“I met Karl Kozak at a gathering in Cleveland, Ohio, the place we shared the identical position in gross sales administration for an organization specializing in liquid-level measurement for boilers and different industrial vessels. Karl lined the western United States; I lined the Northeast. Karl was a U.S.Naval Academy graduate, Class of 1963. I used to be Syracuse College Class of 1980. Seventeen years separated us, however the age distinction shortly melted away after we found we each had been rowers.
“It was early in our friendship that Karl introduced that he and two different crews received the identical race, the varsity light-weight males’s eight in 1962, on Lake Quinsigamond on the Japanese Sprints in Worcester, Massachusetts. Karl was within the “engine room,” sitting in six seat. Evidently, I used to be amazed {that a} three-way tie passed off and impressed that Karl was in one of many boats. Because the story goes, the officers had been going to do the race over to find out a winner. The athletes challenged a do-over, and the remainder is historical past. Three winners had been declared.
“Upon commencement, Karl certified for nuclear submarines that patrol the North Atlantic. He was assigned to the usS. Sculpin, a fast-attack submarine. He’s in chemotherapy remedy now for most cancers.
“It’s a rower factor, I suppose, however he and I name one another by our seat quantity. I used to be the bowman of the 1978 Syracuse IRA-champion varsity eight, so I grew to become No. 1. He’s No. 6. It’s a rower factor. After 25 years, it’s greater than friendship. We’ve bonded like brothers.”
It isn’t uncommon that deep, lasting friendships are shaped in shells on and off the water. More often than not these occur between rowers who’ve been in the identical boat or on the identical workforce. However at instances, this bond that Gerry Henwood speaks of occurs between rivals.
Todd Jesdale, who coached the U.S. junior (now known as U19) eight that received a gold medal stated, “I consider an exquisite friendship that developed with Arno Siemes, the six man within the German youth eight in 1992. I used to be poking round to attempt to uncover how these boys developed such tremendous sportsmanship and located Arno, the one one who was not from the previous East Germany and who may communicate English.
“We had been in touch for a very long time; he visited with us in Cincinnati for a month or so—nice for getting boats off the highest racks. Increasingly, one sees high-level athletes hugging after the video games, actually a recognition that we’re in it collectively. That appears vastly superior over a budget feelings we had within the previous days, an actual assertion about competitors being “between” and “with,” as in “a race with.” Versus “in opposition to.” “With” goes each methods.”
I had contacted Jesdale as a result of he additionally occurred to be a witness to that 1962 race, as he was teaching the freshmen lights at Cornell. Teaching in an period when we’ve got entry to photo-finish tools, (in 2009, Physician Rowing’s college crew missed the gold medal by .02 of a second; if it had been 1962, it undoubtedly would have been known as a useless warmth.) Jesdale stated:
“The 1962 race was an actual tie. There was a photograph, the one you despatched, up within the Cornell Boathouse, so I had plenty of time to have a look at it. Quickly after, regattas had photograph timers, maybe a loss, quite than a acquire, since this outstanding occasion may now be determined and its lore diminished. That race and different very shut races did elevate the query of the evenness of the crews in the beginning. It was a lot the identical when Harvard received the Olympic trials in 1968 by inches. Floating begins or the usage of stake boats bouncing round absolutely made for inequalities there.”
The 1962 three-way tie is exclusive. Maybe some alert reader will appropriate me, however I’ve by no means heard of one other rowing race with a three-way tie for first place. A recent account (“probably the most thrilling race on the EARC Sprints”) known as it this manner:
“Cornell and Navy each led three quarters into the race with MIT just one size behind. Within the closing stretch, the MIT boat comes from behind to provide the primary, and solely, three-way tie in EARC Sprints historical past.”
MIT was famend for a terrific dash and clearly had it on that day. It’s uncommon in any very shut race to seek out all onlookers agreeing on a end, however in 1962, absent digital timing (which might be launched to rowing in 1964 on the Olympics), the finish-line judges obtained it as proper as they may. It was determined that every school would win three shirts from every of the others. MIT distributed its three Harvard shirts to its three seniors, its three Navies to its juniors, and so forth.
Hollywood would most likely make Kozak and Henwood rivals within the three-way tie, quite than racing 16 years aside. However No. 6 and No. 1’s friendship over 25 years reminds us of the fantastic bonds that rowing creates.
