THE SPORT OF ROWING “Dr. Adam gave him the answer. ‘American rowing,’ he said sadly, ‘has not changed in fifty years.4535’”4536 The impact that Karl Adam was to have on the American rowing community is almost unbelievable in retrospect. The New York Times: “Tip Goes, the former chairman of the United States Rowing Committee, said the sprint championships would have a lasting effect on college [rowing for] generations, especially the performance of Cornell against Ratzeburg. “Coach Adam said, ‘We would like Cornell and Ratzeburg to have another race without any wind. And we would like to have our own shell.’ “Dr. Walter Wülfing, President of the German Rowing Federation, emphasized that the United States had many more good crews than did Germany. ‘It is possible for the United States to send out ten good eights. In Germany, we have only one or two.’ “In his praise of the Cornell crew, the German Rowing Federation President said, ‘I hope it will have a great chance in the 1964 Olympics at Tokyo. I am impressed with the great discipline of your crews. If you selected an Olympic eight from the pick of all of your crews, you might be even stronger.’”4537 Allen Rosenberg obviously agreed. He had just taken control of a crew at Vesper Boat Club made up of outstanding individuals from club and college programs around the country. They had been among the crowd of 10,000 who witnessed the Adams Cup from the banks of the Schuylkill. FISA President Thomi Keller was also there filming the Ratzeburg crew in 4535 See Chapter 90. 4536 Rex Lardner, How They Row in Ratzeburg, Sports Illustrated, May 20, 1963 4537 Danzig, op. cit. practice. He did not leave Philadelphia before also filming Vesper’s Eight. A year later, it would be neither Cornell nor any other crew from a single college that won the U.S. Trials. It would be Vesper. In the 1963 season, Stork Sanford4538 had still been coaching the 3rd Generation Conibear Stroke of his 1957 crew. That year “at the Madeira Cup, Cornell had rowed six or more strokes below Penn all the way, took an early lead and won by two lengths. Stork saw it as ‘another victory for the American low stroke,’ and Joe Burk as ‘trying to emulate the Europeans.’”4539 But then Ratzeburg beat Cornell in winning the Eastern Sprints. Harry Parker: “Worth noting is that Cornell rowed most of the final of the 1963 Sprints at 29 and held Ratzeburg even while they were rowing 40! Not everyone took notice of that.”4540 Allen Rosenberg remembers: “A lot of the college coaches looked at them and said, ‘Hah! Short boat, big oars, high rate of striking!’ “By the next competitive season, that’s all you saw.”4541 The first convert was perceived to be Harry Parker, the young lion at Harvard. Right behind him was Stork Sanford, the Dean of American Coaches, the very last member of three generations of Conibear Coaches. One year later in 1964, even Cornell was rowing an interpretation of the Ratzeburg Style. Nunn: “When I started at Cornell in 1960, we were doing the quick slide out of bow and then decelerating into the catch, and then in the middle, like 1964, we 4538 See Chapter 70. 4539 Mendenhall, op. cit., p. 47 4540 Parker, personal correspondence, 2007 4541 Rosenberg, op. cit. 1254
