THE SPORT OF ROWING we did beat the Harvard boat.7060 Then we went back to Gales Ferry to get ready for the Yale-Harvard Race. “Three days before the race, I got a call from Harry Parker. He said, ‘Well, Otto Stekl’s injured, and we need another rower to stroke, and so I’m calling to see if you could come with us on our European trip.’ “Tony was really upset Bob Ernst / The Oarsman 1980 United States Olympic Coxed-Four “A” Prince Philip Cup Champion, Henley Coxswain Bob Jaugstetter, Bow Tom Darling, 2 Otto Stekl, 3 Bill Purdy, Stroke John Biglow withdrew to row the four in the Trials, and when Kiesling decided to stay with the camp, we replaced him with another Yale rower named David Potter. I believe that Seth Bauer was our coxswain. “An additional motivation for quitting the U.S. Team in 1980 was that I hadn’t enjoyed it much in 1979. I thought it was ugly, kind of cutthroat. It was not pleasant, and I didn’t want to be part of it again. “Our Yale Four went to the Trials, and we finished way behind the camp boat, but Camp. Matthew had already been cut after a test piece in the fall of ‘79 (the weekend of the Harvard football game) and did not attend the January ‘80 training in Florida. Eric, John, and I all continued with the Camp after Matthew got cut. John and I both continued with the camp after Eric got cut. “I had been through the Straight-Fours Trials in ‘79, knew how good the camp boats were and figured my best shot at making the team was on my own. John made the decision to stick with the Yale Four knowing that I wasn’t going to do the same.” – personal correspondence, 2009 first. “When we went over to Europe and raced in Lucerne, Kiesling was in one four, and I was in another, and Kiesling’s boat won. Then we went to Hazewinkel, Belgium, trained for two weeks and did a lot of seat racing. about this. He said that Harry could have waited until after the Yale-Harvard Race to ask me, and that he was hoping to distract me. “Anyway, I said yes. So I made the Olympic Team even though I had quit the team Pete Gardner, the Dartmouth coach, was in charge of the fours, and I ended up stroking the first four, and the sad irony for Kiesling was that he ended up in the second four. “Then we went on to race in Amsterdam and Henley, and my boat won both regattas. “I really enjoyed rowing in that U.S. boat in Europe. It was a really wonderful four. Tom Darling, Otto Stekl and Bill Purdy were in the boat with me. Bob Jaugstetter coxed. “At Henley, when we beat Kiesling’s boat, that was sweet because I always thought that he had kind of let us down in choosing not to stay with our agreement for the Trials. 7060 always critically important for a Yale crew. 1974
