THE SUNSET OF CONIBEAR us, with everyone pushing during training. Dixi was the real glue.4340 The Penn Jayvee came in second in the 1966 IRA, but that Jayvee race will forever be remembered for being won by the Dartmouth “Varsity,” who had been demoted by their coach just before the regatta. Pete Gardner, Dartmouth Coach: “In 1966, I had two boats, and no matter what I did, changing people around and everything else, I couldn’t seem to separate them. The one I thought would be the Varsity, but the other boat would beat them in time trials about half the time. “I kept mixing them around. I’d think, ‘Well, it must be the stroke,’ and I’d change the stroke, but nothing would happen. I kept looking for all different possibilities. After a while it became clear that among those sixteen guys, I just wasn’t able to pick eight who were clearly superior to the other eight. “It was maybe ten days, two weeks before the IRA when finally, in desperation I said, ‘Okay, we’ll have one last time trial, and whoever wins is the Varsity, and whoever comes in second is the Jayvee.’ “Most of the guys that lost that time trial had indeed started off the season rowing in the Varsity, and most of the other guys in the Jayvee, but as time went on I had mixed them up and changed them around.”4341 Bill Pickard, Dartmouth ‘71: “I got to Hanover in the fall of 1967, so the story was already somewhat cold even just two years later. All I know is that Pete says he really was trying to make the fastest Varsity he could – so the guys in that boat were legitimate jayvee athletes.”4342 Nevertheless, it was frustrating for the second-place Penn Jayvee. Arthur Sculley, 1966 Penn Jayvee coxswain: “Regarding the actual race, I only 4340 Fuglestad, personal correspondence, 2007 4341 Gardner, personal conversation, 2007 4342 Pickard, personal conversation, 2007 really remember the final half mile. We were in a lane in the center of the lake with most of the crews off our starboard side. Before the race, I reminded myself of the colors of the racing shirts of the top four or five crews. I recall that we believed we had a chance to win, but we did not know much about the West Coast crews. “One of my jobs was to keep track of how we were doing during the race and communicating (but not overcommun- icating) that info to Dixi and the rest of the boat so the oarsmen could concentrate on their rowing rather than looking out across the lake. By the half-way point, I recall that about four or five had broken out of the pack with us, and I recognized all the crews except some dark green shirts on the inside lane next to shore. “Gradually, the other boats started to drop back except for the green shirts. I felt that surely they would start to fade as we approached the finish line. “As we came to the final half-mile, we were in a two-boat race, and we seemed to be about three seats down. I recall saying to Dixi that this was it. I thought we had to go for broke. “He and Rollie [7-seat Roland Steiner ‘67] cranked it up, and I called out several power-10s, letting our boat know we needed every ounce of strength. The other crew was quite some distance away, so it was hard for me to tell our exact position in those final twenty or so strokes, but I knew we were still slightly behind. “It was a strange feeling being in such a tight race but physically so far from the other boat. To me, it felt like our boat was completely together and had a strong finish. However, when we crossed the finish line, it looked like they had won, but I was not completely sure. “The next question was, ‘Who wears green shirts?’ “Someone in our boat said it might be Dartmouth. 1193
