THE SPORT OF ROWING “Those were the years when crews used to pull together and the losers took their shirts off. We did that, and the Harvard guys were very respectful, but that was the last time that Harvard lineup ever rowed together. That boat was totally changed by the next race.5349 “Everybody was disappointed, but we realized that we had come a long way. Ernie was certainly beside himself, but congratulated both crews and congratulated Harry. I think that race was the real beginning of belief that we deserved to be in that league.”5350 The Coffey Years Calvin Coffey: “When I got to Northeastern as a freshman in 1969-70, the guys were still talking about the 1967 race with Harvard. Apparently we had led them for most of the race until one of our guys caught a crab or something and we lost by a seat. “Everything we did we compared to Harvard. They set the standard, and I wanted to get us there. “In the spring of my sophomore year, we were rowing out of the Riverside Boat Club, and Ernie announced that the Varsity Boat that year would be selected by various tests, including running. Now I was a terrible runner, but one afternoon Ernie arrived with a starter’s pistol and said that there was a coxswain standing in the parking lot of Cambridge Boat Club two miles up the river. We were to run up there, run around the coxswain and run back. The results would count. “He fired the gun, and we were off, and by the first bridge, I was already in last place. As my teammates continued up along 5349 For the Harvard perspective on the race, see Chapter 102. 5350 Gluckman, op. cit. the Cambridge shore, I realized that because of the way the Charles curved, the distance would be a lot shorter on the Boston side, so I crossed over, ran along the opposite shore past the Harvard Boathouse, over Eliot Bridge, around the coxswain and back the way I came, all the way to Riverside Boat Club. I arrived first. “When my teammates found out, knowing what a slow runner I was, they complained to Ernie. He asked me, ‘What do you have to say for yourself?’ “I said, ‘You told us to start running from here, run around the coxswain and run back. That’s what I did.’ “Ernie Arlett said, ‘You win, and you will stroke my Varsity boat this spring because you are the only person on the whole team who is thinking.’ “Since the beginning, Northeastern oars had been painted white with a thin diagonal red stripe trimmed in black. We were looking for a new image so I went to Ernie and asked him if we could change to black blades with red and white diagonal stripes. He said okay. I also thought we should have black warm-ups with hoods. “That spring we raced Yale in Derby, and we decided to make a statement. No one said a word, not even the coxswain, as we walked in with our hoods up, took hold of the boat, marched it down the ramp, put it in the water, got in with our black oars and rowed full pressure right from dock all the way around the corner. Then we stopped, laughed and congratulated ourselves. “We beat Yale that day by a lot! “I never knew how effective our display was until maybe four or five years ago when I spoke to one of the Yale guys. ‘You won that race when you put your boat in the water that day. We were all watching and couldn’t believe what we saw. Who are 1478
