Letters

Benefits of Athletics

The author of "Make participants, not all students, pay the cost of athletics ..." (May 13) attacks American university athletic programs as "at best only marginally related to a higher education."

Decades on college campuses convince me otherwise. My mother lettered in basketball in college, and I enjoyed intramural sports at a major Texas university - despite a lack of athletic ability. In fact, a seventh grade physical education teacher told me my running is "like a faucet, all in one place." But that teacher is still among my all-time favorites.

Varsity athletics, combined with good intramurals and facilities have a role at America's universities. Education is more than classroom and laboratory.

Henry L. Alsmeyer

Tyler, Texas