INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL though they couldn’t have been more different in appearance. Burk, a giant of a man with a ruddy complexion, usually dressed as if he had just come from working in the family orchard, while Beggs, diminutive, fastidious, wire-rimmed glasses, usually wore a three-piece suit, even in the coach’s launch. But both men had ready, infectious smiles, and both took such a deeply personal interest in their charges that the life lessons they taught have stayed with the Penn oarsmen of the 1950s and ‘60s for upwards of half a century now. I was among those privileged to have been coached by both Jimmy Beggs and Joe Burk during my undergraduate days at Penn. Beggs: “My goal was always to conduct a crew in a non-offensive way. Too many of the crews recently had been very aggressive. We always wanted to move toward humanizing rowing. “There were a whole series of challenges, so many times in which we had to pull ourselves together – I would often need to call on my own transcendent processes. Once you establish the quality of your being, then things come more easily.”3337 Jimmy Beggs produced two notable crews at Penn, the 1958 Freshmen who came second at the Eastern Sprints and third at the IRA, and the 1959 Freshmen, third in both post-season regattas. Many of those 1959 Freshmen later won the Eastern Sprints and went to Henley in 1962 as seniors. Nevertheless, not once while at Penn did Beggs or his teams achieve the level of excellence that he had reached with Jim Fifer and Duvall Hecht. In 1964, Beggs was succeeded at Penn by Olympic Gold Medalist Ted Nash.3338 Beggs: “I’d spent eleven years coaching at Penn, and my self-confidence had gradually eroded. It was centrally a matter of not understanding enough the type of oarsman coming into the university. When I left, I sort of wondered what I was going to do . . . “I soon had an epiphany and was guided to a degree in psychology, and to a whole new career in the study, teaching, and practice of psychotherapy. “I quickly took a professorship at San Jose State University [in California].”3339 Jim Beggs kept in touch with his old boss, Joe Burk, until Joe’s passing in 2008. Jim married late in life, and he and his wife Brigitta retired to a ranch in Northern California, Jim dealing with the crippling effects of multiple sclerosis. Brigitta recently called to tell me that Jim had passed away peacefully in May, 2011. In 2008, Rutgers University announced they were dropping men’s and women’s varsity crew. 3337 Beggs, op. cit. 3338 See Chapters 84 and 85. 3339 Beggs, op. cit. 925
