THE SPORT OF ROWING To the readers of www.row2k.com The Amateurs gestions, corrections, agreements, disagree- ments, additional sources and illustrations, This is the second installment on row2k etc. please email me at the address below. of my retelling of our American Iliad, the Your input will be an essential contribution story of the U.S. men’s scullers of 1984, to what has always been intended to be a first told by David Halberstam in his best- joint project of the rowing community, so selling book, The Amateurs. please contribute. If you and I end up final- This draft chapter continues to introduce ly disagreeing on some relevant point or the characters that will figure in the Homeric another, I will be thrilled to present both tragedy that will follow. In the coming alternatives so the readers can decide for weeks, we will see the saga to its conclusion themselves. from the rowers’ perspectives. All my contact info is at my website. I will also be at the World Championships The following .pdf is in the format in- next month on Lake Karapiro, and I hope tended for the final printed book. It is from to be at the World Rowing Coaches’ Con- the fourth and final volume. ference in London in January. Or you can email me anytime at: I need you! [email protected]. If you find any typos in this chapter, or Many thanks. if you have any questions, comments, sug TThhee SSppoorrtt ooff RRoowwiinngg AA CCoommpprreehheennssiivvee HHiissttoorryy bbyy PPeetteerr MMaalllloorryy VVoolluummee IIVV PPlluuss ÇÇaa CChhaannggee ddrraafffttt mmaannuussccrriiippttt OOcctttoobbeerr 22001100 THE SPORT OF ROWING 140. The Back-Story Behind The Amateurs Tiff Wood – Joe Bouscaren – Charlie Altekruse – Brad Lewis 1982 Post Mortem Biglow: “I remember thinking to myself, „Well, I have great respect for The New York Times: “John Biglow of Harry. He‟s made winning crews for Bellevue, Wash., a former stroke for the decades now, and he‟s made me a fast Yale Varsity eight, won a Bronze Medal in sculler, and here he is telling me I didn‟t the single sculls event at the World Rowing want it enough . ‟ Championships, which concluded yesterday “Now that I look back on it, I remember at Lucerne, Switzerland. that I was having back trouble. I was “After a slow beginning in the first 500 rowing with a herniated disc, and he took meters of the 2,000-meter course, Biglow me to a place where I believed that I hadn‟t finished third behind Rüdiger Reiche of East wanted it enough and I had to try harder! No matter what, I had to push myself Germany and Vasily Yakusha of the Soviet 6436 Union”6434 harder!” Biglow: “I was 1.41 seconds behind Reiche! What a great race . I thought! Harry wouldn‟t be talking just to “Harry Parker‟s reaction was this: „You Biglow. He was turning the heat up all over. were so close. Why couldn‟t you win? It Altekruse: “In the fall of 1983, I had must be because you don‟t want it enough.‟ just begun graduate school at Tuft‟s Fletcher “Those weren‟t his exact words, but School of Law & Diplomacy and was when we finally got back to Boston maybe a training for 1984. We had had a pretty unsatisfying quad finish at Duisburg a few month later, he said, „Well, we have to have 6437 a talk . ‟ and that‟s basically what he months earlier, not making the final. said.”6435 Harry pulled me aside and basically said I wasn‟t being serious enough about the The best-selling book, The Amateurs, rowing. I challenged him, but I would end up postponing my next school semester to which David Halberstam would eventually 6438 write about the American scullers preparing train in Switzerland.” for the 1984 Olympics, is mostly a tragic tale, and perhaps the real back-story began 1983 with that fateful conversation between John Biglow and Harry Parker in the fall of 1982. Biglow: “Tiff Wood and I had an interesting rivalry at the Head of the Charles. In the fall of 1981, I had started 6434 Biglow Captures Rowing Bronze, The New 6436 Ibid. York Times, August 30, 1982 6437 to be discussed later in this chapter. 6435 Biglow, personal conversation, 2008 6438 Altekruse, personal correspondence, 2009 1842 THE ERA OF POLARIZATION thirteenth and caught a guy at the B.U. my coach again?‟ I was thinking to myself, Bridge.6439 I never thought I could catch „Harry’s my coach,‟ but I was also wanting someone that quickly. We overlapped oars. to share my successes with people who had We had to totally stop and push ourselves helped me early on, like Frank and like apart, and then I had to get going again. I Charlie McIntyre.6444 ended up losing to Tiff by two seconds.”6440 “Charlie was one of the first guys to Wood: “After the Trials in „81, I knew look at me and say, „John, you are really that John was faster than I was. I remember moving that boat!‟ I didn‟t put any stock in finishing the Head that year and coming what he said at the time, but look at what back to the boathouse and finding out that I happened. had won, and it was probably one of the “Charlie was devoted to me and so happiest rowing moments of my life. I felt proud. I just wanted to give something like the gods had decided to give me a back, so I went out a couple of times with present. I felt like I had actually won a race Frank and with Charlie.”6445 I didn‟t deserve to win.”6441 Biglow: “In 1982, before going home to Cunningham: “When I picked him Seattle, Tiff helped me set the course record back up, he was quite a mess after his years at the Head of the Charles. Twenty-five back East. I told him: „You‟re going to have years later, the record still stands. to forget everything you know and start all “As a consequence of our 1981 over again.‟ placings, in „82 I started number two, and he “He was very methodical. I only started number one. He was like a rabbit in coached him once a week or so, and Charlie a greyhound race. He pushed me to row and Stan Pocock6446 also contributed, but I harder than I ever could have rowed alone. remember after one session he told me, “I didn‟t catch him until the Riverside „Well, that‟s twelve things I have to work Boathouse,6442 and then we rowed right next on.‟ to each other all the way down the “Every day he would work on one or Powerhouse Stretch. It wasn‟t until Newell two.”6447 Boathouse6443 that I finally passed him and started to open up on him. Then he faded, Biglow: “Because Harry had told me I and I lengthened my stroke, and that‟s how I didn‟t want it enough, I really pushed myself set my record with Tiff‟s help. that winter. I did the workouts that Harry told me to do. They were long pieces, but “Then I went out to Seattle for winter because Harry had told me I didn‟t want it training so I could row on ice-free water, enough and that‟s why I had lost in Lucerne, and I happened to go out for a few workouts I kept pushing even when my legs started to with my old high school coach, Frank get numb. Cunningham. “I remember one workout vividly. It “I like to ask people‟s input. I wasn‟t was 5 x 12 minutes or something, which I going out there saying, „Frank, will you be loved, and then something really scary happened. It was a great workout, but the 6439 Boston University Bridge, about 300 meters after the start. 6440 Biglow, op cit. 6441 Wood, personal conversation, 2009 6444 See Chapter 87. 6442 about 1,000 meters after the start. 6445 Biglow, op cit. 6443 about 2,900 meters after the start and 1,900 6446 See Chapter 83. meters from the finish. 6447 Cunningham, personal conversation, 2008 1843 THE SPORT OF ROWING Newell Boathouse, Harvard 1974 Harvard Varsity “Rude and Smooth” on the boathouse wall Bow Blair Brooks 6‟5” 196 cm 190 lb. 86 kg, 2 Oliver Scholle 6‟4” 193 cm 190 lb. 86 kg, 3 Ed Woodhouse 6‟2” 188 cm 185 lb. 84 kg, 4 Tiff Wood 6‟1” 188 cm 185 lb. 84kg, 5 Dave Fellows 6‟3” 191 cm 190 lb. 86 kg, 6 Dick Cashin 6‟4” 193 cm 195 lb. 88 kg, 7 Steve Row 6‟2” 188 cm 196 lb. 89 kg, Stroke Al Shealy 6‟3” 191 cm 185 lb. 84 kg, Coxswain (not seen) Dave Weinberg way my injury was, I think it damaged me Singles Trials. There was nothing I could and spoiled the rest of my year. do. I didn‟t feel pain. I was just weak.”6448 “My legs not only got numb, they got weak, and it was all I could do just to put my Tiff Wood legs down flat at paddle pressure and get back to the boathouse. It wasn‟t painful. It Christopher R. Wood got the was just total weakness. nickname “Tiff” as a small child when that “So I called Harry, and I have to hand it was the closest he could get to pronouncing to him.