row2k Features
Peter Mallory's 'The Sport of Rowing'
Joe Burk, Coach; Harry Parker, Sculler
March 7, 2008
Peter Mallory

Two more chapters from Peter Mallory's book on the Evolution of the Rowing Stroke; see also Peter's previous book, An Out of Boat Experience

Chapter 59. Joe Burk, Coach


After their Olympic win, the virtually-intact Navy Olympic Crew remained undefeated through the 1953 and 1954 seasons. The coach who managed to finally unseat Navy in 1955 was none other than Callow's own protege at Penn, 1930s champion sculler Joe Burk.

At the end of World War II, Joe had no idea what he would do with his life.

"I was coming back after my tour of duty in the Navy, and my executive officer, Charlie Black, had said to be sure to stop in and say hello to his folks in San Francisco.

"Of course, coming out of the Pacific I was a pretty grungy looking guy, with hair down over my ears and so forth, so I went to a barber shop to get a haircut.

"There was a fellow on the chair there, and when the barber finished with him, I looked up, and it was Tom Bolles.

"Bolles had brought his Harvard crew to Henley back in 1939, the second time I rowed there, and that's how I got to know him, and that's how I got into coaching. At that barber shop he said to me, 'What are you going to do when you get out of the Navy?'

"I said, 'I really don't know,' and he said he'd keep me in mind for any coaching jobs that came up.

"And so he did. When the Yale freshman job came up, he put in a good word for me."1360

That trip to San Francisco was also how Joe met his future wife. At dinner with Navy buddy Charlie Black's parents was Charlie's sister, Kay Black.

They married the next year.

The Yale Years

During Joe's first year as freshman coach at Yale, he taught his crew to row sweep the way he had sculled fifteen years earlier.

"Unfortunately, their lack of weight and experience often made this tactic a handicap, especially in rough water and high winds."1361

Burk recalls, "They managed to go undefeated in dual competition and were a commendable third in the Eastern Sprints. Their final success was that of beating the Harvard Freshmen at Gales Ferry.

"However, following my first year as a freshman coach, I never again taught my crews that technique of rowing. As a freshman coach, it would have caused my pupils to have trouble when they moved up to the varsity level.

"Likewise, when I became a varsity coach, it would have taken a long time and lots of patience for them to learn and feel confident with such a radical technique. I had been rather successful with the normal technique and thought that there were other areas to work on that would be just as effective."1362

Nevertheless, for the rest of Joe's coaching career, his crews often tended to overstroke their opponents.

Joe Returns to Penn

In 1950, when Rusty Callow left Penn for Navy, Joe Burk, Penn '34, returned to his alma mater as head coach. The lightweight coach was Joe's former undergraduate teammate, J. Richard Jordan '33. He and Joe, both 6'3" and 196 lb., had also rowed the 4- and 5-seats in Rusty Callow's Penn Alumni eight that came in second to Washington at the 1936 Olympic Trials.1363

Dick Kendall '51, 7-man on the 1951 Penn Lightweight Varsity, remembers Jordan fondly. "When I started rowing in the fall of 1947, there were only two coaches at Penn, Rusty Callow and Dick Jordan. They spent all of their fall time teaching the combined light and heavy freshman. They put all the experienced stroke oars in the frosh boats for us to follow, and the other experienced rowers pretty much rowed by themselves. In the spring, the lightweights and heavyweights separated."1364

The University had just dropped lightweight crew when Joe was hired, and so he quickly appointed Dick to coach the 1951 heavy freshman. Jordan provided Joe the continuity and professional support that the new head coach was looking for.

Dick Jordan's Technique

Having rowed for and coached under Rusty Callow, it was not surprising that J. Richard Jordan coached a close version of Rusty's 1st Generation Conibear Stroke.

Kendall: "Dick coached the original Pocock/Callow stroke and emphasized the snap catch with an imperceptible hesitation as the blade was buried. He wanted us to feel the water and make sure that the blade was totally immersed before 'standing on it.'

"In those days, rowing trunks were wool with chamois on the backs. Before a race Dick used to have the boatman put shellac on our seats so that we would stay on during the drive when suspending from the handle.

"He referred to the drive as the 'Bung Ho' Stroke. On 'Bung' you rammed an umbrella up your [butt], and on 'Ho' you opened it.1365

Despite the colorful description, force application was definitely Schubschlag.

Kendall: "Hammering the catch would have been fatal for lightweights over a long season.

"The arms were broken earlier than present-day practice. This seemed to be common among many of the Washington coaches of the time, Callow and Stork Sanford to mention a few.

"After the leg drive, the hips started to rotate. As the hands came into the body, the finish was 'squeezed' and not slammed.

"At the release, the hands were quite fast with the legs held down until catch body angle was obtained. Then the recovery was very relaxed with the slide slowing perceptibly to the moment before the catch."1366

Lightweight Crew at Penn

"In 1917, Joseph Wright, the newly-appointed crew coach at the University of Pennsylvania, advocated a special race advocated a special race for rowers weighing one hundred fifty pounds or lighter. Thus, the first lightweight crew in the United States was organized.

"Lightweight boats were an immediate success. From 1919 to 1928, Penn suffered just one loss."1367

In the years after World War II, lightweight crew gained in credibility throughout the rowing schools of the Eastern United States. Starting in 1946, it became traditional for every year's winner of the Joe Wright Trophy for varsity lightweight crews at the Eastern Sprints Regatta to enter the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley, a race that had been dominated since the 1930s by American prep schools.1368 In 1948, Princeton University became the first American lightweight crew to win the Thames Cup, and they repeated in 1949.

During budget cuts in the fall of 1950, Penn had canceled lightweight crew just as Joe Burk arrived on campus. According to 1951 2-man Ray Dorsch '52: This "was a real blow to the oarsmen who had been working through the ranks in previous years, expecting to compete in 1951, but about a dozen decided not to just give up.

"They approached the heavyweight stroke in 1950 - Al Lawn - who was a graduate student at the University. He agreed to be their coach on a volunteer basis. Joe told Al that it was okay for the lightweights to work out - their old shell and oars were still there - but to keep out of the way. This meant a varied workout schedule fitting around Al's classes and those of the oarsmen while avoiding the practice time of the heavies.

Dorsch: "The upshot was sometimes rowing at 7 a.m. and sometimes at 7 p.m."1369

Lawn did not make any real changes to the technique that Dick Jordan had taught.

Dorsch: "Coach Al's rowing philosophy was fairly simple: keep your oar in the water as long as you can, pull as hard as you can, and go as fast as you can (or need to).

"We dubbed in the 'Lawn-a-tug stroke.'"1370

The 1951 Lightweights

After losing the first race of the 1951 season narrowly to Yale, Coach Lawn added a few innovations, a longer racing start and a mid-race spurt they called a "Strawberry," named after the Strawberry Mansion Bridge on their Schuylkill River race course.

Dorsch: "One other innovation was necessitated by our froggy-voiced coxswain. We installed a buzzer in the bow of the boat, powered by a dry-cell battery, so when a big ten or rhythm change was called for, the buzzer would be sounded to alert the boys in the bow of the boat. To our knowledge, we became the first crew to have its boat wired for sound."1371

After defeating Princeton at home in the second race of the season, the 1951 Penn Lightweights traveled to Boston for the Eastern Sprints Championships. They stayed in MIT dorms and rowed out of the MIT Boathouse.

When their boat was damaged in practice the day before the race, the MIT boatman stayed up all night to fix it.

The Penn crew beat Yale, Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Princeton and Cornell by open water and came within two seconds of the Charles River course record.1372

Kendall: "I still marvel that we won in spite of hauling around a 131 lb. cox. The boat was very strong with four service veterans. Bow had a plate in his head courtesy of the Japanese Imperial Army. The motto of the 1951 150s was 'Press on Regardless!'"1373


1951 Thames Challenge Cup Final
1. University of Pennsylvania Lightweights, 7:19
2. Renngemeinschaft Florsheim-Russelsheim & Mindener Ruder-Verein (1 length) (Dick Kendall photo)


Dorsch: "When we returned to the MIT Boathouse, the boatman asked us who won, and we had to tell him three times to get him to believe it. He beamed - almost more than if MIT had won."1374

The following week Penn defeated Cornell on the Schuylkill, and there began talk of the club-status Penn Lightweights with their volunteer coach going to Henley. Influential Penn Crew alumnus Crawford C. Madeira headed the fund-raising effort, and soon the University was also on board.

Thus the '51 150s became the first Penn crew since Ellis Ward's 1901 Varsity to compete at Henley. They moved through the Thames Cup eliminations with relative ease, defeating Thames Rowing Club, London "easily" on Wednesday, Peterhouse College, Cambridge by 1 3/4 lengths on Thursday, King's College, London by 4 lengths on Friday and Trinity Hall, Cambridge by 1 3/4 lengths on Saturday morning.

The Thames Cup final was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, and a strong headwind was blowing. Penn's opponent would be Renngemeinschaft Florsheim-Russelsheim & Mindener Ruder-Verein, a veteran German heavyweight (187 lb. average) composite crew which had advanced on the other side of the draw with times that "had paralleled Pennsylvania's almost to the second.

Al Lawn: "On the dot of 5 p.m., the loudspeaker blared:
The race that has just started is the final heat of the Thames Challenge Cup and the University of Pennsylvania on the Berks Station and the German crew on the Bucks Station. Pennsylvania is striking 42, the Germans at 41.

As they reach the Barrier, the Germans are leading by a canvas. Pennsylvania is striking 32 and the Germans 34. Barrier time 2:06.

As they reach Fawley, the Germans are still leading by a canvas, both crews striking 31. Fawley time 3:29. We will turn you over to the Remenham Club.

This is the Remenham Club speaking. Pennsylvania is now closing up, and as crews pass here Pennsylvania is leading by a canvas, Pennsylvania striking at 36, the Germans at 33. Over to the enclosure.
"At the mile mark, the lead had increased to half a length. Our lightweights were gaining on each stroke and carrying a beautiful run on the boat as they swept by the Stewards' Enclosure.

"At the finish line, Pennsylvania was a good length ahead and timed at 7:19. They had accomplished something that no other Pennsylvania crew had ever been able to do and were proud possessors of the famous Thames Challenge Cup, in competition since 1868."1375

Kendall: "Our time difference to the Grand winner [only three seconds slower] stood for twenty years thereafter, and that Grand-winning crew, Lady Margaret Boat Club,1376 later won the European Championships held that summer in Macon, France."1377


1951 University of Pennsylvania Lightweight Eight
Eastern Sprints Champions, Thames Cup Champions
Stroke Frank Dubois, 7 Dick Kendall, 6 Bob Doyle, 5 Warren Wells, 4 Stan Joy, 3 Bill Katterman, 2 Raymond Dorsch, Bow Ray Clark, Coxswain Bob Robinson, Coach Al Lawn (Dick Kendall photo)

The next week the crew participated the the 61st Annual Hamburger Inter-nationale Ruder-Regatta in Hamburg, Germany. On Saturday, they won the race for second eights over Muhlheimer Ruder-Gesellschaft, Lubecker Ruder-Gesellschaft and Hamburger Ruderinnen-Club, and on Sunday they beat Allemannia Hamburg, Bremer Ruderverein and Rudergesellschaft Kassel in the race for lightweight eights.

The 1952 Lightweights

Al Lawn left his position as volunteer coach after Henley, and the Lightweights were turned back to Penn Heavyweight Freshman coach Dick Jordan, the man who had coached them until1951.

Bill Katterman '52, 3-man: "For the 1952 season, the Lightweights practiced with the Freshmen. However, there were times when we would practice at 'first light' because our pre-meds and engineering students had labs, and most of the time Dick Jordan would be there.

"For most of our races we were 'on our own' since Dick would accompany Joe and the Heavies. I recall only the first race on the Harlem when Cup schedules put the Lights and Heavies together. After that and straight through the Championships at Princeton, we were coachless. [The crew arrived at the Sprints undefeated and successfully defended its 1951 title.] It was not until we were preparing for Henley (and I had already left the boat for the U.S. Navy) that Dick really became our full-time coach again.

"Dick Jordan was a very laid back guy with a bawdy sense of humor. He gave us encouragement and motivation, and that's all we really needed!"1378

Eventually, the Penn Lightweight win streak would stretch to twenty-three races, including a successful defense of the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley in 1952.

So in the first few years of the Joe Burk era at Penn, the Lightweights led the way, and it was Rusty Callow's former assistant (and Joe's 1930s teammate) Dick Jordan who largely determined the technique.

Katterman: "Basically, Dick did not alter our style from 1951, and as I recall Dick was using the same method with his Heavy Freshmen.

"Incidentally, that 1952 Freshman Heavy boat became the nucleus of Joe's 1955 Grand crew."1379

Fred Lane '56, 1955 Heavyweight Stroke-man: "Dick Jordan was my Freshman Coach. He and Joe were at the scales in the fall of 1951 when the freshmen were getting their matriculation physicals, and on the spot they approached each freshman that was 'tall' and talked to him about rowing. I played freshman football, but when late winter came around, I went out for crew.

"Dick was an upbeat, positive-thinking good teacher, and he knew how to get his boys to really put out. He got us to love the sport. With hindsight, it is clear that he did a good job of teaching us the basics and reteaching the basics to those freshmen who were taught to row in prep school.

"His demeanor was very different from Joe's. No profanity ever passed through Joe's lips, but Dick, on the other hand . . .

His most famous statement that he loved to repeat was: 'Okay boys, today the river is as flat as a platter of piss,'1380 conveying the idea that conditions were great for a terrific workout."1381

The 1955 Heavyweight Crew

Like the 1951 and 1952 Lightweights, the 1955 Heavyweights liked to understroke their opponents and push for extraordinary run on each recovery. According to Fred Lane: "We generally tried to settle down after the start to 31 or 32, where the 'swing' and power of the boat was awesome, with at least four puddles behind the rudder!"1382

As I write this, the 1955 crew is about to celebrate their 50th anniversary, and their memories of that year are like it was just yesterday.

In the 1955 Adams Cup in Cambridge, Penn ended the three-year winning streak of the legendary Navy 1952 Olympic Champions. It was headline sports news throughout the country.

Time Magazine: "When it was over, the Naval Academy crew hardly knew what to do. It had been so long since they had lost (three years and thirty-one races) that the old rowing tradition of collecting the losers' shirts had become a happy habit.

"But last week the Middies got a reminder that that sort of shirt-shucking can work both ways. Though they rowed their hearts out on Boston's choppy Charles River, they slid past the finish line a long length and a half behind the University of Pennsylvania.

"Appropriately, the Penn crew that won the Adams Cup last week was coached by Diamond Sculler Joe Burk, who learned his sweep-swing from Rusty Callow.

"Rusty is the man who made Navy great. When defeat finally came last week, it was far from a disgrace. Navy's new and inexperienced oarsmen pushed Penn to the fastest time ever clocked on that mile-and-three-quarter course: 8:47.7.

"Coach Callow was not at all disheartened, for he had the makings of another great eight. Now that the Middies have learned to lose, said he, 'Navy will have to start budgeting for crew shirts.'"1383

What was Joe Burk's reaction to the Penn victory? "It's happiness, tinged with regret. I'm happy that we won, but sorry also to see a crew with a wonderful streak like Navy's lose."1384


1955 University of Pennsylvania Heavyweight Crew
Stroke Fred Lane, 7 Bruce Crocco, 6 Frank Betts, 5 Tom Friend, 4 Chuck Schaffer, 3 Bart Fitzpatrick, 2 Harry Parker, Bow John Weise, Coxswain J.L. "Fox" DeGurse (photo U of P Photographic Dept.)

That 1955 Adams Cup victory completed a sweep of Penn's historic cup races. The last time they had accomplished that was 1936, when Penn was still coached by none other than Rusty Callow.

There was a reason Penn did so well in 1955. According to Fred Lane, "We also had a special incentive. Right after each race that we won in the U.S. that season, Joe's wife, Kay, one of the greatest ladies I have ever met, leaned on Joe's training rules a little bit, and gave us ice cream!"1385

1955 Eastern Sprints

Penn entered that year's Eastern Sprints as the top seed. Lane recalls, "The Sprints were on the Potomac in 1955, and I know you're supposed to give your all in a race, but we were just floating on air down there."1386

Six-man Frank Betts '57: "In my mind, that was probably our greatest race. We were dead last after a disastrous start, almost at a standstill after a couple of crabs.

"After restarting, we overtook the field and began passing boats with about 1,000 meters to go. It felt like we were gaining a seat on every stroke.

"I wonder what our stroke count was."1387

Lane: "It wouldn't surprise me if records showed that we sprinted the last 500 meters at 40."1388

Betts: "I remember my exhilaration at winning was diminished by learning that we had missed setting the course record by fractions of a second - unbelievable!1389

1955 IRA

Seven-man Bruce Crocco '56 adds: "After we beat Navy and won the Sprints and decided to go to Henley, a reporter from Sports Illustrated started following us around. We were undefeated, and of course, they expected us to win the IRA."1390

Lane: "We had beaten Cornell at the Eastern Sprints and again in a tough long-distance race the week before the IRA, so we were probably a little overconfident.

"We started okay, but at the end of the second mile we were too low and very far behind - about eight lengths if my recollection is correct.

"The boat started to take itself up with a mile to go. Fox [coxswain DeGurse] and I felt it, exchanged a few words and made the decision to start our final sprint immediately.

"I believe we literally came as close as we could to sprinting in all the way. I believe we picked up six to seven lengths."1391

They passed everyone except Cornell.

Time Magazine: "Late-lingering winter in upstate New York kept Cornell's thin-sided racing shells in the boathouse longer than Coach Harrison Sanford1392 would have liked; it takes a long and tedious spring to work a crew into shape for the long and tedious sweep-swinging season.

"So the Big Red got off to a slow start.

"On the Severn in April, they lost to Navy; on the Potomac in May, and even on the home waters of Lake Cayuga four weeks later, Cornell's varsity eight came home second behind the powerful Quakers from the University of Pennsylvania.

"Sanford bided his time.

"He switched and changed his oarsmen; he brought up a new coxswain, and he watched his men round into condition. Their stroke lengthened with power. The rhythm that puts a long, swift run on the boat became second nature.

"Last week, as a hot (90 degree), breathless haze flattened the dead waters of New York's Onondaga Lake for the 53rd Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta, Cornell was ready.

"Cornell planned on getting away fast and giving everything it had to hold the lead. But the University of Washington's Huskies and the undefeated Quakers beat the Big Red to the gun.

"For a mile and a half, the Washington and Penn crews pulled their hearts out to hold the pace. Then, stroking along at a steady 30 beats a minute, Cornell began to get way on its boat.

"Just before the two-mile marker, the Big Red caught up with its plan: it was a boat deck in front.

"With half a mile to go, Washington's No. 2 man wilted in the heat, caught a couple of crabs and collapsed into the Husky bowman, who gave up and left his oar dragging in the water.

"Now Penn found strength for a sprint, came on to pass Navy and the Huskies.

"The Quakers were closing fast, but Cornell calmly raised the beat to 32, slid past the log boom at the finish, 10 seconds and a long 2 1/2 lengths in front.

"Sanford's day was perfect. His freshman and jayvee crews completed a sweep of the lake. Cornell had seen nothing like it, even in the days of 'Pop' Courtney's powerful crews.1393

"'I'm too happy to make sense,' said Sanford. He was even happier when he caught his breath and reminded his rivals that all but one of his victorious varsity will be back in the boat next year."1394

Crocco: "We were a sprint crew, so the IRA were a bit long for us, and because of injury, our 3-man, Bart Fitzpatrick ['55], had to be substituted for.

"But no question Cornell was a terrific crew. It was their distance and their race."1395

Chemistry

This Penn crew is a classic example of a recurring phenomenon in rowing, the crew that is more than the sum of its parts, and often it is the stroke man who provides the indefinable extra.

Crocco: "We were a misfit crew in terms of physiques. Harry Parker ['57] in 2 was a lightweight. John Weise ['57] in bow was a lightweight. Jack Guest ['55], the famous Canadian sculler, was supposed to stroke the boat, but he got injured."1396

Fred Lane believes that Guest and his 1954 7-man deserve a lot of the credit for the success of the 1955 crew:

"Bruce Crocco was as great a 7-man as you could wish for. He was in the varsity boat in his sophomore year [1954] when he was 7-man behind the great Jack Guest, who had an enormous reach and showed us all what could be done to pull that oar smoothly through the water and make it bow.

"There is an analogy here between breaking the four-minute-mile and having Jack Guest and Bruce Crocco as examples. Once you see that certain things can be done with an oar, then you tell yourself that you can do it, too - or at least try.

"Our boat had the benefit of Joe's coaching and of seeing two great examples of what could be accomplished with an oar.

"The result was a world class crew that had a great time at the ball."1397

Lane does not stop there in his estimate of Bruce Crocco: "Bruce could have played varsity basketball or row, and fortunately he chose rowing. His form and power and sixth sense of timing were a delight. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the rest of the boat was watching him instead of me most of the time.

"He was and is a natural leader and was the Commodore of the Varsity Boat Club in 1955 and 1956."1398


University of Pennsylvania Heavyweight Crew in Practice, Fall 1954
Fred Lane in 6-seat, Bruce Crocco in 7-seat, Jack Guest, Jr. in stroke-seat
According to Lane, it was during practices like these that the 1955 crew learned the meaning of greatness. (photo U of P Photographic Dept.)

Talk about chemistry, fifty years later, these forever teammates still complete each other's thoughts.

Bruce Crocco: "When Guest was injured, Lane came in from the Jayvee, and the boat just clicked."1399

Indefinable extra?

Betts: "In addition to Fred Lane, at least two other members of the '55 crew owed our presence in the boat to a fortuitous circumstance - the '54 Pan Am games.

"In the fall of 1954, George Hermann ['55] and Herb Senoff were rowing the 6- and 5-seats in the potential Penn varsity eight. They had also qualified for the Pan American Games as members of Philadelphia's Vesper Boat Club crew. When they went off to compete, Joe put me in at 6 and Tom Friend at 5.

"To me, the boat felt fantastic, incredibly stable. We rowed together for about three weeks, and when George and Herb returned from the Games, a decision had to be made about boatings for the racing season.

"Joe Burk, in his infinite wisdom and compassion, set up a match race between the Varsity and the Jayvee, to which Tom and I had been returned.

"I can't remember who stroked the two boats in that race, but I do remember that the Jayvee, for the first and only time that year, whupped the Varsity.

"Tom and I were returned to the crew that became the Henley winner."1400

Five-man Tom Friend: "Hi Frank. As I recall, you stroked the Jayvee, and George Hermann stroked the Varsity. John Weise was with you in bow, and I was at 7.

"Joe told us to row a 26 or 24, which you did. The varsity was at 36 plus.

"We had a good day."1401

This was not the first, nor would it be the last time in rowing history that some sort of indefinable chemistry seemed to make a boat faster . . . or slower . . . than it had any right to be.

Joe Burk remembers: "Pennsylvania's hopes for the 1955 season were originally built around its great stroke, Jack Guest. One can imagine the squad's concern when the big man reported for fall practice with his troublesome back once again in a rather precarious condition. It held up pretty well in the fall but, at the same time, it served notice that there might have to be a radical change of plans.

"Those fears were realized early in March, and out of the re-shuffle came the 1955 crew. There were no stars, no magnificent hulks of manhood, no poetry of motion - just a well-integrated crew with a tremendous desire to win. It was one of those rare cases when all of the pieces in the jig-saw puzzle fell in together. The success of this crew was merely additional evidence that eight-oared rowing is the greatest of team sports."1402

No matter how deeply this historian delves into rowing technique, there remains an ephemeral quality that is difficult to grasp, something we acknowledge without hesitation in endeavors such as dancing or figure skating or ski jumping or boxing or horse racing or politics or friendships.

We call it style, or we call it karma, or we call it genius, or we call it destiny. Some crews have it, and some crews don't.

Penn had it in 1955. They still do.

Joe

All the memories of these men return to their coach and how he has been an example to them. "Joe Burk is an absolute model of a man."1403

Fred Lane: "In September of 1954, Joe told the heavyweight crews that he was going to focus our training efforts toward the three mile race at the IRA in Syracuse in mid-June, 1955.

"The training for that regatta continued uninterrupted for nine months. Unlike previous years, when the crew went indoors to the tanks at the onset of cold weather, we stayed on the river throughout the winter.

"When ice formed on the river, Joe would take the coach's launch out before practice and cut a path through the ice that would accommodate the shells. It was not uncommon for the sweat to freeze on the backs of our shirts.

"I also remember that on the last day before Christmas vacation, Joe announced that he was going to jump into the river after practice to make sure that we could survive in the icy water if someone ever fell in.

"It was December 17, and the temperature was 17 degrees, and being sort of a smart alec, I blurted out, 'Sure, Joe! Well if you go in, I'll go in, too!'

"Well, you know what happened. As soon as all the shells were in and stored, Joe dove off the dock, swam around a bit and climbed out, fit as he could be.

"Then, all eyes switched to the Big Mouth.

"I had to jump in, but unlike Joe, I did not dive head first, and I did not swim around. I jumped in and immediately regretted it. From the intensity and location of the pain, I was certain I would never be able to have children.

"From Joe's perspective, however, the test was successful and would permit us to stay on the water all winter."1404

Technique

By 1955, Joe Burk's technique had evolved a bit from the 1st Generation Conibear Stroke he had learned from Rusty Callow two decades earlier, and the direction was toward a bit less body swing, following the examples of 2nd Generation Conibear proponents Ulbrickson, Ebright and Bolles, and toward more assertive leg drive, following the direction that Tom Bolles had taken at Harvard and Rusty Callow had taken at Navy.

Rusty's crews had swung their backs through an arc from +40 degrees to -30 degrees, or 70 degrees. Joe's crew swung from +30 degrees to -20 degrees, only 50 degrees, but the force application was similar and still Schubschlag.

Frame-by-frame analysis of films of the Penn crew at Henley shows 0-7, 0-10, 0-10 leg, back and arm usage, similar to Navy's 0-8, 0-10, 0-10.

Body language of both crews indicated full commitment, fingers to toes, to the pullthrough, with leg motion predominating in the first half and back motion predominating in the second half. Adequate layback ensured that backs and arms finished simultaneously and aggressively.


Full commitment, fingers to toes, to concurrent drive to release. (photo: Fox DeGurse)

Harry Parker, 2-man in 1955 and for the last four decades Coach of Harvard University: "The observation I would like to make about how we rowed in '55 was that we rowed a very hard and relatively short stroke. We rowed particularly hard catches.

"When we went to Wisconsin to race late that spring, we borrowed a brand new Pocock shell from Wisco. Our first row went very badly, with a number of oars going deep and getting caught at the finish.

"Joe eyeballed the pitch on the riggers and decided there was not enough pitch to compensate for our hard catches. He then took a 2-by-4 and, somewhat to our embarrassment, bent each rigger on the brand new boat in order to increase the pitch, there being no other way to adjust the pitch on the oarlocks in those days. We then were able to row the boat quite effectively and managed to beat Wisconsin.

"Joe later told me that the very next day Norm Sonju had his Wisconsin crew row the shell we had used without readjusting the riggers, and they found it almost impossible to row because their catches were not nearly as hard as ours were, and they were all washing out badly."1405

There is another possible explanation. Wisconsin washed out at the finish, and it might indeed have been their finishes that were the problem. The 1955 Penn crew remained fully committed to holding onto the water and accelerating the boat all the way to the release, and when Wisconsin, a notorious front-half crew, failed to match Penn's Schubschlag commitment to the second half of the pullthrough, the extra pitch caused them problems at the finish.

Isolation

This is another example of isolation in population genetics. The general trend in the 1950s was toward more aggressive front-halves, but it was exaggerated into Kernschlag at Wisconsin, which had minimal year-round contact with other rowing programs.

Schubschlag at Penn


1955 University of Pennsylvania Heavyweight Men's Eight
35th Reunion at Henley, July 7, 1990
"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." (photo: Fred Lane Scrapbook)

Fred Lane: "I believe that practicing for a long distance race required us to have a long stroke, a reasonable pace, a long reach with a smooth but strong entry with an accelerated pullthrough and a smooth finish.

"The finish was so long that we all had wear spots on our sweat shirts where the oar handles touched the material as we laid back at the finish.

"As the stroke-man, I believed that it was my job to set the example as to form, with particular emphasis on the reach."1406

Long distance competitive practices at a low stroke put a tremendous premium on maximum effort throughout the pullthroughs to generate as much send as possible.

Lane: "Joe was always timing our quarter mile segments in three-mile rows. He knew the times we had to beat in the race as a whole, and in each 500 meters or quarter mile of the race. We practiced to beat those times. Joe said that if we did that, we would win.1407

"It was that simple, and he was right. By accomplishing those times in practice, we had the confidence that we could win on race day."1408

Joe Burk learned those practices from his own college coach, Rusty Callow, and both the 1955 Penn Crew and Callow's Great Eight adapted to the long, low-stroke pieces with a technique featuring aggressive, assertive and long pullthroughs and tremendous send at a low stroke.

Concurrent Versus Sequential

The 1955 Penn crew gives us another good chance to revisit the concurrent-sequential continuum. Penn rowed a technique where all three major muscle groups were initiated concurrently at the catch, and the observable motions of all three also began at the catch, but the strong initial leg effort ensured that leg motion was appreciably faster than initial back swing, which later gathered speed as the seat approached the end of the slide.

Arm-break during the initial leg drive was almost undetectable to the naked eye.

So, despite concurrent initiation and effort, motion proceeded more-or-less sequentially from legs early to back and arms later, only one step away from George Pocock's hybrid stroke: concurrent effort but sequential motion.

Is this sequential or concurrent rowing?

Harry Parker appreciates the difficulty in distinguishing. "It does make a difference. 'Sequential versus concurrent' is different, but depending on who's coaching it, it's a difference of degree.

"Even when you start with the legs, you have to engage the back so that you are not just pushing the seat away.1409

"The Callow/Burk Technique was more start with the legs, because you're laying back. If you're not going to lay back very far, there's no point in waiting to use your back. You've got to get it on early and engage it.

"The legs and back go together, and as soon as you finish, you're moving again.

"If you're going to row a longer stroke, you push, and then you lean and squeeze it in.

"It's safe to say that the Conibear Stroke as we rowed it was sequential in that you put the emphasis on the legs, then followed through or swung through with the back and arms.

"That's where this business of the swing of the boat, of swinging together, comes from. You don't swing if you put your back on really early. You just power it through."1410

The distinction, however, is subtle.

Crocco adds: "Rowing came so easy for me that I wasn't really aware of what we were doing, but I remember that the backs would move along with the legs."1411

Frank Betts also remembers: "A note on our rowing technique, as I recall, and I think it is confirmed by photos, one of our more notable attributes was that Fox, our cox, didn't have to lean out of the boat to see directly ahead. We all leaned out so far at the catch and finish that he could see right down the middle of the boat unimpeded.

"I never knew how the boat could feel so stable under those circumstances, but it did. My impression is that we could never be regarded as a stylish crew on which to model good practices, just a very fast one that demonstrated the adage that 'the whole is more than the sum of its parts.'"1412

Henley


1955 University of Pennsylvania Heavyweight Men's Eight
Grand Challenge Cup Champions
Winning in the final over Vancouver Rowing Club/University of British Columbia
"We could never be regarded as a stylish crew." - Frank Betts (photo: British Pathe Newsreel, 533-04, Henley Regatta)

Penn had not sent a heavyweight crew to Henley since 1901, when Ellis Ward's crew had lost by a length to Leander in the finals of the Grand, but the 1951 and '52 Lightweights had blazed a trail. Indeed, the 1955 150s had also won the Eastern Sprints and were accompanying their heavyweight counterparts to England.

In 1955, there were three notable crews entered in the Grand. In one semi-final, the Soviet Club Krasnoe Znamia were scheduled to meet the very impressive 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games champions1413 from the University of British Columbia and Vancouver R.C.

After World War II, "the long established Vancouver Rowing Club found itself with expertise and facilities but without athletes, while the University of British Columbia was full of prime athletes but had no rowing tradition. When Vancouver was chosen to host the 1954 British Empire Games, conditions seemed right for the two to join forces. From this joint venture came the UBC/VRC crews and a new and unexpected force in rowing.

"Local rowing supporters persuaded a hotel owner, Frank Read, to coach the new joint-venture crews. He was a gruff individual, known for refusing to mince his words or guard his comments. But he could coach and bring out the best in his athletes."1414

The Vancouver crew rowed the Pocock Stroke with the sculler's catch. Frank Read's mentor and close friend during those years was Stan Pocock in Seattle, Washington. 1415

"After they upset Thames Rowing Club for the Empire Games victory, "the Duke of Edinburgh asked to meet Read and said, 'You must come to Henley.'

"Read was not impressed, but the rest of the VRC committee took it as a royal command, and training and preparation followed until the crew left for England and the [1955] Grand Challenge Cup."1416

In the 1955 semi-final race between Vancouver and Krasnoe Znamia, "the Soviets quickly jumped into a three-quarter-length lead. At the quarter-mile, the Russians dropped their rate to 36, Vancouver to 33. At the half-mile post, the Russian lead was cut to six feet, and by the three-quarters mark, the Canadians were leading by six feet.

"When that position was announced, the vast crowd, expecting an easy Russian win, rose to their feet with a roar. The Vancouver crew rowed on to win by one and a half lengths.

"The Russians surrounded the victorious crew and marveled at the technique of 'coming off the feather at the last moment.'1417 They called it the 'Read Stroke' and wondered, as do all losing crews, whether this was the secret of the Canadians' success."1418

Frank Read went on become one of the most successful coaches of the 1950s. His eight won the Olympic Silver Medal on Lake Wendouree the next year in 1956.

That year he also had a coxless-four full of novices who trained with his eight. "For each piece of work the four would be sent out front and told to stay there as long as they could. When they arrived at Melbourne, the four, having always started ahead of the eight in practice, had no idea how to do a racing start and consequently were always led. However, once they got into their economical gait of 34 their pace was so great that they swept past all the opposition and in the second half of the course were quite unchallenged." They won Olympic Gold by 19.6 seconds or five lengths.

Read's 1960 eight was the only boat capable of challenging Ratzeburger Ruderklub on Lago Albano, leading the final briefly with 300 meters to go before being relegated to the Olympic Silver Medal position.1419

In defeating Club Krasnoe in the semis, Vancouver denied Penn the chance to realize "its cherished goal, that of wresting the Grand Challenge Cup from Soviet Russia, the 1954 winners."1420

In the final for the Grand, Penn led Vancouver "all the way but never by more than a half-length. When faced with a crew which also liked to row low, Penn found itself ahead by only a canvas at the mile and an eighth."

Both crews sprinted home at 37, with Penn drawing away ever so slightly to win by 20 feet in a time of 6:56. It was truly a battle between the two best eights in the world that year.


1955 University of Pennsylvania Heavyweight Men's Eight
Kruppachter Champions, Baldeneysee, Essen
100 meters before the finish (photo: Essener Stadtnachrichten, 18 Juli 1955)

Hamburg

The following week, Penn traveled to Germany for the 65th Annual Hamburger Internationale Ruder-Regatta, the same regatta in which the 1951 Penn lightweights had participated. The premier event for eights was the Schiffartsachter, a traditional race for a cup donated by the Hamburg shipping industry, and in the race Penn defeated Rudergesellschaft Hansa Hamburg, "Germany's outstanding eight,"1421

"Hansa took the lead at the start and held it to 1,400 meters. Penn then steadily pulled ahead and left the exhausted Germans behind without increasing its stroke beat."1422

The following day on the same course, they won the Senatsachter, the cup having been donated by the city government of Hamburg. Local press described the Penn crew as "der schnellster Achter der Welt [the fastest eight in the world]."1423

Essen

The second stop on their German tour was the 40th Annual Internationale Hugel-Regatta on Essen's famous 2,000 meter Baldenysee course.

"The 'Penn'-Eight during and after their pre-race training"
"OK, boys, we're in top shape!"


On Saturday, they set a flat-water course record of 5:59.4 in winning by a closed length over Kolner Ruderverein 1877. All the German crews were disheartened.

The premier Sunday race in Essen was the Kruppachter, for a cup donated by the industrialist Krupp family, whose castle overlooks the course.

That race was another occasion for the Penn men to learn about the character of their coach, Joe Burk.

Stroke-man Fred Lane: "On the second day of racing in Essen, Joe found out that in the best crew that we were racing, the mother of the stroke-man had died on Saturday. Joe pulled me aside and told me that as a matter of good sportsmanship I should try to avoid slaughtering the other boat and that I should not sprint in.

"Well, I tried to follow his advice, but the rest of the boat was not aware of the plan and would have none of it.

"I remember Chuck Shaffer, an ex-Marine and a great, inspiring competitor, calling out, 'Let's go up! Let's go up!' or perhaps some other, less-gentle Marine words, expressing the strong sentiment of the entire boat behind me.

"The boat went up. Well, initially only seven of us did, but a gentle nudge in the back from Bruce brought me into line."1424

In that Sunday final for the Kruppachter, before 20,000 spectators and televised Europe-wide, Penn blasted home by open water.

Mannheim

In their third week in Germany, they participated in the Mannheimer Dreilanderkampf (three countries competition). They won over Rudergesellschaft Hansa Hamburg, Rudergesellschaft Heidelberg, and the national crews of Austria and Yugoslavia.

Crocco: "In our last race together as a crew in Mannheim, again we just clicked, and no one could touch us. It was magical."1425

The time was a stunning 5:26.9 over a course of 1,900-plus meters.1426

"Joe Burk insisted the Mannheim course was short of 1,900 meters because, as Joe reasoned, speciously but with understandable modesty, 'a crew couldn't row that fast.'"1427

An Interested Observer

Penn Athletic Director Jerry Ford: "As oarsman, our boys were the wonder of experts, both in England and the Continent. Movies were taken of them in action to capture the secret of their flawless technique. Their shell and oars were measured and weighed, their training regimen studied closely.

"Everywhere they competed, particularly in Germany, they were referred to as the world's fastest crew, and hence became models for local oarsmen."1428

To European observers, Penn seemed to defy the laws of physics that applied to all other crews. In their Henley semifinal, they had beaten Britain's best, Thames Rowing Club by a half-length of open water at a

rating The Times of London termed "a majestic thirty."1429

The strength and speed of the Penn pullthrough, the endless run on the impossibly long recovery, seemed as unattainable in its own way as Joe Burk's sculling technique had seemed to them seventeen years earlier.

At their regatta in Hamburg, when Penn made its first impression on the German rowing community, "one of the most interested spectators was Dr. Karl Adam1430 of Ratzeburger Ruderklub. He was already working out a new international technique, initially under the influence of Steve Fairbairn.

Mendenhall: "Eight years later,1431 Adam confessed to Joe Burk that he had returned home from Hamburg very depressed and wondering whether they could ever beat the invincible Americans."1432

Chapter 60. Harry Parker, Sculler



Harry Parker
1959 Diamond Sculls Finalist
Superb fitness. Superb suspension.
Visible jaw set is prediction of future Harvard
determination demonstrated under Coach Harry Parker.


The nine members of the 1955 Penn Henley champions all went on to contribute to the world in one way or another, but 2-man Harry Parker chose to make a life-long commitment to the sport of rowing.

Harvard Magazine: "[Harry] was born in 1935 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the son of Ruth Parker and builder/contractor Lambert Achilles Parker. He attended high school in East Hartford, Connecticut, where he played baseball and basketball. 'I had the distinction of being the lowest-scoring center in the history of the school,' he laughs. But Parker did well academically and won a Naval ROTC scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where he began rowing to fulfill a physical education requirement. He immediately loved the sport.

"'Rowing seemed to be an activity that was going to reward effort and hard work and was not as dependent on highly cultivated skills as some other sports,' Parker says. After a year on the Freshman Lightweights, he spent three years rowing 2 for the Penn varsity.

"'He was very, very good and one of the smartest, hardest-working fellows we ever had,' says Joe Burk, Parker's coach at Penn. 'Harry and the bow man would sometimes walk from the campus out to our house in Bala Cynwyd, about ten miles, just to talk about rowing.'

"'Harry was very quiet, almost monastic,' recalls Gene Bay '56, a Penn oarsman of Parker's era. 'His idol was Joe Burk, who was one of those very dedicated athletes. Rather ascetic. To Joe, drinking Coca-Cola was practically like having a scotch. We didn't even have coffee ice cream on the training table!' Sometimes after a practice, Burk would dive off the dock for a dip in the Schuylkill River - in February. 'He was goading us to do the same,' Bay recalls. 'Harry was always the first one in.'

"For intrasquad races, Burk let different oarsmen stroke the boats and choose their own crews. 'I paid a lot of attention to who I wanted to pick, and what the order of picking would be,' Parker recalls. 'It was not unlike what they do in the pro football draft.'

"Says Burk, 'I found out that Harry knew almost as much about the personnel of the crews as I did.'

David Halberstam: "One of Burk's earliest memories of Harry Parker was of a young man working in the tank. Parker was gritting his teeth so hard that he drew blood, and even though the blood was running down his mouth, he paid no attention to it. He just kept on rowing. No one that Burk had ever coached has as much passion for rowing, not just to do it but also to live it all the time."74

Harvard Magazine: "Parker graduated from Penn in 1957 with a philosophy degree, and while serving in the Navy learned to row the single as part of the U.S. Olympic Rowing Committee's nascent sculling development program. Looking for a few good men to fill seats, the armed services set up an arrangement that allowed former college oarsmen to be stationed where they could scull. Parker was on a Navy destroyer assigned to Philadelphia.

"'It's curious,' recalls [Vesper Boat Club Coach] Allen Rosenberg of Parker's days training out of Vesper. 'He hung up his uniform on his locker, on a hook, and I can truthfully say that's how he impressed me. No wrinkles, no creases, a military uniform with all that denoted. He was absolutely straight, straight laced, straight living, and very, very impressive.'"75

Technique

Joe Burk coached Harry by sculling alongside him in his own single, but rather than adopting the technique that Joe had rowed in 1938, Harry chose to scull close to the sweep technique that Joe had taught him at Penn.

Harry Parker
1959 Pan American Champion
shown: 1959 Diamond Sculls Finalist
-10 degrees, +30degrees to -25degrees, 0-8, 0-10, 0-10
Arms, backs and legs are concurrent
Rhythm is Kernschlag, acceleration catch-to-release,
but with a hesitation after the strong initial leg drive,
then excellent arm/back swing to finish.


Parker: "There was very little coaching between us. There was just pulling against each other."76

At 6'0" 172 lb., Harry was not nearly as large as the top two scullers of his day, Vyatcheslav Ivanov and Stuart Mackenzie,77 but he was superbly muscled, as can be clearly seen in the accompanying photos, and his force application was visibly aggressive. Despite concurrent initiation of legs, back and arms, the very strong leg drive led to an inevitable slight force discontinuity after the initial burst. The second part of his two-part pullthrough was made up of an aggressive back swing to a bit more layback than he had gotten in the Penn eight.

The overall impression was one of assertiveness rather than of elegance, of strength rather than swing, and the force discontinuity marks the demarcation line between Schubschlag and Kernschlag.

Harry was a Kernschlag sculler.

In 1959, Harry won the Pan American Games, and then he reached the finals of the Diamond Sculls, where Australian Stuart Mackenzie, a World Champion sculler but an unpopular man at Henley due to his boorish behavior, toyed with Harry, dawdling and then spurting, before beating him "easily."

In 1960, Harry won the U.S. Olympic singles trials, still training alongside Joe Burk.

Steve Gladstone, who later coached under Harry at Harvard early in both their careers, recalls the competition between his two good friends.

"Harry was 175 pounds. Joe was 200 pounds. Even in 1960, Joe was still a monster!"

Twenty-two years after his record-setting perfor-mance at Henley, legend has it that Joe Burk remained the fastest single sculler in the United States.

According to Allen Rosenberg, it's no legend. "I saw it myself. He used to row up the Schuylkill off Parker's bow. He had on his work gloves with the fingers cut off."78

"They were like twins. Clean living guys, hard, hard workers, precise in their manners and the way they worked out on the water."79

Parker agrees about Joe's speed during the year they spent together. "Oh, yeah. I wouldn't argue that point at all."80 "The amazing thing is that ten years later he was still doing that to the top scullers in the area."81

But, still competitive today, more than forty years later, Harry Parker makes it clear that he used to give Joe a good run on the river.

"There wasn't much talking going on during those pieces, I assure you. For all of our endurance training, it was all side-by-side stuff."82

Stan Pocock: "I vividly recall Dad talking about how he wished that he could have convinced Joe that he would be faster were he to scull at a lower rate.

"It was many years later, when he was coaching the Penn crews, that Joe wrote to Dad to say that he had been right, that he had found that he could now go faster at 27 than he could at 40 when in his prime."83

Tony Palms, Penn '61, also observed some of the workouts. "To break the monotony, and perhaps the ignominy of Joe pacing Harry on the water, they would often turn to another form of racing, one running along the bank of the Schuylkill, the other in his single, rowing as fast as he could to beat the runner.

"To make it even more interesting, the runner was on his honor to hold his breath during the interval of every other street light pole, then hopefully regain his breath sufficiently to repeat the breath-holding at the next pole interval.

"Nobody ever questioned whether Joe snuck in a breath or two in those competitions. It was simply not conceivable, knowing Joe as we did."84

At the 1960 Olympics on Lago Albano, the overwhelming favorite was 1956 Olympic Singles Champion Vyasheslav Ivanov.

Halberstam: "Ivanov, then 22 and in the Soviet Army, was a figure of awe to Parker. Some of the Soviet sweep oarsmen were Lithuanians who still thought of themselves as Lithuanians and who spoke a little English. They told Ivanov badly wanted to meet his American competitor, and they coached him in what to say.

"Parker had memorized these words and gone over to Ivanov. They had shaken hands. Ivanov had beamed with fraternal sports pleasure. Parker had beamed with fraternal sports pleasure.

"'Sukim sin,' Parker had said in his instant Russian. Ivanov's face had fallen, and he had become chilly.

"A decade later, watching the scene in the movie Patton where the general said the same thing to the Russian generals, he realized he had said, 'You son of a bitch' to Ivanov."85

Harry "barely qualified for the finals as he had a real struggle to best Anton Redele of Holland in the repechages. After trailing the high-stroking Netherlands oarsman for 1,800 meters, Parker made a desperate bid and finally took the lead with less than 100 meters to go.

"In the final, Parker made a strong bid 200 meters from home and took over third place. However, the pace set by [Achim Hill, Silver Medalist from Germany] and [Teodor Kocerka, Bronze Medalist from Poland] was too severe, and Parker fell back and finished fifth."86

Harry's ultimate rowing destiny was not to be in the single but in the coach's launch. He returned from Rome to become Freshman Coach at Harvard. Upon the sudden death of Harvey Love less than three years later, he became head coach at the age of 27.

He is still there today.



1360 Burk, personal conversation, 2005
1361 Mendenhall, Ch. XIV, p. 23
1362 Burk, personal correspondence, 2004
1363 See p. xxx
1364 Kendall, personal correspondence, 2006
1365 Kendall, personal correspondence, 2006
1366 Kendall, personal correspondence, 2006
1367 www.pennathletics.net
1368 See p. xxx
1369 Dorsch, p. 1
1370 Dorsch, p. 1
1371 Dorsch, p. 2
1372 Lawn, Al, Report on the 1951 Pennsylvania 150-lb. Crew, distributed to Penn Alumni by Crawford C. Madeira.
1373 Kendall, personal correspondence, 2006
1374 Dorsch, p. 3
1375 Lawn, Al, Report on the 1951 Pennsylvania 150-lb. Crew, distributed to Penn Alumni by Crawford C. Madeira.
1376 See p. xxx
1377 Kendall, personal correspondence, 2006
1378 Katterman, personal correspondence 2006
1379 Katterman, personal correspondence 2006
1380 This expression is actually an old Rusty Callowism. See p. 390xxx
1381 Lane, personal correspondence, 2006
1382 Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1383 Time Magazine, May 16, 1955
1384 Associated Press, May 7, 1955
1385 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1386Bruce Crocco, personal correspondence, 2005
1387 Frank Betts, personal correspondence, 2005
1388 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1389 Frank Betts, personal correspondence, 2005
1390 Bruce Crocco, personal correspondence, 2005
1391 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1392 See p. xxx
1393 When the jayvee race had not yet been added.
1394 Time Magazine, June 27, 1955
1395 Bruce Crocco, personal correspondence, 2005
1396 Bruce Crocco, personal correspondence, 2005
1397 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1398 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1399 Bruce Crocco, personal correspondence, 2005
1400 Frank Betts, personal correspondence, 2005
1401 Tom Friend, personal correspondence, 2005
1402 Burk, Comment, p. 15
1403 Bruce Crocco, personal correspondence, 2005
1404 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1405 Harry Parker, personal correspondence, 2005
1406 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1407 Today this is called "tempo training."
1408 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1409 Andrew Carter has made the very same point. See p. xxx
1410 Harry Parker, personal conversation, 2004
1411 Bruce Crocco, personal correspondence, 2005
1412 Frank Betts, personal correspondence, 2005
1413 Fabricus, p. 3
1414 www.rowingcanada.org
1415 Se p. xxx
1416 www.rowingcanada.org
1417 This was the Pocock sculler's catch. See p. xxx.
1418 www.rowingcanada.org
1419 See p. xxx
1420 Ford, p. 14
1421 Ford, p. 15
1422 Associated Press, July 9, 1955
1423 Hamburger Zeitung, July 9, 1955
1424 Fred Lane, personal correspondence, 2005
1425Bruce Crocco, personal correspondence, 2005
1426 Ford, p. 15
1427 Ford, p. 15
1428 Ford, p. 15
1429 qtd. by Ford, p. 14
1430 See p. xxx
1431 See p. xxx
1432 Mendenhall, Ch. XIV, p. 36
74 Halberstam, p. 93
75 Craig Lambert, Upstream Warrior, Harvard Magazine, May/June 1996
76 Parker, personal conversation, 2004
77 See p. xxx
78 Rosenberg, personal conversation, 2004
79 Qtd. by Ed Winchester, Deconstructing Harry, Rowing News, December, 2004, p. 48
80 Parker, personal conversation 2005
81 Qtd. by Halberstam, p. 94
82 Parker, personal conversation, 2004
83 S. Pocock, personal correspondence, 2005
84 Palms, qtd. by Fabricus, p. 16
85 Halberstam pp. 96-7
86 NAAO Official Rowing Guide, 1961, p. 27
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balrog409
03/08/2008  12:43:46 PM
Priceless archives. Cal Sutliff



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