THE SPORT OF ROWING chance at Olympic glory in 1940 thanks to World War II.7044 Harry rowed on a world-best Penn eight for Joe in 1955,7045 but by the time that the Olympic year of 1956 rolled around, several crews had surpassed them. With Joe coaching him, Harry represented the U.S. in the singles at the 1960 Olympics, but he finished just out of the medals after a yeoman effort.7046 In 1964, Harry coached an undefeated Harvard crew only to be the first top U.S. collegiate crew in forty-four years to lose the Olympic Trials. They lost to a club eight, Vesper Boat Club, which went on to win the Gold Medal in Tokyo.7047 In 1968, Harvard won the Trials but was felled by illness and other factors in Mexico City.7048 In 1972, Harry was the U.S. Sweep Camp coach. He selected a composite crew that won a superb Silver Medal.7049 In the ensuing years, in order to allow Harry to properly focus on his first responsibility, his Harvard crews, the U.S. federation chose to rotate the head men’s coaching job among caretaker coaches with the unstated but implicit understanding that Harry would resume the top spot for the 1976 Olympics. Then one of those caretaker coaches, Allen Rosenberg, won the World Eights Championship for the U.S. in 1974,7050 and all bets were off. Rosenberg was offered a year-round U.S. head coaching position to run through Montréal. Harry was crushed, but he accepted a lesser job, the job as women’s head sweep coach. Rather than brooding, he promptly elevated American women’s rowing from 7044 See Chapter 58. 7045 See Chapters 65 and 67. 7046 See Chapter 66. 7047 See Chapter 107. 7048 See Chapter 102. 7049 See Chapter 103. 7050 See Chapter 111. oblivion to Olympian heights, winning World Silver in 1975 and Olympic Bronze in 1976.7051 To many, this will go down as Harry’s greatest and most lasting contribution to rowing history. Order was soon restored, however, as the 1980 Olympics approached with the women placed in good hands7052 and Harry again the U.S. men’s head coach. Through all of this, in between Olympics from 1963 onwards, Harry had been coaching the Harvard crews. He became a phenomenon, a celebrity, an institution, a religion. Virtually every year for decades he produced legends, perennial champion crews known for their innovative techniques and training, admired and lauded by most, feared by all, copied by many. Harry Parker became simply Harry, an oracle to be interpreted, a god to be worshipped, revered and feared. As 1980 approached, Yale had not beaten Harvard in their annual four-miler since Harry had taken over seventeen years before. Even the great Yale eights of 1978 and 1979 with John Biglow aboard were unable to beat Harvard when it counted, which for both crews was the four-miler in New London. To the American rowing community, but to John Biglow especially, Harry Parker loomed very large indeed. 1979 Biglow: “I went through the 1979 National Team Camp with Harry in Dartmouth before my senior year at Yale. They tested everybody on a Gamut ergometer, and after taking into account our body weights, Otto Stekl7053 and Tom 7051 See Chapter 128. 7052 See Chapter 148. 7053 from Penn. See Chapter 129. 1972
