THE WINDS OF CHANGE beaten in high school being as good as he thought they were.”2521 Gilcreast: “In 1954, Charlie Grimes was on the first Freshman Heavyweight Crew I ever coached, and it was a terrible cross I had to bear. I was clearly not ready for Charlie Grimes! “I could teach Charlie nothing. “Nothing! “Charlie was a terribly rough oarsman. He’d rowed at Groton where slam-bam was the best you could hope for. “I tried keeping him in the second boat for a while. Finally I put him in the first boat, and he looked just terrible, but I asked someone whether they thought the boat went better. The fellow replied, ‘I don’t know whether it went any faster, but I thought the rigger was going to come right off the side of the boat!’ “Well, that was good enough for me. I concluded we had to have Charlie in the boat . . . “Later, after we got trounced in the Yale-Harvard Race, Ed Leader came up to me and said, ‘Son, in order to win the race, you’ve got to put the blades in the water.’ “But that was Charlie Grimes.”2522 Caldwell “Essy” Esselstyn, 1956 6- seat: “I came into the sport through the back door. When I arrived in the fall of 1952, my roommate was on the crew, but I was playing freshman football. “The next spring, my roommate would come home from all of these races, and it seemed to be such a great team sport, so I went out for crew my sophomore year. “In the spring of 1954, I started in the third boat and eventually made it up to the Junior Varsity. When the season rolled around, we won our first two races while the Varsity was struggling. 2521 Grimes, personal conversation, 2006 2522 Gilcreast, 1956 Crew 50th Reunion, 2006 “Then one day Jim called out, ‘Alex and Jay, pull the two boats pull together,’ and he changed five guys, including me, and the boat just clicked! “At the 1954 Eastern Sprints at Haynes Point on the Potomac in Washington, we almost beat the legendary Navy Great Eight, and afterward their stroke, Ed Stevens, came over to us and said, ‘Who the hell are you guys?’ “Without missing a beat, our stroke, Steve Reynolds, replied, ‘Hell, we’re the Jayvee!’”2523 1955 George Pew, assistant crew manager: “John Cooke also came to Yale intending to go out for freshman football, but he got waylaid with his roommate during Freshman Week, and they drank a case of beer instead of going to the football meeting, so he eventually ended up trying out for crew. “We had two and one-half good freshman boats that year, and John wasn’t in any of them. He spent the fall and the spring riding in the launch with Art Gilcreast, learning a lot . . . but not rowing. When the season finished, Art said, ‘When does your summer job start? Would you come to Gales Ferry?’ “John said, ‘What’s Gail’s Ferry?’ “He got that explained to him, and he came. He eventually got into the 5-seat of the First Freshman Crew which beat an undefeated Harvard crew by coming from behind in a very dramatic, terrific race, and as the crews pulled together the Harvard 5- man handed John, the shortest guy on the whole squad, his shirt and asked, ‘How did you guys do that?’ “John replied, ‘I don’t know. This is my first race.’ “Seventeen months later, he was an Olympic Champion.”2524 2523 Esselstyn, personal conversation, 2005 701
