THE SPORT OF ROWING LWRC boat, where I knew he would come to rest. I was not by any means a technical wizard. I ran on endurance and just hoped I could get a shot at his boat. “John led by example. He was physically strong, had a great sense of leverage, and what I liked most was that he was happy to raise the rate until everyone else folded. “When John decided to ‘go,’ our four went! John had two gears, race and super race, and all of us in the boat had better be ready. If John was a length up or three lengths down, I’m not sure there was any alternative possible in his head. He simply threw the switch, and it was time to win. “Some of his puddles may still be swirling out by Lighthouse Point on Lake Washington. He made memories for a lot of us. “Stan Pocock used to say, ‘If you want to be in our top boat, each of you needs to be asked for by the others, as I only want a crew that has confidence in all members.’ “We all knew who would stroke the boat. John Sayre.”3531 Stan: “At the outset, I told all those turning out that they would have to pick their own lineups. I wasn’t going to get stuck with doing that!”3532 In 1959, LWRC sent two coxed-fours, a coxless-four and a coxed- and coxless-pair to the Pan American Games Trials in Detroit. Sayre stroked the coxless-four: Sayre: “We were on the Detroit River for the Pan Am Trials. One of our boats lost the first race when they shouldn’t have, so Stan goes out and drifts blocks of wood down each lane because Lake Washington had been assigned Lane 5 or 6 in each race, while Detroit Boat Club got Lanes 1 or 2. The drifting blocks showed the Lane 1 side was considerably faster. There were 3531 Nash, personal correspondence, 2007 3532 S. Pocock, personal correspondence, 2009 currents and sand bars and whatever, and so it was a fixed race in our view. “When we got to our race, we were so mad we couldn’t see straight. We took off, caught a huge crab, took off again, smacked into Vesper, pulled away and tried to get ahead of them, and smacked into them again. I saw a huge piece of oar go flying in front of me and thought, ‘I hope that’s not one of ours!’ “The ref came over and said, ‘Lake Washington, you do that again, and you’re disqualified!’ and Jay Hall, our bow-man, yelled ‘[Have a nice day!]’ at the top of his lungs back at the referee. “We eventually got past Vesper and cut across five lanes and all the other crews to get over to Lane 2. Nobody said boo. The referee disappeared, never to be seen again. “Detroit Boat Club was in the lead at the time, and I think we won the race by about two feet. We had probably rowed about 2,500 meters! “Not exactly my favorite race . . . but my favorite memory!”3533 Despite the lanes, three LWRC boats, their coxless-pair and both fours,3534 qualified for the Pan Am Games. Only a fluke wash from a Coast Guard cutter in the Coxed-Pairs Trials prevented Conn Findlay, his latest partner, John Fish from the UW, and coxswain Pete Paup from joining them. All three Lake Washington qualifiers won Gold Medals in the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, including LWRC co- founder Ted Frost in the coxless-pairs. Ted Nash: “In 1959, Dan Ayrault was not yet fully in shape after the service, and he did not make the Pan American Team. He shook all our hands and wished us good luck, and then he said, ‘I’ll be ready for a 3533 Sayre, personal conversation, 2007 3534 The coxed-four was actually a Green Lake high school crew coached by Don Voris. They were included in the LWRC effort after beating some of the regular LWRC coxed-fours. 970
