THE SPORT OF ROWING Alan Shealy Stroke Al Shealy, 1973-1975 Harvard Heavyweight Varsity Eights “My own personal style was highlighted by a right arm that appeared to dislocate at every catch.” (These film frames of a single catch are in chronological order.) in the ‘60s and ‘70s. If you had a firm catch, a big puddle, and won seat races, it didn’t matter much what went on inside the boat. As evidence, if you look at films of the Harvard crews during that era, body movement looked like a dog’s lunch. My own personal style was highlighted by a right arm that appeared to dislocate at every catch. To this day, I can’t figure out how or why this happened, but it didn’t seem to slow us down much.”4797 Stone: “Take a look at some shots of our freshman boat. It looks like we were strafed by machine gun fire. In the BBC commentary during our Henley final – verdict easily – the very British announcer says to Jack Kelly, who was doing color, ‘They’re not a very pretty crew, are they, Jack?’4798 Shealy: “There is a giant picture in the entry to Harvard’s Newell Boathouse that shows our 1974 crew caught at mid-stroke. It pretty much epitomizes the dynamic I’m talking about. Heads and bodies are jerked and contorted, but the sinews and faces tell the real story. The onlooker imagines big puddles, created by a very fast crew of extremely competitive oarsmen who would 4797 Shealy, op. cit. 4798 Stone, personal correspondence, 2005 not allow the demise of the Harvard legend to fall on their shoulders. “This zeal, this pride, this hell-bent determination not to be outdone formed the touchstone of the time.”4799 Peter Lowe ‘74: “A lot of guys in the boat, particularly Dick Cashin, would say, ‘Come on Harry, are we as good as the ‘68 boat?4800 How do we compare to that ‘65 boat that was on the cover of Sports Illustrated?’4801 “ . . . and he’d never say anything.”4802 Over the years, Harvard has not often attended the IRA Regatta. However, in 1974, after Harvard won the Eastern Sprints, Western Sprints Champion Washington invited the Crimson to an East-meets-West duel to determine the true national champion. Lowe: “People complain that the Harvard oarsmen live in the boathouse, but the members of Washington really do live in their boathouse.”4803 www.thecrimson.com: “On the way to Washington, the Crimson’s two boats 4799 Shealy, op. cit. 4800 See Chapter 102. 4801 See Chapter 100. 4802 Qtd. by Lee, www.thecrimson.com 4803 Qtd. by Ibid. 1334
