THE SPORT OF ROWING Wisconsin crews of the era, both men and women, were especially well known for Rosenberg sequentiality and post-Rosenberg explosive Kernschlag, and given their severe climate, they made up for lack of water time with pure determination. As had Bob’s mentor and predecessor, Kris Korzeniowski, Bob quickly set out to break their Kernschlag force application habit and replace it with Schubschlag. Kelly Rickon, 1980 Olympic Quad coxswain: “1980 was Bob Ernst’s year with the quad, and his whole thing was fast hands away, fast hands away. I remember one day Nancy Vespoli and I switched places. She coxed, and I went to the bow of the quad7736 and had to do what they were doing. I spent so much energy trying to get the hands away fast that I had no energy left for the stroke. I wonder what they think about that now.”7737 1981 In Korzeniowski’s last year coaching the American women, he coached the U.S. Women’s Eight to Silver while Bob coached the Women’s Coxed-Four to Bronze. Seven of the eight who would end up in the 1984 Olympic Crew were already on board. 1982 In 1982, the priority boat was supposed to be the pair, but Carol Bower and Kathy Keeler won the Trials and declared they weren’t interested. The priority boat then became the coxed-four under Northeastern men’s coach Buzz Congram, while Ernst coached the eight. Ernst: “That worked out great for me. Buzz got all the skill people, while I got the next sixteen and could just row them to 7736 Rickon was also a National Champion flyweight rower. 7737 Mitchell, op. cit. 7738 Ernst, op. cit., 2006 7739 See Chapter 128. 7740 Thorsness, personal correspondence, 2006 death working on technique, waiting to see who Buzz would eventually cut.”7738 The 1982 U.S. sweep women won Silver in both the coxed-fours and eights. 1983 In 1983, when Bob took over as head U.S women’s coach, he inherited a group of international medalists. One, Wisconsin’s Carie Graves, had actually hung in since the Silver Medal Red Rose Crew of 1975,7739 hoping to finally gain the Gold Medal that had eluded the U.S. in the intervening years. Kris Thorsness, 1984 7-seat: “I was one of those pesky Wisco women about whom Bob loves to (affectionately) com- plain. “In 1982, my first summer on the U.S. Team, he stopped practice once and found himself at a loss for words to describe the way I was rowing. Or wasn’t rowing. I’m sure I deserved it. “That summer, I kept my toenails painted Wisco red with a white ‘W’ on my big toes just to tweak him. I think . . . he loved it . . . “He yelled at me a lot. He yelled at everyone a lot back then. I figured that I deserved it about 98% of the time, and I was willing to let the rest slide. “As you can probably tell, I have deep respect and affection for Bob. You could not find a more dedicated and focused coach, and that caused some friction with other boats, whose coaches were perhaps not as assertive on their behalf. “It’s a darn shame that he didn’t get a medal in ‘84, too.”7740 2156
