THE WINDS OF CHANGE calling out, ‘Let’s go up! Let’s go up!’ or perhaps some other, less-gentle Marine words, expressing the strong sentiment of the entire boat behind me. “The boat went up. Well, initially only seven of us did, but a gentle nudge in the back from Bruce brought me into line.”2465 In that Sunday final for the Kruppachter, before 20,000 spectators and televised Europe-wide, Penn blasted home by open water. Mannheim In their third week in Germany, they (three participated in the Dreiländerkampf competition). Mannheimer countries They won over Rudergesellschaft Hansa Hamburg, Rudergesellschaft Heidelberg, and the national crews of Austria and Yugoslavia. Crocco: “In our last race together as a crew in Mannheim, again we just clicked, and no one could touch us. It was magical.”2466 The time was a stunning 5:26.9 over a course of 1,900-plus meters.2467 “Joe Burk insisted the Mannheim course was short of 1,900 meters because, as Joe reasoned, speciously but with understandable modesty, ‘a crew couldn’t row that fast.’”2468 An Interested Observer Penn Athletic Director Jerry Ford: “As oarsman, our boys were the wonder of experts, both in England and the Continent. Movies were taken of them in action to capture the secret of their flawless technique. Their shell and oars were measured and weighed, their training regimen studied closely. “Everywhere they competed, partic- ularly in Germany, they were referred to as the world’s fastest crew, and hence became models for local oarsmen.”2469 To European observers, Penn seemed to defy the laws of physics that applied to all other crews. In their Henley semi-final, they had beaten Britain’s best, Thames Rowing Club by a half-length of open water at a rating The Times of London termed “a majestic thirty.”2470 The strength and speed of the Penn pullthrough, the endless run on the impossibly long recovery, seemed as unattainable in its own way as Joe Burk’s high-rating sculling technique had seemed to British observers seventeen years earlier. At their regatta in Hamburg, when Penn made its first impression on the German rowing community, according to historian Tom Mendenhall, “one of the most interested spectators was Dr. Karl Adam2471 of Ratzeburger Ruderclub. He was already working out a new international technique, initially under the influence of Steve Fairbairn.2472 “Eight years later,2473 Adam confessed to Joe Burk that he had returned home from Hamburg very depressed and wondering whether they could ever beat the invincible Americans.”2474 2465 Lane, op. cit. 2466Crocco, op. cit. 2467 Ford, p. 15 2468 Ibid. 2469 Ibid. 2470 Ibid, p. 14 2471 See Chapter 92. 2472 See Chapter 19. 2473 See Chapter 98. 2474 Mendenhall, op. cit., p. 36 685
