Crew
"Fo'ard all, ready all, row!" Down on the Connecticut River spring is ushered in by the sharp bark of the coxswain. The docks are afloat and eight Dartmouth crews are running through daily practice sessions, and neither snow nor iceberg can stop them.
Constantly beset by difficulties in the past, the Rowing Club is undergoing a period of genuine expansion for the first time since crew's inception at Dartmouth. In 1873 active student appeal gave rise to the first Indian crews, and these tyro contingents went on to capture fourth place in four consecutive Saratoga Regattas. But accident plagued the oarsmen. En route to Saratoga one of the shells, lashed to a railroad car, was set afire by a spark, and the Green was shell-less. In 1877 snow crushed the boathouse, and crew at Dartmouth was discontinued for 60 years.
Rowing was revived periodically from 1937 on, and has been in constant activity since 1945. Then in 1952 history repeated itself, and tragedy once again beset Dartmouth oarsmen. Heavy March snows crushed the boathouse, destroying six shells and $10,000 worth of equipment. This time, however, contributions and team spirit preserved the sport, and with the new Alvin T. Fuller Boathouse and other equipment purchased, crew is now over the hump and beginning to expand.
The current season has seen a number of "firsts" for the oarsmen. The largest number of aspirants in crew history an- swered the call for the first fall practice sessions since the early '40s. Tuck School professor and former oarsman and coach at the University of California, Marshall A. Robinson, became the first regular crew coach since John Biglon demonstrated the sweepstroking fundamentals in the spring of 1873. Robinson and Rowing Club president Jonathan Moore '54 arranged a new upstream course several miles north of Hanover, covering the Henley distance in a straight line and eliminating the former necessity of tricky maneuvering.
March brought one of the biggest boons to the oarsmen. By virtue of the gift of George F. Jewett of Tacoma, Washington, a long-time friend of Dartmouth rowers, the Rowing Club obtained two new 67-foot Pocock shells - one for the heavy-weight contingent and another for the lightweights. The heavyweights christened their shell in the name of its benefactor, while the lights named theirs in honor of Rusty Callow, Naval Academy coach. In addition the Club purchased two sets of oars to match the new acquisitions. This year's crews will not be hampered by inadequate equipment.
During spring vacation all crews once again took to the water. Lightweight varsity coach Gary Zwart '54, Capt. Bill Mayberry '54 and frosh coach Hart Perry '55 took the lightweight eights to Annapolis, where they utilized the Naval Academy boathouse and received invaluable assistance from Navy's Olympic coach Rusty Callow. Following the two weeks of training on the Severn River, the crews headed north to engage three Pennsylvania eights in Philadelphia, and despite the brief training period the Indians gave an excellent account of themselves, although they yielded to the Pennsylvanians in the three matches.
The heavyweights, coached by Robinson and frosh coach Dick Page '54 and paced by Capt. Dune Roberts '54, forsook the traditional Florida spring trip for two weeks of more vigorous training in Hanover. And Hanover conditions prevailed. A six-inch snowfall greeted the oarsmen in their first spring practice session, and a pathway was shovelled to the docks on the Connecticut. Coxswains dodged (and sometimes didn't dodge) huge chunks of floating ice that drifted down the river.
Indications are, however, that these trying conditions are paying off. On April 17, in their first race of the season, the heavyweights outdistanced the previously undefeated LaSalle varsity in Hanover. In the same race, the Dartmouth jayvee oarsmen lost to the LaSalle varsity by a mere four seats, and in a second contest the Pea Green crew notched a two-length victory over the LaSalle frosh.
