THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DYNASTY And so the impact of the University of Washington transcends that of all other American colleges combined. Harvard Coach Harry Parker: “It’s in the realm of legend. There was this great myth of giants coming out of the North Woods. A lot of these guys were lumberjacks, and so these great, powerful oarsmen from Washington, rowing this distinctive Conibear Stroke, and they were very successful because they had won a lot of the four-mile Poughkeepsie champ- ionships, so a big, big legend got built up, and the myth doesn’t die easily.”1723 The Conibear Stroke was promoted by Al Ulbrickson at Washington, Ky Ebright at California, James Ten Eyck at Syracuse, Norm Sonju at Wisconsin, Pop Courtney and Stork Sanford at Cornell, Joe Burk at Penn, Ed Leader and Rusty Callow at Washington, Yale, Penn and Navy, all of whom learned from Conibear at the University of Washington.1724 This quote from Philadelphia Boathouse Row historian Joe Sweeney is in keeping with the myth. The truth is that Conibear consulted Courtney instead of the other way around. Jim Ten Eyck had a personal friendship with Conibear and George Pocock, but never attended Washington, and he was coaching and winning long before Conibear arrived on the rowing scene. Ulbrickson, Sonju and Sanford were second- generation Husky Conibearites, having been coached by Rusty Callow, who along with Leader and Ebright, had indeed been coached by Conibear himself. Burk was also coached by Callow, but at Penn. Perhaps the most astonishing thing is that in his quote, Sweeney left out more than thirty other UW grads who later became head coaches! Worthy of special mention University of Washington Crew Archives, Conibear Shellhouse Rusty Callow in 1915 are Tom Bolles,1725 coach and athletic director at Harvard, and Jim Matthews, coach at Penn, both from the Callow era at University of Washington, and Gus Eriksen, who became national coach of 1723 Parker, personal conversation, 2004 1724 Sweeney, p. 5 1725 See Chapter 63. 457
