THE SPORT OF ROWING and Western Sprint Champion 1947 Harvard Crew.6992 Gregg had been bow-seat and Tiff had been 6 on the 1972 Thames Cup Champion Harvard Freshman crew that included four future National Team members,6993 but it seemed that all the attention in those days went to Dick Cashin and Al Shealy, who were destined to become World Champions just two years later as Harvard juniors.6994 Perhaps that encouraged Stone and Wood to try to seek their own separate shares of rowing glory. In the years after graduation, both eventually turned to single sculling after frustrating experiences with National Sweep Selection Camps. Stone: “Tiff never made much headway at the National Camps despite being a great seat racer, and I wasn’t even invited in 1974. Small wonder! I was in the Harvard Jayvee. “After that summer, Al Rosenberg had pretty much made up his mind on the program to build to Montréal [in 1976], and it didn’t include Tiff or me.”6995 The Rude and Smooth Harvard crews of this era6996 were known for hyper- aggressiveness when it came to technique, training and racing, and no one had a more competitive attitude than Gregg Stone. Stone: “I was not an extraordinary athlete. I love athletics and competition, but that is as far as it goes. “I remember in 1979 one of the National Team coaches commenting after some erg test that I had them stumped – I didn’t row well, my ergs were poor, the physiological data wasn’t great, and yet I won. “I guess there still is some mystery to rowing.”6997 6992 See Chapter 63. 6993 See Chapter 104. 6994 See Chapter 111. 6995 Stone, personal correspondence, 2008 6996 See Chapter 114. 6997 Stone, op. cit. After he graduated from Harvard in 1975, Stone’s determination and strength of will helped him become America’s top single sculler from 1977 through 1979. Stone: “In regards to rowing style, I consider myself practical as opposed to doctrinaire. Obviously I was influenced by the rowing at Harvard. As you have noted, some elements of the Harvard Style in our era reflected Al Shealy’s rowing style and later that of Rosenberg, who reinforced what Al’s father had taught him.6998 “After graduation, I was loosely coached by Ernie Arlett, the first U.S. Men’s Sculling Coach. Ernie was less interested in angles and application – at Northeastern he had coached Jim Dietz and Cal Coffey,6999 two contrasting styles – and more in watermanship. This meant a clean finish, blades square until well out, moderately fast away, control of the slide and a catch with fingers, not with arms or shoulders (or back). Larry Klecatsky Stone: “In the fall of ‘76, I was beginning law school and needed rowing for an outlet. Sy Cromwell7000 encouraged me to emulate Larry Klecatsky, the champion lightweight single sculler. He noted that Larry, like me, had no visible muscle and went pretty fast with an ultra long stroke. With my three-inch and twenty-pound advantage over Larry, he thought I could beat him and therefore beat most of the U.S. scullers of the time.”7001 Dr. Larry Klecatsky, an emergency room physician, member of the New York Athletic Club and many-times National Lightweight Singles Champion, was Jim 6998 See Chapter 104. 6999 See Chapter 116. 7000 See Chapter 87. 7001 Stone, op. cit. 1958
