THE LONG ECLIPSE OF AMERICAN ROWING “Most of these young men, coming as they did from affluent homes of comfort and kindness, had never before encountered a set of rules and standards so demanding and a man who so embodied those standards. Praise was rare from him, and because it was rare, it was all the more valued. Thus the less he said, the more his credibility increased. “His strength was in his distance, the fact that they had to reach for him as he could not reach for them, and by reaching for him, they met his standards.”4638 Yale graduate Joe Bouscaren rowed out of Harvard years later4639 and found the difference between Harry and Yale Coach Tony Johnson to be stark. Halberstam: “With Tony, he thought, if you were putting out a genuine effort, there was almost always some kind of verbal reward. But with Harry, whatever you did was never enough. The question that seemed to hang in the atmosphere of the Harvard boathouse, unstated but always there, Bouscaren thought, was: Are you really tough enough for this? The Harvard environment, he decided, was a colder one. If he never became entirely accustomed to it, it did push him to reach for still higher levels of excellence.”4640 Harvard Magazine: “After tripping and landing on the concrete while running up the steps of Harvard Stadium to train with his crew, Parker, blood streaming from his leg, not only sustained his pace but elbowed a slower oarsman impeding his progress. “At an early age, Parker himself seemed to recognize the ferocity of his competitive instincts. Although he played high school baseball and basketball, Parker didn’t go out for ice hockey because ‘I didn’t think I should play anything where they would give me a stick.’ 4638 Halberstam, pp. 88-9 4639 See Chapter 140 ff. 4640 Halberstam, p. 58 “He could, however, hold his own with a croquet mallet. At Red Top, the camp on the Thames River where Harvard crews train for the Harvard-Yale race, croquet games involving outrageous rule-bending and overt cheating are a tradition. Be it horseshoes or checkers, no contest is so casual that Parker won’t try his utmost to mow the opponent down. Ted Washburn, Making of a Champion Red Top “Another Red Top tradition is the board game Risk, whose goal is world domination. ‘It’s well known that Harry loved to cheat at Risk,’ says Geoffrey Knauth ‘83. ‘Somebody would get a phone call and leave the room, and Harry would rearrange the board.’ “Parker and his wife have a summer place in New Hampshire where one can drive golf balls into a lake. Since the lake is shallow, it’s also possible to retrieve the balls by diving. ‘Of course, even there,’ grins oarsman Jake Fiechter ‘67, ‘it’s, how many golf balls can you get?”4641 4641 Lambert, op. cit. 1285
