THE LONG ECLIPSE OF AMERICAN ROWING group, or something else, there was a good reason neither boat did well.”5296 Rosenberg: “Without any aid from the USOC, I also incorporated the services and opinion of a world-renowned sports psychologist from Wisconsin, Dr. William Morgan. In a personal letter to me, he compared me to icon swimming coach Jim Counselman. Both of us, he wrote, combined the science and art of our respective sports.”5297 Gluckman: “After coming back from Nottingham in ‘75, I had gone to the University of Wisconsin to earn a doctorate in physical education for handicapped kids. The program brought together exercise physiology and special education, and I hooked up with a guy named Bill Morgan, one of the early sports psychologists. “In ‘72, Dr. Morgan had tested the top four participants in each weight class for the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team. He measured mental fatigue, goal-setting, trust, whether or not you thought that what you were doing would lead to a successful outcome, you name it. He didn’t tell the athletes or the coaches the results until after the Olympic Trials, but he had picked nine winners of the twelve weight classes. He became very famous for this. “When our team stopped in Madison for its two-week period stopover in April, ‘76, Morgan persuaded Allen, based on his results in ‘72, to allow him to test our team. The deal was that after Allen selected the eight, Morgan would share his results with him. “He told Al, ‘I don’t want you to use this test to pick your crew. I’m not sure that it has validity in an endurance sport with high technique and so much teamwork,’ but what he did immediately share with Al was a concern about the level of confusion he 5296 Qtd. by Jaugstetter, op. cit., p. 45 5297 Rosenberg, op. cit. discovered amongst the athletes at that point. “Bill also shared his concerns with me! “When I went back to graduate school after the Olympics, Morgan told me, ‘Larry, I’ve been following the story, and it doesn’t surprise me. Here’s the rest of the results by name.’ “From Shealy on back, there had been just general confusion, not sure that what we were doing was going to lead to success, questioning authority and constant mental fatigue. These were all the things that the other coaches who were working with Al in ‘74 had prevented from happening.”5298 There is no question that 1976 represented a perfect storm of factors that led to the downfall of the squad. Lack of federation support seems to have been the ultimate culprit, but it is the opinion of many participants and other observers that devolution of rowing technique also played a not insignificant role. Allen Rosenberg and Late-20th Century American Rowing American rowing of the last half century can be split into two eras: the Harry Parker years and then Allen Rosenberg’s. During the decade after Karl Adam’s 1963 trip to the Eastern Sprints, Harry’s Harvard crews dominated collegiate rowing, and American rowing began a love affair with the so-called Ratzeburg Style. The Harvard Style was imperfectly reverse-engineered by almost everyone, and crews from Maine to California began growing their hair long, wearing bandannas, accelerating their slides and pounding their catches. Ratzeburg Mania invaded America’s shores like a virus, infecting everything and everyone, and, just as George and Stan 5298 Gluckman, op. cit. 1459
