THE SPORT OF ROWING going to do it better than others, no matter how well I teach them.”4689 Gregg Stone: “It was bigger than seat racing. Harry established a Darwinian free- for-all which allowed the big, competitive athletes he had recruited to sort themselves out. “We competed ALL the time. We raced eights every Friday afternoon in the fall, for blood. We ran the bridges for time, or in races. We competed on the erg, in the weight room, on the soccer field, cross country skiing, in pairs and singles. “Occasionally, fists flew or food was dumped on someone during a dinner after practice, but those of us who stayed the course liked it.”4690 In 1966, it was actually Kent Mitchell4691 who introduced seat racing to U.S. National Team Selection, and the story is a good one: Mitchell: “I think I originally got the idea for seat racing from Stan Pocock at Lake Washington Rowing Club. In ‘64, we were a pair, Ed Ferry, Conn Findlay and myself, and Stan was trying to put together an eight for the Olympic Trials at Lake Washington.4692 “Conn said to him, ‘If you put both Ed and me in the eight, and you can get below our self-qualifying time of 6:00 or something, then we’ll give some thought about being in the eight. Otherwise, we’re staying in the pair.’ “So Stan switched two out and two in. That’s probably where the idea began, but that was two-for-two, because Conn and Ed were a unit. All or none. “Anyway, from there it sort of evolved in my mind. 4689 Ibid, 2004 4690 Stone, personal correspondence, 2005 4691 See Chapter 82. 4692 See Chapter 85. “The first year the National Rowing Foundation funded a full team for the World Championships was 1966 in Bled, Yugoslavia, and the Nationals in Philadelphia became the open trials to qualify. There were a number of American entries in the coxed-fours event, but also New Zealand and Australia, who were on their way to Europe. “It turned out New Zealand first, Australia second, Union third and Stanford fourth. “We had seven days before the plane was leaving for Europe, and the Foreign Regatta Committee decided our fours were not good enough. After all, we already had two foreign crews that came here and licked us! “So they came to me and said, ‘Okay, Kent, you’re the coach of the Stanford Four. We want you to take nine people, these two guys from your boat, all four guys and the coxswain from the Union boat, and three more guys, Billy Maher from Detroit among them, and go to Boston and figure out who ought to be in our four. “‘We’re going to send all nine people, so everybody gets to make the trip, but you decide how you want to do it. You’re going to be the small-boats coach, and your immediate job is to come up with a better combination.’ “So we went to Harvard. Harry had been coaching the Union crew, and we were rowing out of Harry’s boathouse, so I figured the politics of this one could get really thick really fast. “Thank God I knew Harry extremely well. “This was a Tuesday, and we were leaving the following Tuesday, so I sat down with the guys and said, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to have Harry continue coaching his crew, and I’m going to take the five strays. I’m going to pick a four out of my five. 1302
