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.

Women Alums Step Up for the Truck

Following the harrowing brake failure of the SU Women's truck (while pulling a full trailer - thankfully uphill!) the decision was made by Coach Justin Moore that a new towing vehicle just could not be put off any longer. SU Women's Assistant Coaches Alicea Kochis and Andrea Buch were in the vehicle during the time of the failure and were able to maneuver the truck off the road safely.

A call to arms was made to the SU Women Alums to help offset this unexpected cash outflow. The university fronted the money but the expectation is that the truck must be paid for by the alumnae.

A huge shout-out to the following alums who initially stepped up to help out:

Lynne Della Pella Pascale came to the rescue with a multi-year financial commitment. Lynne is pictured in the vintage photo above - far left standing, with the red bandana.

Other contributions were made by
Maura McEnaney, a SU coxswain who wrote in her contributing note, "I once landed a boat on the dock and crushed it, so I am happy to help with the truck"
Bonnie Nault
Diane Kulpinski

Thank you to these four women for leading the charge!

So the update is $1,125.00 in and $18,875 to go.

Here is a photo of Coach Kochis, safe and sound in the new towing vehicle for SU Women's Crew


Women alums....
We need you.

Please consider a donation to help offset the cost of this non-glamorous, but extremely important equipment purchase. Donations can be made by writing a check to Syracuse Women's Rowing and sent to Coach Justin Moore at:

Manley Field House, 1301 E. Colvin St., Syracuse, NY 13244

Thank you!

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.

Winter Training - The SU Women

Woah. Check out some of these images from the winter training trip.

Thank you to Coach Andrea Buch for posting these on the SU Women's Rowing Facebook page!

1977, the Year that Wasn't

We're starting another chapter in the history of Syracuse Rowing; this one is 1977; the Year that Wasn't

here's the first section...


1977 - The year that wasn’t

Nineteen seventy-seven was going to be The Year. The Year that Bill Sanford’s Varsity finally brought the IRA championship back to Longbranch after 57 long years. The freshman under Drew Harrison had won the Regatta the previous year after a second in 1975 and a third in ‘74. The program was growing too, with three full varsity eights and more than two freshman boats on the water when what passed for a Syracuse ‘spring’ began. The talent was there, and the big eight, led by captain and stroke Mark Lyvers, was determined to deliver on its promise.

Lyvers had been in the ’74 frosh eight, which had finished third behind Cornell and Wisconsin at the IRA. The atmosphere at the end of the 1974 IRAs was exciting; the varsity had improved dramatically from previous years and the team had grown in numbers and commitment. Half of the freshmen stuck around for the summer and rowed in the Chargers program, and their effort paid off ; SU’s ’75 varsity eight boated four sophomores.

Apparently this wasn’t what the upperclassmen expected. According to Lyvers, the insertion of four sophomores into the varsity eight created a bit of tension between those new guys and those who had been there before. Before 1975, there’d been a sense – not quite an unwritten rule or tradition, more of a feeling that you earned your spot – at least in part – through seniority. Upperclassmen somehow ‘deserved’ those varsity seats more than sophomores, a concept that was foreign to the new guys on the varsity squad.

Whether it was the tension, a lack of maturity, or just not enough talent, the varsity didn’t really come together as a crew in 1975. 1976 was considerably better. SU had done very well in the Cup races, sweeping all events in the Goes Cup, winning the Varsity and Frosh races against Rutgers and both Varsity races over Brown. Despite all that success, when the Championship Regattas began, something seemed amiss. The Varsity failed to make the finals at the Sprints, but recovered somewhat for the Packard Cup where they defeated Dartmouth and MIT.

At the IRA, that spark seemed to have dimmed again, with the varsity finishing fourth in their heat. In the repechage on Friday, Syracuse finished 1.8 seconds behind winner California, earning a spot in Saturday’s Grand Finals. But that was it; in a race won by the same California crew in a time of 6:31, SU finished last in 6:39.8.

The varsity’s performance in the Sprints and IRAs were undoubtedly affected by Lyvers’ previously-undiagnosed case of mononucleosis. The varsity stroke had been pushing hard all season, trying to battle through what seemed to be fatigue and exhaustion from training. The crew was working very hard, and everyone was spent after practice; as the stroke, Lyvers was also the heart and soul of the boat, and he expected a lot from himself. While Lyvers battled through the season, it is apparent in hindsight that the illness had taken its toll, and races on consecutive days left no time for recovery.

What are all those Brits doing in Crimson?

Interesting article from my favorite newsmagazine - The Economist - on Brits rowing in US college crews and vice versa. There's a bit of an answer to the title question too...

http://www.economist.com/node/21542444