Rude at Rowing: 1964's Us8s

Taking a distinct turn from his usual publications for Bardot Books, R. Bacon Whitney recalls his College years as a classical studies major and heavyweight crew oarsman. Here we have an Annal about the U.S. Rowing Sport's outstanding comeback from the miseries of the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics. In the Eight-oared event of that Olympic Regatta, our Disunited States barely made the final race, coming in sixth and behind Germany and Canada's UBC Crew. The long comeback toward the Tokyo Olympiad might expiate his Rude family's ... Read More

Taking a distinct turn from his usual publications for Bardot Books, R. Bacon Whitney recalls his College years as a classical studies major and heavyweight crew oarsman. Here we have an Annal about the U.S. Rowing Sport's outstanding comeback from the miseries of the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics. In the Eight-oared event of that Olympic Regatta, our Disunited States barely made the final race, coming in sixth and behind Germany and Canada's UBC Crew. The long comeback toward the Tokyo Olympiad might expiate his Rude family's bitterness over the cancellation of the 1940 Olympiad, also at Tokyo. To do so he must be on the College's varsity Eight, then race against formidable rivals composed from the king's Men and king's Horses. It's a Humpty Dumpty story, you see. U.S. Rowing fell off its high wall of uninterrupted Eight-oared event gold-medal wins since 1904. The yoke-yellow white fragments of that perpetuity had to be put together again. Rush to the rescue! The College Varsity team under Coach Harry Parker vied against the best rowing clubs that the US8s could produce. So, then, for the inevitable match-up: Whitney is clearly a come-from-behind guy; he also has a bad habit of getting as far as second place in his greatest sports-Talents. That means "First Loser" in his lexicon and George Steinbrenner's. A silver medal in the Downhill at Innsbruck started his way to a next Olympics in this same year, 1964. There he'd face again his nemesis, the Wizard of Odds. He got consolation, though, as a famous champion of the One, the Only, the Original "Amateur Code." He upheld the Olympic Oath, too, for all our once unpaid athletes. He needs seven other guys and their coxswain to get to Tokyo. They face a new nemesis by the wicked Wizard of Odds. The Vesper Boat Club has been compiled by Jack Kelly, that he become the true king, as the brother of the Goddess of Rowing herself and HSH of Monaco, the forever motivational Grace Kelly. There's no suspense, you see. As Cunard says, this book is all about the real fun-of getting there! It's also about Divine Design. The king's Men and the king's Horses are going to Tokyo-or, at least, a few of them. Somebody, though, had to come in second once, twice, and thrice in a single year. Only one guy got bronze. And only one crew got gold. Read Less