THE SPORT OF ROWING 68. Yale versus Cornell The 1956 Season – Olympic Eights Trials The 1956 Yale season is remembered for a vigorous and contentious rivalry with Cornell, coached by Washington-grad Stork Sanford,2543 former teammate to Al Ulbrickson and Tom Bolles. That 1950s Yale-Cornell rivalry continues today in the vivid recollections of the members of these two very strong squads. In Ithaca, Cornell’s 1956 Varsity was based on their 1954 IRA-winning Freshman Crew, stroked by Phil Gravink. The following year, in winning the IRA varsity race, they handed Joe Burk’s great 1955 Penn crew its only loss. Having been more-or-less together since the fall of 1953, the 1956 Cornell Varsity entered the Olympic year with high hopes and very high ambitions. Over in New Haven, “victories over Harvard in 1954 and 1955, including in 1955 the first Yale sweep at New London since 1935, had provided both a squad of impressive depth and a quiet confidence in the good health of Yale rowing.”2544 Seven members of the 1955 Jayvee had returned, but the heart of the 1956 Yale Varsity came from their 1955 Freshmen. Cooke: “Art Gilcreast took a 16mm film of them, particularly the stern- four, which Jim used to show as the best 2543 See Chapter 70. 2544 Mendenhall, Oar, p. 5 representative of the technique that he was trying to achieve. “That lineup had been 5-man Cooke, 6- man Stalford, 7-man Wailes, stroke-man Morey and coxswain Becklean. Four of the five made the 1956 Varsity. “Obviously, Gilcreast had Jim’s stroke interpreted exactly!”2545 Carnegie Cup In 1956, the first showdown between the Elis and the Big Red came in the Carnegie Cup on Yale’s home course on the Housatonic in Derby. Undefeated Princeton was also in the race. Yale’s Wailes: “The wind was blowing up river, creating a nasty chop. Our crew loved a head wind – it made the work harder, and we believed we were the strongest crew. “We took off as well as possible in the high wind and chop, moved ahead of Cornell by about half a length in the first half mile, and had almost a length with a half mile to go. “Carl Schwarz, the Cornell cox, was yelling at his crew, ‘We’re moving on them, we’re moving on them!!’ to which Becklean yelled over to Cornell, ‘The hell you are, you silly bastards.’ “Cornell took it up with about a half mile to go and moved back up on us to cut our lead. We moved our pace up to 34 and 2545 Cooke, op. cit. 706
