THE ERA OF POLARIZATION Halberstam: “Steve Fairbairn7127 taught his oarsmen to think of the end product rather than a predetermined conscious pattern of movement. He asked them to concentrate on bladework and left them to work out how best to do it.”7128 Harvard Coach Harry Parker in the 1960s and ‘70s was the 20th Century’s best example of this “end justifies the means” mentality: moving the boat is your task, so let your subconscious guide you as to how to accomplish that task without interference from the coach. Halberstam: “Early in Wood’s college career, Parker had decided that any attempt to make him row with greater finesse would be counterproductive. He was impatient with technique. The best way to coach him, Parker decided, was not to coach him but to leave him to his furies.”7129 Harry chose crews based not on Carol Robbins McGowan Tiff was in that race, too, but I’m pretty sure we beat them.”7123 Sean Colgan: “Tiff has more college shirts than Champion.7124”7125 Halberstam: “If he had been one of the strongest men on those Harvard boats, he had also been one of the roughest, an oarsman who responded to pressure and challenge by beating his oar even harder into the water and by giving more of himself.”7126 Since rowing has always been a competitive sport, what has counted throughout history has been moving boats. 7123 Wood, personal correspondence, 2009 7124 Champion® Sportswear, the maker of most of the racing shirts in the United States during the mid-20th Century, now a division of Hanesbrands, Inc. 7125 Colgan, personal correspondence, 2009 7126 Halberstam, p. 19 appearance but on skill in moving boats as measured through seat racing. His crews have always been superbly effective at the end of the blade, even when their body mechanics were uneven and unorthodox, literally and figuratively. Halberstam: “Tiff Wood was a violent seat racer. “‘He was absolutely savage,’ [Dick] Cashin, his teammate, remembered. ‘I don’t think he ever lost a seat race. I was bigger and stronger, and I was better on the erg, and I made the National Team in my sophomore year,7130 but I could never beat Tiff in seat racing. I once tied him – it was April 17, 1975. I remember because it was my birthday. “‘But I never beat him.’”7131 Ted Nash: “Tiff demonstrates what tough men Harry develops. Every race was 7127 See Chapter 19. 7128 Geoffrey Page, qtd. by Dodd, World Rowing, p. 162 7129 Halberstam, p. 62 7130 See Chapter 111. 7131 Halberstam, pp. 74-5 1991
