THE SPORT OF ROWING Hermon’s first championship, and they’ve never come close to another one since. “Though my grades were good, I think that this was certainly more than a puny factor in my having been accepted to Harvard. No doubt I disappointed my father, but back then, if you wanted to row, you went to Harvard, period.”4790 Horizontality Harry also encouraged his ‘70s crews to be more horizontal on the pullthrough. Six- seat Dick Cashin: “You’re much stronger drawing back as opposed to lifting and opening up at the catch. The whole thing for me was draw, not lift. ‘Move the handle with your hips!’ Harry would say. ‘Don’t let them shoot out from underneath you, and don’t let your shoulders rise up at the front end,’ which means you’re moving the handle and not the hips.”4791 Rude The undefeated 1974 and ‘75 Harvard Varsities came to be known as the “Rude and Smooth” crews, and “although the nickname is oft attributed to a 1974 Sports Illustrated article entitled ‘Rude and Smooth and Fast,’ Peter Lowe ‘74 recalls an earlier origin. Lowe: “‘Certain things are either rude, or they’re smooth. This very simplistic outlook on life really derived from some hockey players that I knew in Eliot House in 1973. That was their view of the world. “‘Coxswain Dave Weinberg and I kind of introduced it into the lexicon of the boathouse.’ “When a Sports Illustrated reporter tailed the team at a race in Seattle, the writer picked up on the slang and the uncensored attitude of the oarsmen. 4790 Shealy, personal correspondence, 2005 4791 Cashin, personal correspondence, 2005 Al Shealy Al Shealy A virtual parabola “‘At the time when this guy was writing the article, the phrase, ‘How rude is that?’ had already become very current within our group,’ said Tiff Wood. ‘I’m not sure that ‘How smooth is that?’ ever . . . We were more inclined to talk about how rude something was.’ “Ronald Shaw ‘75 said. ‘We were smooth because we were smooth on the water, but off the water, there were some antics. Even on the water, our stroke, Al Shealy, was pretty rude. When we went by a boat, he’d be yelling, ‘So long, suckers!’”4792 Shealy: “Bloody shins and pukefests during the ‘Tours de Stade,’ broken teeth during pickup soccer games with the Boston University crews, or matching wits with Harry during his infamously contrived croquet games all bespoke a uniquely Harvard rowing approach to life itself. “As for my personal contribution to the Harvard crews of my day, I guess it boils down to a few things: a fierce competitive streak, a desire to play a leadership role, and an explosive determination to get out in front and stay there. 4792 Lee, www.thecrimson.com, Halberstam p. 71 1332
