THE WINDS OF CHANGE and Sikes through Conibear and his many successors, men like Leader, Callow, Ebright, Ulbrickson, Bolles, as well as Burk at Penn and Rathschmidt at Yale, every single one had coached their crews not just to brace with their backs but to actually open their backs concurrently with the motion of their legs. Every one. This is Classical Technique. Callow2725 had champion crews in the 1950s which drove their legs sufficiently hard to flatten them prior to the finish, but was it George Pocock who pushed Sanford over the edge to sequential motion from concurrent effort at the entry? Carl Ulrich, Sanford’s Freshman Coach beginning in 1955, recalls: “I think Stork talked technique with other coaches – he still talked with Stan and George Pocock – and they had some pretty definite ideas on technique.”2726 Sanford’s evolution of technique took on greater significance because there already were crews in the United States, especially in Philadelphia,2727 which had evolved beyond the Classical Technique concurrent- effort Schubschlag pullthroughs which were the very foundation of the Conibear Stroke to a Modern Orthodox sequential-effort segmented-force Kernschlag pullthrough that was the antithesis of what Hiram Conibear and George Pocock actually believed in. Von Wrangell: “Sanford and Tom Bolles were very close friends. Sanford, it could be said, was regarded as a good friend by every other coach, but he found it a bit awkward to discuss technique with his former coach and mentor at Washington, 2725 See Chapter 64. 2726 Ulrich, personal correspondence, 2005 2727 See Chapter 107. Rusty Callow. Although he loved and respected him, Rusty was like a father to him, and it was hard to talk with him as a peer. “The guys he enjoyed talking technique with were Tom Bolles, Buck Walsh at Navy [a follower of Richard Glendon], Norm Sonju at Wisconsin, Ulbrickson and Ebright. “The latter two he could only see at Poughkeepsie.”2728 Sanford also had his own opinions. Harry Parker recalls: “I once heard Stork give a short clinic in which he questioned the way Bolles had his oarsmen break their arms early in the stroke. Stork advocated straighter arms and much more emphasis on the legs and back.”2729 The Role of the Stroke-Oar It may be recalled that Washington’s 1936 crew was built around their indispensable stroke-oar, Don Hume, Olympic Champion as a sophomore, and Navy’s great crews from 1952 through 1954 were built around an extraordinary Plebe Crew with an exceptional stroke-oar, Ed Stevens, Olympic Champion as a sophomore. The 1956 Yale crew was built around their 1955 Freshman Crew, stroked by Bob Morey, another sophomore Olympic Champ. The Cornell renaissance in 1955 was a virtual carbon copy, centered on another sophomore stroke-oar, Phil Gravink. Ulrich: “The mid-’50s were the big turnaround in Cornell Crew, particularly starting with the freshmen of the 1954 2728 von Wrangell, op. cit. 2729 Parker, personal correspondence, 2005 749
