4 JULY 1998, Page 36

Gents

Sir: I don't agree with Taki's statement (High life, 13 June) that 'the last black pro- fessional American athlete to act like a gentleman was Jesse Owens'.

The tennis player Arthur Ashe, the Brooklyn Dodgers' Jackie Robinson and Willis Reed, captain of the New York Knicks basketball team in the 1970s and still active in management for the New Jer- sey Nets, immediately come to mind as both gentlemen and world-class athletes. Alice Kaufman

355 Buena Vista East, San Francisco, USA