THE SPORT OF ROWING he was an old University of California oarsman. Ted imagined him to be a member of the 1932 Olympic Champion Crew, but there is no indication that Steele ever rowed in a Cal Varsity Eight. “One day Nash noticed Steele salmon fishing from his racing single on the Carmel River, right near the ocean outlet. “‘I thought it was very funny at first,’ ‘At the time, I was trying to Nash said. learn how to play baseball, football and everything else, but I kept watching him. He then asked me if I would like to row in his boat and I said, ‘How do you row when you’re fishing?’’ “With Steele showing him, Nash spent every weekend for the next few months learning the fundamentals of rowing. After he stopped meeting Steele, he didn’t think a thing about rowing until he got to high school, but it didn’t matter because those weekends had piqued Nash’s interest. “Before he completed high school in 1951, Nash enlisted in the Marine Reserves, but when he was found to be under age, his orders were cancelled, and he returned to school. When he turned 18, he joined the Army, where he eventually became an instructor overseas for the Korean and Indian Military Advisory Groups and an Army Officer Candidate School Tactical Officer. “‘I was never in black ops or in combat in Korea. I enjoyed the Army but was not often in jeopardy anywhere, Turkey, Japan or Sri Lanka. I was an instructor pilot and also taught aerobatics as an escape tactic, plus anti-guerilla warfare tactics.’ “Ted attended both Boston University and the University of Washington during his years in the service. “‘It took a lot of maneuvering for me to get training time. I had very understanding professors, and my coaches all understood. “He raced for B.U., Detroit Boat Club, Vesper and Lake Washington. For his post-1960 Lake Washington Four, Ted Nash helped recruit and train three new teammates, 6’4” 196cm 185lb. 84kg Ted Mittet from Green Lake Junior Crew in Seattle and the University of Washington, U.S. Army officer and Stanford grad, 6’3” 193cm 185lb. 84kg Dick Lyon, and Army officer 6’3” 193cm 190lb. 86kg Phil Durbrow, who had rowed at Menlo College, where Duvall Hecht3585 had started a crew, and at the University of California.3586 Nash: “A lot of what we did at Lake Washington in ‘61 through ‘63 was changing crews. After 1960, we lost everybody in my boat except for myself, and we were always searching for a better boat, better guys, and each of us carried all these ideas. It was like having a whole batch of chefs. “At Lake Washington Rowing Club, we trained in singles, doubles, pairs, and fours. We never rowed an eight unless Canada asked us to come up and row, which we would do on a weekend. “I rowed in different seats. I sculled in doubles and singles, rowed in fours and anything they wanted me to row, but we were always looking for the straight-four again. “We went through racing our five four- withs, with the winning crew getting to pick 3584 Cranston, substantially supplemented by Nash, 2008 and 2010 3585 See Chapter 81. 3586 S. Pocock, p. 202 “‘At Lake Washington, I rowed with a super group of athletes including many armed forces personnel. All five military branches would assign any good rowers to Seattle. The services take great pains to get their possible Olympians to a setting where they can perform and medal. They really went out of their way to help me, given my weird occupational numbers.’”3584 984
