THE WINDS OF CHANGE John P. Cooke 1956 Olympic Eights Trials, Heat 2 Onondaga Lake, Syracuse 1 Yale 6:50.0, 2 Wisconsin 6:52.9, 3 Detroit 6:54.3, 4 Stanford n.t. The Final Future U.S. Olympic Coach Allen Rosenberg2574 was at the Olympic Trials coxing a pair for Vesper Boat Club: “After another day’s delay, the finals were held on Sunday. The Navy Coach, Rusty Callow, a deeply religious man, indicated that he would not have his crews row on the Sabbath at his direction. However, on their own, they elected to do so.”2575 There was more rough water caused by a crosswind from the west, off the lake. Cornell lined up in Lane 1, furthest out from shore, Yale was next to them in Lane 2, followed by Navy Alumni, Washington and Wisconsin in that order. Cooke: “Clifford Goes, coxswain for the 1913 Syracuse IRA Champions under Jim Ten Eyck, was chief referee for the Olympic Trials, and he had always openly favored Cornell.”2576 Gilcreast: “As for Tippy Goes, he was always rooting for the Finger Lakes crews,2577 although Syracuse, his alma mater, never did a thing in those days. 2574 See Chapter 107 ff. 2575Rosenberg, personal correspondence, 2007 2576 Cooke, op. cit. 2577 Cornell is situated in Ithaca, on the banks of Cayuga, the largest of the Finger Lakes and about 50 miles southwest of Onondaga. “Probably given Jim’s savvy about Tippy’s clout as a referee, whenever he visited the Yale crew in Derby we treated him like a king, though I never found him a very warm or regular guy. “I remember one time we took him to dinner at the local restaurant that we haunted. I can’t remember the name of the place, but it was on the right at the bottom of the hill coming out of Derby – an Italian restaurant. “Tippy wanted dandelions with his dinner, and the owner had to run all around town to get them.”2578 Esselstyn: “Tippy Goes was only about 5’2”, but you’d swear he was trying to blow his voice clear through the megaphone. The commands might as well have been Hungarian. All you knew was that there were three of them.”2579 According to The New York Times, the final started well for the Elis. “Yale, off to a perfect start, shared the lead with Cornell and the Admirals in the early stages. “Then the Elis dropped back.”2580 From within the Yale boat, however, the reality was a bit more nuanced. 2578 Gilcreast, personal correspondence, 2005 2579 Esselstyn, personal correspondence, 2005 2580 Michael Strauss, Yale Eight Triumphs in Tryout Final and Qualifies for Olympics, The New York Times, July 2, 1956 713
