Once A Knight ...: Fair Park faithful and the Shreveport writers were outraged (1)

There was extensive coverage, and much debate, over the Louisiana Class AAA Fair Park-Istrouma baseball semifinal series controversy of 1960.
Shreveport writers were outraged. What a surprise.
They felt Fair Park -- which chose to forfeit the decisive Game 3 and the series, thus a chance at the state championship the next week --
got a bad deal and made the right call.
Included here, and in another take, are stories and columns written then (hope you can read them; you might have to "zoom" your view).
Articles are by The Shreveport Times prep writer Bill Baker (who covered the games), Times assistant sports editor/columnist Jim Dawson, Fiser, and our man Byrd, the Shreveport Journal prep writer.
There also is a letter written to the Journal sports pages by Stanley R. Tiner, the 1960 Fair Park senior class president and Louisiana 4-H Club president, future newspaper columnist/editorial writer and longtime editor (starting at the Shreveport Journal for a decade-plus).
And, there were columns by Alexandria Town Talk sports editor Bill Carter and Lake Charles American Press sports editor Truman Stacey.
Even Fair Park Pow Pow ((school newspaper) sports editor Frank "Spike" Bright blasted Waters and the LHSAA; the Pow Pow faculty advisor had to tone down his rhetoric.
We'll give you some highlight segments. But most telling was this viewpoint from Baton Rouge State-Times sports writer Mike Cook, as published in a Shreveport Journal story (key sentence: "In my opinion, Istrouma was 100 percent wrong ..."
More than anything, Cook's comments -- he was a partial Baton Rouge guy -- should have convinced Muddy Waters and LHSAA executive committee members that what Istrouma was claiming was a crock.

Jack Fiser column, The Shreveport Times, May 22, 1960

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  Bill Baker (game story, May 13): After it became evident that the Shreveport team had the second game well in hand, Istrouma coach Tommy Bell ordered his team to pull every stalling tactic in the book. ...
(Later in the story) ... Istrouma's fantastic stalling tactics.
  Stanley Tiner (Journal letter, May 13): Istrouma High School's supposed diamond romping powerhouse and "Muddy" Waters, big chief of the Louisiana High School Athletic Assn., have combined forces to form a mass of unfairness and sporting lowness that leaves the darkest blotch in the history of the Pelican State.
"... Jack Benny has trouble getting laughs that the affair deserves and truly this deserves many laughs for it makes one big joke out of baseball.
"Istrouma High School and Commissioner Waters can be proud of their feat of misjustice because no one else will be."
  Baker (May 14, taking the lead column spot given him for a day by Fiser): "The writer ... would like to commend Fair Park for its decision and its high principles in not resuming the playoffs under the conditions set forth by ... T.H. "Muddy" Waters and Istrouma High School.
... Fair Park officials, coaches and players should certainly be congratulated on their stand. There is certainly a difference between "legality" and "morality." Istrouma stood on its "legal" rights while Fair Park chose the "moral" road.
  Jerry Byrd (May 16): When Istrouma turned a baseball playoff game into a comedy with the entire state as an audience, the athletic assn. officials and committtees join the procession of clowns and the so-called LHSAA sportsmanship code committee becomes another big joke.
Ha ha.
Bill Carter (May 18): Commissioner T. H. Waters is being unfairly criticized because he ruled against the protest by Fair Park. But he had no choice. He couldn't overrule the umpires' decision. ...
Istrouma, long one of the state's most respected athletic teams, can't be too proud of its victory. It was a cheap one. But the umpires are actually to blame.
When there is a home team, there is always a chance of an umpire not having the courage to do his duty when it means ruling against the host.
From "Muddy" Waters' letter (critical of media coverage): There is an amazing failure to dig deeply enough to learn the facts behind a case. By presenting half-truths and by cleverly wording (cq) opinions, the writer can make the implications sound any way he wants them to and the damage done to the high school athletic program, in the eyes of the general public, is inestimable, since most readers do not often weigh their opinions but take them at face value."
Carter again (May 21): If everybody had taken their time to check the rules, or even contact the commissioner, none of this would have been necessary.
From this corner, it looks like the only real guilty parties were the umpires who allowed the farce between Istrouma and Fair Park.
  Jack Fiser (May 22, a segment titled "The Aroma of Cheese"): The lingering bad taste from the whole mess results from State High School Commissioner Muddy Waters' apparent inclination to get all his data from the Istrouma side, and to let an important championship be decided by thread-bare technicalities rather than toss in a mixture of common sense, as a commissioner is supposed to do in controversial matters.
"... The impression lingers that Waters was too eager to accept the versions of the row furnished by Istrouma officials and Baton Rouge umpires, and not eager enough to make sure justice was done.
Waters, he concluded, was "accessory to a cheese championship."