1977 - the year that wasn't - Part Five, the Sprints and Packard Cup

Sunday morning, May 15, the other crews took to the water. The morning heats were a success for SU as, for the first time on record, all three eights qualified for the Grand Finals. But qualifying was one thing; defeating crews that had beaten them handily earlier in the season was an entirely different matter. Once again, Harvard won the Varsity event followed by Penn and Cornell with Syracuse just out of the medals in fourth. While SU had indeed gotten faster since the meeting in Boston, Harvard had done that, and more. Notably, the third place medalists were none other than the Big Red, and while they had beaten SU again, this time the margin had shrunk to barely a second. SU had made up a full two lengths on Cornell in three weeks.

The big boat wasn’t the only crew that was faster. The JV eight, stroked by Bob Devlin closed a bit of its gap to Harvard in finishing fifth in the Grands. Even more impressive was the performance of the fourth-place Syracuse freshman eight, which finished just over a length behind first-place Penn while beating Harvard by a second. Princeton and Yale, silver and bronze medalists, both finished within a half-second of Penn. Drew’s crew had gained twelve seconds on the Crimson in a month.

With exams and the Sprints behind them, the crews were looking forward to the camaraderie of IRA camp at the Longbranch Boathouse. This was the time when Syracuse Crew made big improvements – with school over, great weather, and intense but shorter workouts, all focus was on the Regatta.

But before the IRA, SU would take on Dartmouth and MIT at the Packard Cup in Hanover, NH. 1977 wasn’t a great year for the Big Green and MIT’s excellent crews from the early seventies had graduated most of their horses. The result was the SU Varsity taking the Packard Cup, defeating MIT by nine seconds and Dartmouth by over thirteen.

1977 - the year that wasn't, Part Four - Brown and the Saturday Night Sprints

The week before exams saw SU take to the road to race Brown and what was a very strong crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The Varsity continued to improve, making technical refinements that were beginning to pay off. The Seekonk River, always a tough course with wind, tides, and current all working to confuse and confound coxswains, was solved by SU Varsity cox’n Murray Lukoff, as he brought the Orange across the finish over a length in front of Bruno, with Coast Guard another length back. This was a bit of revenge for the Coasties’ three-second win over SU in the JV eight race, with Brown back by just a bit of open water. The freshman from Onondaga made it down the course in fine fashion, dominating both of their opponents to win by over five seconds over Brown. The third varsity and second frosh stayed home, as there weren’t any Brown or Coast Guard entries for them to race.

Things were coming together. The good weather and lots of miles were beginning to show their effect, as both the Varsity and Freshman crews were picking up more speed every week.

Heading into the Sprints, SU’s Varsity was looking strong. The crew was coming together, steadily making the small technical improvements it needed to win. This “technical deficit” hadn’t prevented Drew Harrison’s freshman crews from ever-increasing levels of success; although according to Lyvers, technique wasn’t “the highest priority in Drew’s mind, but from a physical standpoint he really got the most out of a crew.” That was freshman rowing but for the varsity, pure pulling wasn’t enough. On the varsity level, the oarsmen were rowing against more technically proficient crews. Syracuse had to put out more energy to overcome the other crews’ advantage in efficiency. Good enough technique wasn’t good enough when rowing against the likes of Cornell and Harvard, but over the course of the season things were coming along.

In 1977, the Sprints were again held in Princeton, with the Third Varsity and Second Frosh racing off the night before in what was then an informal event that went by the sobriquet “Saturday Night Sprints.” Not an official part of the EARC Championships, this event was organized and put on primarily by the coaches. SU’s second frosh, rowing under a 30 for most of the 2000 meters, finally raised the rating and came charging up on Northeastern in the last 500, but it was too little too late. NU won by less than a half second. SU’s third varsity, stroked by IRA freshman champion Rick Tremblay, rowed a very aggressive race plan and were rewarded with a Sprints Championship and betting shirts from Penn and Harvard. Years later, Tremblay recalled:

“Neil and coach Sanford played significant roles to enable the SU 3rd varsity boat to be Eastern Sprints Champions (Harvard and UPenn were the other entries.)

We decided to go out strong at the beginning of the race to take a significant lead.
Then Neil took over. He made a sharp turn to starboard to cut off Harvard. Harvard couldn’t figure out how to get around us before the finish line. I’m pretty sure we won the race by open water, at least that’s the way I remember it.

Then the most critical part of the race was Coach Sanford convincing Harry Parker to allow our little lane shifting and consider the race legal. Rumor has it Bill treated Harry to a steak dinner later that weekend.”

With Tremblay in the SU third varsity were cox Neil Prete, Dan Hanavan, fellow IRA frosh champion Pete Gaines, Pete Hausman, Andy Papp, Walter MacVittie, Fred Gliesing, and Bill Samios. Hanavan also has great memories of the win. He remembers: “looking over to the shore after the race at the finish line. The SU crew team cheering, wearing the bright orange SU suit jackets !! What style.”

Photos from Winter Training

The fellas are hard at work up here in Syracuse, here's some photos from the past few weeks.

Tank Work

Slider Pyramid

Coach Hemmerly

Junior, Mason Leasure

Cross Training

Men at work

Playing Hangman to pass the time

1977 - the year that wasn't, Part Three

The weather gods were kind to the Orange during the week after the trip to Boston, with unseasonably warm weather and placid conditions on Onondaga. The freshmen began the week with Coach Harrison’s dreaded Tour of the Lake, a circumnavigation of Onondaga that began with Drew loudly encouraging his second boat, proclaiming them Crimson Beaters. Thus began what was to be one of the fastest freshman Tours ever recorded as the first boat sought to erase a bit of the sting from the loss while the now-very-confident second frosh cut every turn and sought every advantage. The Tour ended with the first boat in front, and two very tired crews. Years later, stroke Art Sibley recalled that after the row, Harrison told the first boat they would be fine, they just needed to work every day to close the gap a bit at a time.

The Goes Cup was another disappointing race for the Varsity. Despite the beautiful conditions on the Cayuga Inlet and a fast start by the Orange that saw them with the lead well into the second five hundred meters, Cornell took the Cup with Syracuse nine seconds back in second and Navy trailing. The third varsity managed to take Cornell by just over a second, the freshmen and second freshman eights won convincingly, and the JV also took second, a bit more than a length behind Navy as Cornell finished third. The frosh win and the two varsity eight seconds were enough to give SU the points it needed to win the Norman Stagg Trophy for best overall performance.

Commenting after the race, Coach Sanford said: “We were rowing at altogether too high a rate during the middle of the race (36-36 ½) and it seemed as though we ran into a brick wall during the final 800 meters.”

The Orange’s next competition was Rutgers at home in Syracuse. The Scarlet Knights were going through a low period, with a thin roster and dearth of talent. Without enough athletes to enter a JV, Rutgers was clearly outclassed by the deep Syracuse crew. The Varsity won in a laugher, with Rutgers finishing more than 23 seconds behind the Orange. The first freshman race wasn’t quite as bad, although Harrison’s crew did win by just under ten seconds.