THE BIRTH OF CLASSICAL TECHNIQUE three feet ahead with two miles to go. Both were rowing 32 in the helping current and tailwind.526 The return to the start/finish area saw the lead change hands several more times, with Hanlan just slightly ahead as they entered the last quarter-mile. The New York Clipper continued: “On either side of the course at the start/finish were long lines of booms, introduced to keep out [spectator] boats of all kinds, but several tugs and barges had gotten inside. The lines of booms were then pulled down. “Close up to this line, Courtney had pushed Hanlan with tremendous power. As they neared the finish Hanlan seemed to lose his usual calmness and self-possession, and before he was aware of it, he was close on to a tug, with Courtney just outside. “Had Courtney continued to row and pulled five or six strokes, he would have had the race won, as Hanlan slacked up and was rowing leisurely. Seeing this, Courtney ceased rowing, and at once Hanlan quickened again and just pulled out of the pocket in season to get clear water and pull over the line at an angle of thirty degrees. Courtney was told to pull on, and he did so in season to cross the finish line a length and a quarter behind.”527 Suspicion in the press fell squarely on Courtney’s shoulders. The New York Times accused him of accepting a bribe of “$4,000 to lose the race and added to his take by betting on Hanlan.”528 Editorialized The New York Clipper: “Unfortunately, though the winner pulled a magnificent oar all through the five-mile contest and completed the distance in time which is better than that officially recorded for any other race within the last nineteen years, the result, in view of the favorite position occupied by Courtney at different 526 Glendon, pp. 82-5 527 Qtd. by Glendon, pp. 86-7 528 Cosentino, op. cit., p. 36 parts of the course and his seeming ability to improve the same when so disposed, added weight and color to the ugly rumors and damaging statements which had been put in circulation regarding an alleged dishonorable bargain entered into by the contestants and others interested on both sides, whereby the Union Springs sculler had bound himself to lose the race whether able to win it or not.”529 Even the newspaper nearest Courtney’s hometown, The Daily Journal of Ithaca, NY, home to Cornell University, condemned him. “The general belief here is that Courtney sold yesterday’s race. The Tribune’s Montréal special says there were some things about the race which certainly give color to suspicion, such as Courtney’s poor rowing in the last mile when his stroke never exceeded 32, and the very crooked steering of both men near the finish, Courtney getting very much into Hanlan’s water and having to stop short just before reaching the line to avoid a foul. “At any rate, whether it is true or not, many people hold the opinion very firmly that the result has already hurt Courtney’s reputation, and will do much to throw professional rowing into disfavor.”530 The second half of this prediction would prove to be only too accurate. Thanks in large part to repeated scandals, professional rowing would become virtually extinct by the end of the 19th Century. Hanlan declared that he had won fairly and that Courtney was the first opponent that he “could not do with as he pleased.” For his part, Courtney believed that the wind and current had cost him a minute in the first mile, that later it was the current that forced 529 The New York Clipper, qtd. by Glendon, pp. 76-7 530 Qtd. by Look, pp. 79-80 147
