THE SUNSET OF CONIBEAR weights. Training was designed to make us the best long-distance boats in the country and reach our peak at the IRAs.”4345 Ken Dreyfuss ‘69: “In the fall of 1966, when it looked like Ted had finally sent Joe enough good men for us to start winning races, Joe went from six mile practices to eighteen miles per day, with twenty-four on Saturday! “One day, and I was a lowly sophomore at the time, some senior members of the team confronted Joe in the locker room and refused to practice that day if the mileage was not cut shorter. Joe thought about it for a second, and then walked out of the room and down to his launch, staring out into the distance with his famous hands-in-his-back-pocket stance. “Every member of the crew stood at the windows above, looking down at him. “Eventually, someone said some expletive, everyone got in the boats, and we were out for another eighteen-miler and, by the way, the first of three straight IRA wins.”4346 Purdy: “As those of us who lived through the ‘60s know, authority was being questioned and the old rules of blind obedience were being challenged. This came to a head in late fall of 1966 for many of the seniors, all of whom were tired of losing to Harvard year after year. “The appetite for training in the lower classes was so different from theirs, although several in our class felt we should be doing more work off the water as opposed to rowing 108 miles on the Schuylkill River week after week, no matter what the weather. “There was a confrontation and, although it was resolved on the surface, I think it may have been the first hint for Joe that being a college crew coach was going to be different than it had been in the past.”4347 Paumgarten: “Is all that imagination, or was it just a long time ago? I recall no protest of Joe’s practice schedule. We did have a few juniors who ran miles because their attitudes were not always the best – great, funny guys but . . . “It is true that my sophomore year, Joe had us cut our hair and measured it with a 1¼ inch measuring stick. There was a small rebellion then, led by me, which lasted all of five minutes.”4348 In the fall and winter leading up to the 1967 season, Joe took the Point System a significant step further. Cadwalader considers this innovation the “greatest of all of Joe’s coaching achievements, and the true measure of the integrity of this man. “Joe was aware that many factors influence the selection of one’s top oarsmen. Some factors seem thoroughly defensible, but others are either based on intuition, a bit of alchemy, a hunch or, perhaps, an indefensible personal preference of one fellow over the other. “Joe sought a method to pick the best crew of eight without the coach getting in the way. “Never has any coach in any sport that I have ever heard of relinquished this ultimate coach’s prerogative. “Joe Burk did. Here is how and why: “Take a deck of playing cards, and write each oarsman’s name on a card, keeping ports and starboard in separate piles. (The next year, my card would be the King of Clubs, a fateful card if ever there was a fateful card! It had ‘Doom’ written all over it for me.) “Every practice, Joe would shuffle the cards and deal out three boats at random. These eights would go out for the day’s 4345 Sculley, op. cit. 4346 Dreyfuss, personal correspondence, 2005 4347 Purdy, op. cit. 4348 Paumgarten, personal correspondence, 2006 1195
