way they are playing Leonard Tose might have trouble talking Jerry Wolman into TAKING them back.

The Sixers have won one and lost 21. A quarter of the way through the schedule, they are 17 games off the pace. The only pro basketball teams ever to get off a worse start were the Washington Generals, the Boston Shamrocks and the Atlantic City Seagulls. AND THEY were playing the Globetrotters.

The Blazers, with the worst record in the WHA, have lost 16 games, two general managers, and one owner. Inspired by a post-game blast by their remaining owner Friday night, they blew a two-goal lead with four minutes to go against the second-worst team in the league Saturday night.

The Flyers, our town's only "winner," have skidded a game under .500. Their road record is so bad they'd probably be underdogs if they played the Blazers at the Civic Center.

Whoops. Hold everything. Stop the sarcasm. Hold the wise cracks. The trouble with Philadelphia sports writers is they're too negative. Always looking for something to knock. "Does Dolson ever say anything nice about anybody?" an anonymous reader wrote recently.

Well, why not? Surely, it was worth a try. What better time for a temporary cease-fire than Thanksgiving weekend?

Right From Horse's Mouth

THINK OF IT. AN ENTIRE WEEKEND devoted to the proposition that there's some good in everything, even in Philadelphia pro sports franchises. Stop knocking, start boosting. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. Sure, the Eagles scored 62 points Sunday, but the Eagles scored 10, didn't they? That two touchdowns in two weeks. Get the idea?

It was only fitting that our first annual Be-Kind-to-Philly Franchises Weekend began at Civic Center Convention Hall, home of the Blazers. After all, wasn't it the Blazers' highest-paid player - his name escapes me - who was quoted at great length by a New York sports writer a couple of weeks ago as follows:

"The Philadelphia press is brutal. I'm writing a book with a whole chapter on the (Philly) sportswriters that's really going to do a number on them. How sometimes they're so drunk they can't remember the arena, and where they are and what they're doing. How do they get off criticizing players? Here in Philadelphia they exaggerate the bad things. Like if you lose, you're a Etcetera. Etcetera."

Okay. Let's boost the Blazers. Let's get out there and root, root, root. Sure, they lost a game Friday night, but they rallied from two goals down, didn't they? And they were even late in the third period, weren't they? Well, weren't they, Bernie?

"I thought they played terrible," the owner told The In-

Continued on Page 26, Column 1

Continued From 1st Sports Page

quirer's John Dell after the game. "I don't think they really tried... I told them they should be ashamed of themselves. I feel that way about it."

No Players From the Sky

ON TO THE SUECTRUM, home of the 76ers. It's the fourth quarter. They're leading! Five up with 10 minutes to go. Less than 4,000 fans in the place, but they're cheering. "Dammit," Roy Rubin said, "a lousy five-point lead and it sounded like 50,000 people in there..."

A beautiful night, right? Well, not exactly. To be honest with you, as Frank Lucchesi used to say, the 76ers got out-guarded. I called three time outs," Rubin said. "I changed the guards. I tried everything... We need help so badly, so desperately in the backcourt. We're getting killed at both ends by our guards - defensively and with horrendous steals. We need a playmaking guard, a leader on the floor. After 22 games it's obvious where the weakness is... We can't sit on our hands and wait for a miracle to happen. Some little bird isn't going to fall out of the sky and say, 'I'm a player.'"

"We're trying. We're trying like hell. I'll look anywhere for a player. In a schoolyard. Anywhere. I'm going to an Eastern League game tonight in Trenton. I don't expect anything, but I'm not leaving any stones unturned. (Pause.) I hope they're playing. With my luck I'll probably get up to Trenton and find out they've got the night off."

Hmmmm. Friday night the Blazers play "like school children." Saturday night the 76ers throw away a five-point lead so fast it makes Roy Rubin's head spin. Sunday afternoon the Eagles...

But remember, it could have been worse. We did have something to be thankful for this weekend. A labor dispute forced CBS to cancel its telecast of the Eagles-Giants game. In its place, Channel 10 viewers saw the Redskins play the Packers.

Maybe we didn't get any victories this weekend, but at least we discovered the true meaning of the term "strike benefits."

Nov. 27, 1972

TO MY SIX SCIENTISTS...

As you know, as a demonstration of how psi-force can selectively control ALL PRO TEAMS in one large city... I have been "PK'ing" with psi-force all of the pro teams in Philadelphia. On these newsclips... you can see how utterly absolutely and completely successful I have been. If it were not so... then would not at least ONE of these four teams be a big winner? (If not more then one.) You can see the pattern here... fits the other psi-force pattern demonstrations I have given (as with the aircraft carriers). EVERYTHING goes wrong for the "target", as it is slowly demolished, and deteriorates.

Owens
/ Kpkman

=== **Page: 5 of 7**

Nov. 27, 1972 Phila. Inq.

Khayat Says Birds Quit In Club's Worst Defeat

By JOHN FLYNN
Of The Inquirer Staff

NEW YORK - The Eagles quit Sunday. Oh, there were protests to the contrary in their dressing room afterwards, but the evidence was overwhelmingly against them. It was in the score -- 62-10. It was in the dozens of missed tackles. It was in the embarrassment the players tried to hide. But most of all, it was in the words that Eddie Khayat said to Giant quarterback Randy Johnson as they left the field together.

"We quit," the Eagle coach told Johnson.

JOHNSON HAD come to Khayat to apologize for engineering the final three Giant touchdowns, which turned an embarrassing 41-10 rout into a 52-point blitz which could prove terribly costly to Khayat when Len Tose starts assessing his football team.

But Khayat, in his gentle fashion, had reassured Johnson. "Nothing you could do, our guys quit," said Eddie.

Johnson, who came in for Norman Snead in the third quarter, agreed with Khayat. "There wasn't anything I could do," he declared. "I kept trying to run the simple plays and we kept breaking them off for long gainers or touchdowns. It got embarrassing for me after awhile."

IT ALSO GOT embarrassing for Giant Coach Alex Webster. In fact, Johnson and Webster argued on the sidelines after Johnson had sneaked for the Giants' final touchdown with a long seven minutes, 35 seconds remaining. Webster told Johnson to stop the flow of touchdowns somehow, and Johnson succeeded although the Giants were on the move again at the Eagle 33 as the final gun ended the fiasco.

"What could I do?" asked Johnson. "I'm not a guy to call the wrong play or to throw the ball over the receiver's head. I just couldn't settle for a giveup play."

Johnson tried to work the safe stuff but it worked too well because the demoralized Eagles would have had trouble bringing down your Aunt Fanny.

ON THE FIRST play of the final period, Johnson threw a sideline pass to Dan Herrmann. The play was designed to go five or six yards and pick up a first down. Instead, it went 63 for the Giants' seventh touchdown because the coverage broke down upfield and Bill Bradley missed a tackle and Al Nelson fell down downfield.

Later on during the Giants' last touchdown drive, Johnson threw a harmless looking screen pass which an Eagle tipped into the hands of running back Vince Clements who went 49 yards to the Eagle 29 before he fell on his duff without a hand being laid on him.

From there, the Giants moved to the first down at the 12. At that point the Eagles allowed Johnson to crash into the end zone on three quarterback sneaks, proving conclusively that the game had become a non-contact sport for Philadelphia's entry in the NFL.

"I couldn't believe it," said Johnson.

He wasn't alone.

Nov. 27, 1972

TO NY SX SCIENTISTS...

this incredible, unbelievable event is one of the finest examples of psi-force attacking!
Read this newsclip carefully.
No matter what happened...everything went wrong for the Eagles...and as they became demoralized and confused, the Giants kept scoring. (The Giants are NOT one of my PK'd teams.)

AND HERE IT GETS SCREAMINGLY FUNNY! Both the Giant coach and the Giant quarterback tried in every way...TO NOT SCORE! NOT MAKE TOUCHDOWNS! (This is unheard of on this scale.)
YET IN SPITE OF THEIR EFFORTS, THEY STILL PRODUCED THREE MORE TOUCHDOWNS AGAINST THE EAGLES!
Now think about that a minute.
A professional football team, with both the coach and the quarterback on the field trying to play simple plays and not score...STILL MAKING 21 POINTS! (Note that the Eagles only made 10 points in the entire game.)

Owens
YKPKmanj

=== **Page: 6 of 7**

Pro football

Bill Bell of Atlanta was distraught after the Patriots' victory. "I just blew it," he said after missing a 16-yard field goal attempt with 25 seconds to play, a field goal that would have put the Falcons on top. "I hit it with the inside of my toe and it squirted off to the left. I knew right away it was bad." And Coach Norm Van Brocklin added: "It's a one-in-a-million shot--but it happens."

Trailing 28-7 in the fourth quarter, quarterback Jim Plunkett engineered two New England scoring drives, one ending with a touchdown pass to Randy Vataha, the other climaxed by Carl Garrett' 12-yard scoring run.

Mike Phipps, a third-year quarterback making only his second NFL start, threw for one touchdown and ran for another to lead the Browns past the Eagles. Don Cockroft booted two field goals and Bo Scott plunged over from one-yard out for the Browns' other scores. Philadelphia's rookie quarterback, John Reaves, also threw for one touchdown and ran for another.

Tight end Jerry Smith caught his first two passes of the season--both for touchdowns--to lead the Redskins past the Cardinals.

11/25/72

TO MY SIX SCIENTISTS...

"It's a one-in-a-million shot," said coach Norm Brocklin.

Now, you and I both know...that that is where PK Men comes in...providing miraculous one-in-a-million shots. And PK Men was VERY MUCH in this one!

As background...Bill Bell came to me at my home several years ago in Norfolk and asked me to help him make the Falcon team by using my powers. He seemed sincere...so I did just that. (He'd tried to make the team before, but had failed.)

All right, after he made the Falcon team...he wrote me a nasty letter...said he'd thrown his disc away...and THAT HE HAD WRITTEN A NATIONAL MAGAZINE WHICH WAS CONTEMPLATING DOING AN ARTICLE ON ME, THAT I WAS A "FAKE AND PHONY PERSONALITY".

Now, it was bad enough to double-cross me, so to speak...but when he went to a national magazine to attack my character...he was not only trying to hurt me, but hurt the SI's attempt to get together with humans.

So ever since that time...the Falcons have been my number one FK'd team...to make them losers...and of course, especially Bill Bell the biggest loser of all.

Any team...which employs Bell...I will utterly and thoroughly and completely and methodically wreck.

And the Falcons have him now.

(Of course...when I speak of wrecking...I am speaking of using my psi-force powers...mental powers. Just as I have used them on the Baltimore Colts, Eagles, Baltimore Bullets, Jets, and so forth.)

If there is any validity at all to my psi-force powers...Bill Bell will, in time, become the most frustrated, "distraught" pro football player of all time.

Owens
(XPKMan)

PS...Howard Cosell even talked about Bill Bell's losing the game for his team...over national TV.
"You have to feel awfully sorry for that young man," said Cosell. (Never a truer word has ever been spoken!)-Owens

=== **Page: 7 of 7**

GORDON FORBES
On the Eagles

Logic tells you that Lee Bourgress will spend the rest of the season in pro football's shadowy fringe. The other side of the frantic Sunday scene.

"It's going to hurt my comeback," he grudgingly conceded. "I can stand on the leg, you know. And on a flat surface I can walk. Maybe later in the year I'll be ready."

BOURGRESS WAS REFLECTING on the Eagles that has made pro football players the most remark-able of all professional athletes.

No fewer than 61 Eagle players have undergone sur-gery in the past five seasons. 43 of the operations involving the susceptible knee joint. This year alone Jim Ward, Ike Kelley, Pat Gibbs, Tom McNeil and Bourgress, have sub-mitted to knee reconstruction.

Bourgress, talented running back, beautiful person and keeper of the faith, persists in his belief that he will be exploding with a football in the 12th, or maybe 13th game of the season.

The disturbing fact is that injuries continue to stack up with no foreseeable solution. The hope that synthetic turf would wipe out knee damage has turned out to be a manu-facturer's dream. New protective braces for the knee have been developed but seldom if ever used.

The chilling fact of National Football League life is that a mountingly high percentage of players will need knee sur-gery sometime in their careers.

In the case of Lee Bourgress, complications developed that make you wonder about the steady parade of players into operations rooms across the country.

There is something special about a player like Bour-gress who, having been hospitalized three times in the past two seasons, still wants to return to the huddle.

This season, too.

THIS WAS THE FINAL WEEK of the exhibition sea-son and the pro football factory was busy counting its healthy bodies. The others, the ones with torn knee liga-ments and pulled hamstring muscles, from the snap, crackle and pop of the previous five weeks, would be cast onto a waiver list.

In time, the injured would return to flowing health and the process would be repeated. Healthy on the 40-man roster, injured on the discard heap.

Lee Bourgress was one of those beginning a painful re-habilitation program following knee surgery. Wearing a thick, thigh-to-ankle cast over his right knee, Bourgress manipulated himself around the apartment in Sicklerville, N. J., with his wife, Georgeanne, as cheerleader.

On the day after the Eagles had shown their tender af-fection for the New York Giants, pro football suddenly be-came meaningless for Lee and Georgeanne Bourgress.

"I was sitting at home feeling very weak," Bourgress was recalling. "I felt this pain in my back but thought it was just from getting up and sitting down. Like a pull," he said. "I woke up and began yawning. I'd take a deep breath and it hurt."

Bourgress turned to his wife and said, "My goodness, I can't breathe."

Soon the young runner was on his way at high speeds to Graduate Hospital where eight days earlier a surgeon had cut into his knee to repair a ligament and some muscles.

BOURGESS' CONDITION WAS DIAGNOSED as a pul-monary embolism, or blood clot, near the lung area. The embolism is caused by a sequence of chemical and physical reactions that result in a conversion of fluid blood to a co-agulated mass.

"I thought I was close to death," Bourgress said. "They were talking about my lungs collapsing. I was halfway out of everything anyway, and the only thing I could do was pray."

After spending three uncertain weeks at Graduate, Bourgress was returned home under a blood-thinning drug for the next two months as a precau-tion against the development of another embolism. You're like a bleeder, a hemophiliac."

"I thought I was close to death ... and the only thing I could do was pray."

-Lee Bourgress

FRANK DOLSON

Dear Mr. Dolson:

I am writing this letter out of sheer frustration over the performance thus far of the so-called "professional" sports teams here in Philadelphia ... We seem to have the best sports coverage of any city, some of the most loyal and know-ledgeable fans anywhere, and to boot we even have a comfort-able and fairly accessible place to watch these teams per-form. But where do we find our teams at the end of the season? Usually near the bottom of the heap with the players at each other's throats and screaming to management demanding to be traded.

Why, for once, can't one of our teams put it all together and go all the way? I ask myself this time and time again and come to the realization that all our teams lack the basic ingre-dient that separates the men from the boys, so to speak: PRIDE.

Pride starts with upper management and works its way down through the managers, coaches, players, equipment boys and even the pom-pom girls and, baby, we don't have it here in Philly.

Chris Balzano, Jr.
Clifton Heights, Pa.

Dear Mr. Balzano:

Hmmm. So you've noticed it, too.