THE SPORT OF ROWING The Harvard Catch The Stop & Shop accelerating recovery would lead into what many Harvard men called “the flying catch.”4633 Parker: “The thing we were doing a little different from ‘65 on through ‘67 was we were rowing a really, really hard catch.”4634 Aggressiveness at the entry was where Harry seemed to side with the 1950s-era Soviets and part company with Karl Adam. Pounding the blade into the water from a height was reminiscent of the Klub Krasnoe Znamia “rocking windmill style”4635 that Harry would have seen first at Henley in 1955. A decade before GDR scientists had defined Kernschlag and Schubschlag, Harry chose Kernschlag while Adam was pursuing the opposite. Parker: “We would get the blade up high and drop it and just pound it, and, boy, if you didn’t get it quite right, you were in trouble, but they were good . . . and we had these Karlisch oars, you know ten-pound oars, and we started with Pirschs, and they were eleven pounds, and they were so heavy they would just ‘krunk!’ I loved them, but they were stiff!”4636 The Impact of Harry Parker Harvard had the most profound effect on the direction of American rowing in the mid to late 1960s. Within a year or two after Tokyo, virtually the entire American rowing community was attempting to reverse-engineer and copy the technique of Parker’s crews, which had not lost a race since the 1963 Sprints. What was most visible to outside observers was an almost 4633 Tony Brooks, personal conversation, 2005 4634 Parker, op. cit. 4635 See Chapter 79. 4636 Ibid. theatrical aggressiveness to the athletes’ bodies, and that is what they focused on. The Competitiveness of Harry Parker Harvard Magazine: “Ian Gardiner ‘68, who stroked the 1967 Varsity, says, ‘[Harry]’d let us joust with each other – running stadiums, lifting weights. He created a very competitive environment and turned us loose in it.’ “‘Competitiveness reeked through the boathouse,’ says Gregg Stone ‘75, an undefeated oarsman of the early 1970s. “‘Harry knew how to play on that and how to get the most out of it. He’s very, very intense,’ says Ted Washburn. ‘He is unstintingly invested in the rowers’ success at all times, all year long. Since this level of commitment is so rare, so unusual, you are moved by it.’ “Clint Allen ‘67, who stroked the undefeated 1966 Varsity, says that in the 1960s, ‘[Harry] could have lived in Newell. As far as I could tell, he did nothing else in his life but crew.’ “Washburn says, ‘The difference between Harry and other coaches is that those guys can live with losing. He is the most competitive human being I’ve ever met, period.’ “Parker, characteristically, smiles and underplays it, simply noting that ‘I vastly prefer winning to losing.’ “Vastly prefer.”4637 David Halberstam: “His crews pushed themselves because they were good, but also because Harry Parker pushed them. They were an extension of him and his ferocious desire to win. Harry did not just coach them, he competed with them. His compe- titiveness fed his team’s competitiveness, and theirs fed his. Madness begot madness. 4637 Craig Lambert, Upstream Warrior, Harvard Magazine, May/June 1996 1284
