THE ERA OF POLARIZATION “At least part of the success in 1983 had been related to months of almost daily double and quad rowing up and down the Basin on the Charles with Harry. I can’t help but think that if we had done more work on technical development in team boats that fall of 1983, that would have helped build on what was achieved in Duisburg. “Instead, it seemed to be lost, with the final blow being the intense focus on the Singles Trials by the top four or five guys.”7347 Now with the perspective of a quarter century, it still seems a cruel fate had stalked so many of the protagonists of this tragedy, and that each one, even Harry, perhaps especially Harry, had been prisoner to a destiny months, years, even a lifetime in the making. After the Trials were over, the new Olympic Sculling Team got together and picked Tiff as their spare. And these men, all rejected at one time or another by Harry Parker, voted – over Brad Lewis’ vociferous objections – to retain him as their Olympic Sculling Coach. Harry was still their Helen of Troy. Extraordinary. Wood: “It was terrible year for me, and it had to have been a terrible year for Harry. “But we did have a stronger sculling program that year than probably ever up until then, in great part because of Harry being there.”7348 Alternate Universe Altekruse: “We all had to give our gear bags to the guys that beat us. I actually had to give mine to Paul or Brad. It was the greatest humiliation.”7349 7347 Totta, personal correspondence, 2010 7348 Wood, op. cit. 7349 Altekruse, op. cit. “That was a great Camp Quad, and it absolutely should have gone to Los Angeles and won a medal. “Bill Purdy was so disappointed after the Trials that he just threw his bag down and left and wasn’t around rowing for ten years or twenty years or something. “Purdy was a great oarsman.”7350 Purdy: “I sat in the parking lot sobbing, wanting to be left alone. With no disrespect to the challenge boat, I knew we were the faster quad . . . just not on that day. I also knew that Charlie and Joe were much faster than they showed. I was devastated. I felt like all that I had worked for was being taken away again, just like 1980. The selection process was not the primary problem. The timing of selection, followed by racing in Europe and finally the Trials less than two weeks later left no room for preparation for such an important race. The quad line-up was still not solidified a week prior to the Trials. “I returned to the hotel later that day only to run into Curtis Fleming and his wife in the lobby. I congratulated him with tears in my eyes. I am sure it was bittersweet for him, as he knew how painful it was for me. “It was almost surreal. I had endured the year of training with Harry in Boston, had been selected for the quad after an intense camp, raced in Lucerne wearing United States Olympic Team uniforms, finishing a respectable third, and after six minutes of misery, I was going home. I wasn’t quite sure what to do.”7351 Mike Totta: “My 1984 dream had been let down in several steps – Bill Purdy’s crashed down at the Quads Trials in one day – a much more sudden, traumatic, and painful process.”7352 Colgan: “Purdy is not mentioned in either book, but he was another solid guy 7350 Ibid. 7351 Purdy, op. cit. 7352 Totta, personal correspondence, 2010 2047
