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Crew racing is one of the most physically taxing sports in existence, requiring tremendous stamina and exacting technique honed over months of training in and out of the water. Even for collegians, it’s a huge physical grind.
So what was a bunch of 60-year-olds, some of whom hadn’t been in a race for many years, doing at a regatta this past October – and a three-mile race at that? Not only that: They were the oldest rowers there, and it was their first race together as a team since our freshman year.
The story behind the Head of the American Race in Sacramento, Calif., is one of camaraderie, teamwork and the common bond of rowing together and going through Princeton some 40 years ago. It involves the members of the 1971 freshman crew team, who bonded in the 1967-68 year and have since gone their separate ways, as we all do; some went on to row on the varsity eight boat, but others left crew racing behind.
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| In the team photo, standing from left to right are: John Daake, MacNeill Watkins, Bob Barber, Karl Hofammann, Mike Ladra, Oz Bengur, Don Paxton, Rob Slocum; Kneeling, left to right: Bruce Beckner, Jay Paris, Ron Brachman and Bob Wetmore ’70. |
They started coming together again in 2001, at our 30th reunion. As Oz Bengur recalls, a number of the group met down at the boathouse and reminisced about the times they had together, and most of the team gathered that fall for a memorial service for Steve Powers. Powers, a member of the freshman crew, was class president during our 25th Reunion and had passed away that summer. Those at the service then went out rowing, and have been gathering for a fall reunion every year since. Those reunions have taken them to venues around the country to row together, says Mac Watkins; last year they rowed in Washington, DC.
Rowing is one thing; racing is another. Watkins says that Rob Slocum, who lives in Connecticut and has compiled a tremendous competitive record as a single sculler in recent years, persuaded the group to enter the California race as a masters (over 50) team.
And from around the country they came: John Daake, Watkins, Bob Barber, Karl Hofammann, Mike Ladra, Bengur, Don Paxton, Slocum, Bruce Beckner, Jay Paris, Ron Brachman and Bob Wetmore ’70 (recruited because Jim Lieber ’71 was recuperating from a serious bicycle accident).
Not surprisingly, a few logistical issues had to be solved. There was training to do in the boat, and the boat itself, and the oars, had to be borrowed from a local rowing club, Watkins says. The team, along with several wives, ended up spending three days together, capped by the race, in which they finished third of eight boats on a handicap basis. Most of the competitors were rowing clubs from California.
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| In the race photo of the boat from the stern are: Cox Ron Brachman, Rob Slocum, Jay Paris, Bruce Beckner, Mike Ladra, Don Paxton, Bob Wetmore, Bob Barber and Oz Bengur. |
“Somewhat remarkably, we did really well with just three days of training,” says Watkins. Individuals had done their own fitness programs in the months leading up to the race, though some had little or no opportunity to actually row.
Every team needs a uniform, and the shirts they wore were designed by Mike Ladra and added a whimsical touch. They read: “Subprime Rowing Association – Oxygen Debt Our Specialty.” Says Bengur: “We were all the buzz, as we were the ‘oldest’ boat in that race.”
Watkins traces some of the team’s camaraderie to an intense freshman year with coach Steve Gladstone, who went on to become something of a coaching legend, with later stops at Brown, Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley.
Stories abound about college teams reuniting after many years; often, they are football teams remembering past glories 25, 30 or 50 years after the event. That a rowing group has been getting together year after year – especially after only one year together and many years apart – is something else again. The feeling was so good, the group later agreed, that they would do another race next year, location to be determined.
Watkins says that one huge asset these days is simply technology. “This wouldn’t have been possible without email,” he says. “That’s made a huge difference.”
Ultimately, he adds, what the freshman crew of 1971 has found is an irrefutable argument for the benefit of college athletics. “We find that we’re not getting acquainted; we’re catching up with each other,” Watkins says. “We’re all the same kind of people as we were back then, with some of the rough edges sanded down. We’re more relaxed about ourselves.”
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