1977 - the year that wasn't, Part Two

There were six seniors on the squad in 1977, but for whatever reason, Lyvers was the only senior who had come into the program with high school rowing experience who was still on the team in ’77. Recalling the foundation they had built, Mark said “there were six people who went all the way through the four years. Not all were on the varsity, but there was a core group of non-recruited people who did something for the rowing program while they were there, and their passion and love for the sport brought success.” One of those seniors, John Watson, would deliver a remarkable - and very rare - performance at the IRA.

The 1977 varsity eight was a pretty stable boat. The lineup didn’t change after spring camp, the boat made up of medalists - and champions – from frosh crews in previous years. Still, despite the evident talent in the boat, early in the racing season it just didn’t seem to completely gel, to come together and make the leap from freshman to varsity national champion. It wasn’t a personality issue, as Lyvers remembers the crew had “good chemistry”; it certainly wasn’t a lack of power – the crew had that in spades. What was missing, what they needed to make the transition from fast freshman crews to winning at the varsity level was technique. In retrospect Lyvers deemed a lack of finesse, technical proficiency and polish were the limiting factors. Mark recalled the boat had a “tremendous amount of power…We won races by overpowering other crews, but that only got us so far when we got to elite level; we needed a different level of expertise. That was the difference maker in that crew. Physically, [we were] probably more powerful than any other crew in the nation but we lacked on the technical side.”

The team stayed at Longbranch for spring camp, trading the trip south and warmer weather for more water time. While it was typical early March weather for upstate New York (chilly, cloudy, and one day of steady rain), the snow held off and the crews piled up the miles. After breaking camp, SU’s first race was scheduled for early April in Boston, and the competition was none other than the legendary Harry Parker’s Harvard Crimson. Coach Sanford had been talking with Parker for several years about the possibility of an early season race as a way for both crews to test their speed. Things had finally come together in early 1977 with the coaches agreeing to a home-and-home. The 1977 race was held in Boston at the rather unique distance of 2500 meters. The race was lengthened to allow for Syracuse’s lack of water time, with Sanford requesting, and Parker agreeing to the longer course.

While the day started out well enough with the second freshman eight rowing steadily away from Harvard for a close 2 1/2 second win, they were to be the only crew to head home with new shirts in their bags. Harvard managed to sweep the rest of the events, defeating the JV and first freshman by more than ten seconds. Due to an injury, the first frosh had a last minute lineup change that resulted in only one row for the crew before race day. The Varsity event was considerably closer, with SU trailing the Crimson by 3.2 seconds, proving it could compete with the cream of the EARC.