INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL gone wrong, he would have been the one who got the blame.”3286 The New York Times: [Olympic Trials, Syracuse, June 30, 1956] “Oarsmen competing here with the smaller shells for national crowns as well as Olympic berths made capital of the conditions. The lake showed barely a ripple. “Charles Logg, Jr. and Thomas Price of the Rutgers Rowing Club, who with the Navy Admirals were the only Americans to win Olympic Championships in 1952, captured their semi-final test in the pairs- without-coxswain in impressive fashion. “The two 1952 Olympians skimmed over the 2,000 meters in 7:37.7 to finish almost ten seconds before the second place San Diego Rowing Club. The Coast oarsmen were near exhaustion as their craft crossed the finish line. “The United States Navy Pair of Duval Hecht and Jim Fifer, who competed for this country in the pairs-with-coxswain in the 1952 Games at Helsinki, won its semi-final heat today in 7:28.5, to better the time of the Rutgers duo.”3287 Any victory is so much more meaningful when you truly respect your opponents. In order to win a return trip to the Olympics, Jim Fifer and Duvall Hecht would have to defeat the defending Olympic Champions. Finals Day It turned out that there was a strong crosswind blowing across Onondaga Lake on the day of the finals,3288 and besides Logg and Price and Fifer and Hecht, there was at least one other crew rowing a Pocock teardrop shell without a rudder. Stan Pocock3289 had retired from coaching the Freshmen at the University of Washington3290 in 1955, and since then he had agreed to help several individuals including Bob Rogers, Jay Hall, John Fish and Ted Frost representing Washington Athletic Club in a coxless-four, and they also did not have a rudder.3291 Coxswain Kurt Seiffert was also working with Pocock: “That four is another important part of rowing history. Their story tells of what happens to a straight-four rowed without a rudder in a strong crosswind.”3292 Without rudder input, a Pocock four with its teardrop hull shape tends to turn hard into a crosswind as the boat pivots around its widest point, between the bow and two seats. This is called “the weather vane effect.”3293 Stan Pocock: “[At the Trials,] they had breezed through their heat, trouncing a Detroit Boat Club crew by several lengths, but conditions had been ideal. When it came time for the [final], the headwind was strong, and right off their port quarter. They were doomed. “In the lead for most of the race, they were inevitably drawn closer and closer to the log boom on their port side. In the final few meters of their race, they fetched right up against it. The two port men, having been forced to row the entire race almost by themselves, were too done in to work the boat free and were forced to sit in agony 3288 For a more detailed description of the cross- headwind conditions on Onondaga Lake at the 3286 Hecht, personal correspondence, 2008 3287 Michael Strauss, Washington First in Onondaga Test, The New York Times, July 1, 1956 1956 Trials, see Chapter 68. 3289 See Chapter 82. 3290 See Chapter 64. 3291 S. Pocock, p. 120 3292 Seiffert, personal correspondence, 2009 3293 S. Pocock, p. 121 915
