Where Have All the Good Sports Gone?

I’d like to point out something to all those USC and UCLA fans who are so worried about which school has the better record because of which scholarship restrictions (Viewpoint, May 9 and 16).

You “fans” seem to forget that the main purpose of attending a university should be obtaining an education. That’s OK, though, because so have the administrations of most of the NCAA Division I schools in this country, and so have most of the athletes who attend them.

I’m a senior at UC San Diego. We’re a Division III school. We give no athletic scholarships and we don’t even have a football team. What we do have is our athletes, who play for the love of sport--not money, sexual favors or a new wardrobe every season.

Our baseball team looked bound for the national championships, so I thought I’d go on over and watch one of their final regular-season games. It didn’t cost anything to get in, we sat practically right behind home plate and we watched a terrific ballgame. Nobody threw beer in the stands! No fist fights between drunken fraternity men broke out!

Then, afterward (this is the worst part), the players from the opposing teams stood around chatting! Kind of scary, isn’t it?

What happened to, “The most important thing is not to win or lose, but to participate”?

KIPLING S. BERRY

La Jolla