INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL Mitchell: “It was Ed’s and Conn’s first international regatta together and the poorest that Conn had ever done. This wore on Ed for the next two years; he figured he’d let Conn down. In fact, he and Conn moved that pair faster in ‘62 than any other pair that Conn had been in. Still, the dismal fifth was proof they weren’t world beaters, and it stuck with them all the way to Tokyo, 1964. Even their Pan Am Games victory eight months later in Brazil didn’t heal the wound.”3462 Findlay: “In 1963, Kent was unavailable, so we used another coxswain from Stanford, Charles Blitzer.3463 He went with us down to the Pan Ams in Sao Paulo, Brazil. [Findlay, Ferry and Blitzer won.] “Because the Games were in the Southern Hemisphere, they were during the school year [rowing finals on April 28, 1963], so when we came back, we flew straight to Southern California because Stanford had a race that weekend, and Ferry and Blitzer went straight into their eight.”3464 Findlay and Ferry took the summer of 1963 off from rowing as Mitchell continued law school, Ferry graduated from Stanford and was commissioned in the U.S. Navy, and Conn raced sailboats in England. Ed and Conn resumed rowing in mid- October, 1963, twelve months before the Tokyo Games. Mitchell: “[During February, 1964] Ed’s back went lame, and they couldn’t row for six weeks. Conn sculled and Ed ran, but when they resumed rowing Ed had to wrap a six-foot elastic bandage around his torso. Conn always grumbled that he knew how Ed had hurt his back. The cause was strictly ‘extracurricular’ and had nothing to do with 3462 Mitchell, A Blueprint for Gold, op. cit. 3463 Mitchell was in law school. 3464 Findlay, personal conversation, 2005 rowing. Ed denied this vigorously, but never convincingly. “You’d expect Conn to tread lightly on the personal aspects of Ed’s life, and vice versa, to avoid bitterness, you know, build up the team spirit! Quite the contrary! In early 1962, Ed served notice that inasmuch as nothing in his personal life was sacred to Conn, there was open warfare between them. ‘From then on, Ed bantered Conn about his teeth, his age, his living at home; he called him The Old Man in front of everyone and ridiculed Conn’s nomadic college life: terms at every J.C. in the San Francisco area, at Santa Clara, Berlitz language school and even refused admission at Stanford – Ed loved that one! – then about Conn’s last-ditch effort that got him a degree at USC [in mechanical engineering]. “Conn replied in subdued, fatherly tones and simply recounted a long list of Ed’s indiscretions, mostly true.”3465 Ferry: ‘Conn gets a hard rap for his crustiness, but here are a couple of anecdotes showing a softer side. “As our pair would coast to a stop after a long training piece, occasionally Conn would tilt the leading edge of his blade to catch a thin film of water cascading over the top of his blade and say, ‘Water flowers.’ “When I was stroking our college eight at the 1962 Western Sprints, Coach Conn, known at the time as the Jolly Green Giant,3466 had been giving us last minute instructions. As we left to go on the water, another crewman said to me, ‘Did you see what I did?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ Conn had been tearing up. “It took me two years of rowing with Conn after that to get the courage to 3465 Mitchell, A Blueprint for Gold, op. cit. 3466 the mascot of a subsidiary of food conglomerate General Mills, Inc. which sold canned and frozen vegetables in the United States with a “jolly green giant” on the labels and in television commercials. 955
