THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ROWING University of Washington Crew Archives, Conibear Shellhouse University of Washington Varsity 1922 Poughkeepsie Regatta Second Place 1 Navy 13:33.6, 2 Washington 13:35.2, 3 Syracuse, 4 Cornell, 5 Columbia, 6 Penn Bow Pat Tidmarsh 6’0” 183cm 160lb. 73kg, 2 Wright Parkins 6’0” 183cm 174lb. 79kg, 3 Ed Cushman 5’11½” 182cm 173lb. 78kg, 4 Sam Shaw 6’1” 185cm 178lb. 81kg, 5 Bob Ingram 6’2” 188cm 186lb. 84kg, 6 Virgil Murphy 6’1” 185cm 185lb. 84kg, 7 Fred Spuhn 6’2” 188cm 176lb. 80kg, Stroke Mike Murphy 5’11½” 182cm 158lb. 72kg, Coxswain Don Grant “Certain of the Eastern coaches have felt that Leader carried a foot-rule with him, and that he was willing to borrow anything that he could find from the established eights of the East. He was a familiar figure in the boathouses along the Hudson, and while Leader himself will never admit that he learned anything that affected his style of instruction, he always had a photographic eye, and certainly nothing escaped him. “A manager of a rival university discov- ered that he had ‘iron in his soul,’ and those who have had to do with him in the course of preparing his crews for big races have discovered that he has iron in his face. It is a grim presence, often a forbidding pres- ence, and the famous photographic eye is hidden under heavy lids. The smile is rare and apt to be bleak, but once in a while the face really lights up with a gleam of satisfac- tion.”1795 Mendenhall: “Leader was not to change the fundamentals of Conibear’s stroke: a quick, hard catch so as to miss no water; legs on early rather than saved for the mid- dle and end as in the [English] Orthodox tradition; a short lay-back [Films show that Mendenhall got this part completely wrong.] and the body moving immediately out of bow; a slow slide and no hang or check be- fore the catch.” The intent was to “yield the greatest possible run at a comfortably low rating.”1796 Before he died, the best that Hiram Conibear had managed at Poughkeepsie was 1795 Reed, Herbert, Grim-Visaged Victory, The New Yorker, June 26, 1926, pp. 17-8 1796 Mendenhall, Coaches, Ch. IX, p. 9 477
