THE WINDS OF CHANGE Ed Stevens: “I was thinking about the Navy rowing successes in 1952. The whole program did well, not just the Varsity Eight. For example, at the Olympic Trials that year, Navy was the HOT club, molded by the new coach in his second year at Annapolis. We entered five of the seven events and placed first in the eights, coxless- fours and singles2368 and second in the coxed-pairs and coxed-fours. That is a pretty good showing! “At the Trials in 1956, under Rusty’s brief re-tutelage, our ‘52 crew was brought back to be competitive after a two season layoff. We finished third, only 4.1 seconds behind Yale and 1.3 seconds behind a great Cornell crew.2369 “The 1960 Olympic Trials found the Navy Varsity Eight again coming in first, and Rusty had coached that crew for most of its career before poor health prevented him from finishing the job. “An ‘outsider’ took over the Navy coaching position and went with the crew to the Olympics. The U.S. Eight made it to the final, but didn’t medal.2370 “Navy had good equipment, unlimited and uncrowded water, along with good food for healthy athletes. And Rusty’s crews were all competitive. He seemed to be able to motivate each crew to give their best to every race.”2371 Murphy: “Many years later when I was getting ready to move to join Texas Instruments, I had to take my dog to a vet for proper shots, and I happened to have on my Navy Sweater with the ‘N’ crossed with an oar. The vet looked at me and asked, ‘Did you row for Navy?’ 2368 Penn-grad and Vesper member Jack Kelly, Jr. was then an ensign in the U.S. Navy. See Chapter 87. 2369 See Chapter 68. 2370 See Chapter 90. 2371 Stevens, op. cit. “‘Yes,’ I said, and he replied, ‘I was a coxswain for Rusty at Penn!’ “A long conversation between brothers ensued. “I think if you talk to anyone who ever was in contact with this man, his life was positively influenced. Certainly mine was. “At one of our reunions, I was asked to say something about Rusty, and as near as I can come to the recollection of those words, this was what I said: “‘When it came to having a positive influence on my life, Rusty came as close as anyone ever could to being a second father to me. In the absence of my own father, Rusty was there. I could not have been more fortunate.’ “Peter, these memories are as close to me as if they had happened yesterday.”2372 Historian Von Wrangell: “Rusty Callow had a serious intellectual side that rarely showed around the rowing scene. While in Philadelphia, he was deeply involved in the development of character with the Boy Scouts in the Delaware Valley and was an ordained minister, Presbyterian I believe. “While I was coaching at Princeton, Rusty wrote me a wonderful letter, mostly about rowing. In it he told me that his favorite passage in English literature that conveyed the spirit of rowing was Shakespeare’s St. Crispin’s Day speech that King Henry V gave to his motley troops on the eve of the battle against the French. It was a pep talk to get their courage up for the battle, and had those lines that are now so well known: This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered – We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, 2372 Murphy, op. cit. 657
