One for the Book by Sam Balter Mercy Bowl Contest More Than Mere Game Two weeks from today the football teams from Bowling Green University of Ohio and Fresno State of California trod forth upon the gridiron of the Coliseum to engage in a contest that could be as good as any that has been seen there. They are both powerhouses in the college, rather than university division, and those who have had the misfortune to run up against them say that they could hold their own in any kind of competition. But their game here transcends the usual. It is, as I think you surely know by now, the game being played for the benefit of survivors of the terrible sports disaster of a year ago at Toledo, Ohio. As such, it is being called the Mercy Bowl game. A wonderful prescience on the part of the promoters gave it such an apt title. Shakespeare wrote a long them ago that the quality of mercy "dropped as the gentle rain from Heaven." here on Earth it is the characteristic that distinguishes man from beast. It is the quality which we hope will guide you to attend the game at the Coliseum next Thanksgiving Day. Your attendance won't bring back 17 young men who died in the crash, and it won't restore mobility of limb to others who have been maimed for life. But it will enable their dependents to survive and it will help pay for care for those still hospitalized and unable to meet their bills. All the players participating in the game will pay to get in. So will officials, sportswriters, broadcasters, publicity men, even the ushers. Everybody. The Coliseum is donating its facilities. Football players of other teams throughout the country have bought tickets, even though they cannot attend. Organizations like the National Football League, the NCAA, and the Dodger and Giant baseball teams, have made sizeable donations. It seems to me that this is the kind of cause that will stir the compassion of sportsminded individuals, for everything about the disaster was horrible. That a young college football team should be wiped out almost en masse was tragic enough, considering that these were young men only on the threshold of life. But the circumstances that came later were unbelievable. The airline carrying the team to its day of destiny went bankrupt, and the insurance company found this development as a loophole to avoid paying it off. Not a cent of insurance money has been paid. Hospital expenses for the living have not been paid. Two players, it is said, will be under medical care for the rest of their lives. One of the dead left a wife and four children, all under six years of age, non with means of subsistence. One of the survivors was presented with a hospital bull for $28,000. The bill is increasing daily, and he sees no way of paying it. Wonderful Word All you have to do is help spend a pleasant afternoon seeing a fine football game for the price of $3. One way to get a ticket, or tickets, is to send the money to: Mercy Bowl Game, Box 800, Los Angeles State College, Los Angeles 32. Your reward may be in Heaven. And I know they'll look kindly up there at the likes of Ferron Losee, the athletic director at Los Angeles State College, whose idea this game was, and who fought unceasingly to bring it to fruition; and Roy Easley, L.A. State football player and student body president, who has been devoting all his energies to fund-raising; and Bill Schroeder, who you know would be in the forefront of any enterprise having to do with the help of his fellow man; to the many others, including you and you and you, who will help by attending the game. What a wonderful word is Mercy, with its two dimensions. For it warms him who gives it fully as much as him who receives it. Hear Sam Balter over KABC, 5:05. MERCY BOWL FANS AID 4 LITTLE GIRLS by Ralph Alexander It is common knowledge how the five little Peppers grew, but how the four little Porrases grow will depend upon the size of the hearts of their fellow Southern Californians. Their father, Ray, was one of the 16 Cal Poly of San Luis Obispo football players who died in the airplane crash on a fog-shrouded airfield Oct 29, 1961, in Toledo, Ohio. Diana, 8 years; Kathleen, 6; Eileen, 3 and Rebecca, 15 months, are among the 13 children victims of that tragedy whose future hinges on the success or failure of the mercy Bowl football classic Thanksgiving morning at the Coliseum. If they are to grow up in a manner similar to normal American children, the game between unbeaten and untied Fresno State and once-beaten Bowling Green, Ohio, will have to draw a mammoth crowd to come near raising the necessary $250,000 plus. Right now, the four little Porrases' mother, 26 year old Dorothy, couldn't keep a home for them without the help and sacrifices made by relatives and close friends. Dorothy, whose only concern is the welfare of her four little daughters, made a down payment on a modest home in the south Whittier area with funds from a small personal life insurance that her husband had. [HELP THEM - The Porras family (seated l-r) Kathleen, Diana, Mrs. Porras and Eileen and 15-month-old Rebecca (standing) admire trophy won by their father, Ray, who was killed in Cal Poly plan crash Oct. 29] Her mother- and father-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Porras, her brother-in-law, Ernie, her parents Mr. and Mrs. Larry Cogan, and even her 90-year-old great grandmother bought most of the dining room and living room furniture for the home. "Ray and I had bought our own bedroom furniture while we were living in a little apartment in San Luis Obispo," Dorothy said. Then added, "He had a part-time job with the San Luis Obispo recreation department to help us get by while he was finishing college. He would have graduated last June and had been assured of a permanent job with the recreation department there. We were so happy and the future looked so bright until the accident came along. My biggest worry now is what I would do if any of my children should get sick. We are just getting by now." her mother-in-law confirmed Dorothy's fears and said: "Paul and I do all we can for them. We love them just as though they were our own children. Dorothy is a lovely girl. She and Ray were such a fine couple. Theirs was a perfect marriage. When I go shopping for groceries, I always buy extra to take to Dorothy and the children. We help out by buying shoes and clothes for her and the girls." The help given Dorothy by her relatives supplements the meager $50 per months allowance for each child that the California Polytechnic Memorial Fund has provided since September. Tickets, priced at $3 each, are now on sale at the 49 offices of the Automobile Club of Southern California, the 140 Thrifty Drug Stores in Southern California, all state colleges, Helms Hall, the Coliseum and the Olympian Hotel.