THE SPORT OF ROWING practice, and starting in September, on most days there would be a race for points. “One week before the first race of the season in April, the eight fellows with the highest point totals were the first boat. “That was it. “Joe would give us all his wisdom as a regular coach during the week to help anyone improve his form and technique, but the point average and not Joe would determine who was in the Varsity, in the Jayvee and the Threevee. Coach had no authority over the system, even if it looked like an assortment of odd ducks. The odd ducks would be Penn’s Varsity. “It took one amazing coach to invent this system, to implement the system and then to abide by the system, even as so many at Penn and at other colleges were aghast that such a revered coach would give his prerogatives over to an uncompromising point system.”4349 The New York Times: “[Burk] says he does not care who is in the boat or where they sit and believes Penn’s will be an able crew in any event. ‘The boys themselves decide who should sit where,’ he said. ‘I’m absolutely impersonal.’ “It is possible that the eight named will never have rowed together in the same boat. ‘I don’t care what they look like,’ said the coach. ‘They can hardly look good because they won’t know one another’s styles, but I think it’ll get the best – and maybe the luckiest – crew this way.’ “The imaginative Burk, who is willing to try anything in an effort to advance the art of rowing, said he came to the conclusion in his middle age that ‘beautiful crews lose.’”4350 Sculley, 1967 Varsity Coxswain: “The training that autumn and winter was 4349 Cadwalader, Burk Tribute 4350 Penn’s Crew Gets a Fair Deal When Coach Shuffles the Deck, The New York Times, April 17, 1968 unbelievably grueling. The Point System would be used to select the initial first and second varsity boats in March, so every day from September on was competitive. Almost daily, we had endless three-mile races at compulsory low strokes with concentration on form, with two or three more during our twenty-four-mile marathons on Saturday mornings. “When the weather turned cold, we knew we had an advantage over Harvard as they had to go into the tanks for training, but we did not miss one day on the Schuylkill during that the bitter cold and windy winter! “For me, that was the turning point in the season, and I thought to myself that there must be a payback if we were going to put up with such challenging conditions. That winter was the ultimate bonding experience.”4351 Robby Meek ‘67: “We did that all through the fall and as much of the winter as we could. January, February, March, we just did it forever! And we always finished up every day with a three-mile race.”4352 Sculley: “When the spring race season approached, the length of practices became shorter, and we concentrated on higher stroke cadences in order to prepare for our cup races and the Eastern Sprints. “By then, almost any combination jelled well in the boats as everyone was used to the same style from the thousands of miles rowed together. There were no prima donnas, no individual rivalries, and the members of all three varsity boats were close personally. We were confident but not cocky, and anxious to get on with the race season.”4353 Hap Allen ‘67, Varsity 3-seat: “That year, I think I beat out Mike Howard by a tenth or a hundredth of a point. It’s a good thing for me that the card method stopped 4351 Sculley, op. cit. 4352 Meek, personal conversation, 2008 4353 Sculley, op. cit. 1196
