Neil Campbell; rowing coach led Canada to Olympic gold

[Hyfler/Rosner]

POSTED ON 18/08/06

NEIL CAMPBELL, 75
Rowing coach led Canada to Olympic gold
TOM HAWTHORN

Victoria -- Neil Campbell, a two-time Olympian who coached
the Canadian men's eights to a rowing gold medal at the 1984
Olympics, died in Vineland Station, Ont., on Aug. 11. He was
75.

Despite a successful season in 1984, the Canadians had been
regarded as underdogs prior to the Olympics by all save
their coach. "We've got eight mean, rotten racers in that
boat," Mr. Campbell said a month before the competition.

Coming from him, there was no greater praise. "You've got to
be mean to be a good oarsman, and a good coach has got to
bring it out of you," he once explained.

The Olympic race at Lake Casitas outside Los Angeles was
expected to be a showdown among strong crews from Australia,
New Zealand, and the United States. Instead, the Canadians
led from start to finish, a tactic preferred by their coach.
The final metres of the two-kilometre race were a
stroke-for-stroke classic, with the Canadians holding off
the Americans by 42-hundredths of a second.

While the 1984 Olympics were boycotted by Communist nations,
the same Canadian crew that year defeated challengers from
East Germany and the Soviet Union in winning the Lucerne
International Regatta in Switzerland. The eights later won
the Dick Ellis Memorial Trophy as the Canadian team of the
year in 1984.

Neil William Campbell was born on Sept. 3, 1930, in Buffalo,
N.Y. His family moved to St. Catharines, Ont., when he was a
toddler and he later recalled handling oars while fishing
with his father.

He joined the St. Catharines Rowing Club in 1952. He
contested the coxless fours with a club crew at the 1964
Tokyo Olympics, finishing 11th. He was also a member of
Canada's unsuccessful eights at the 1968 Mexico City
Olympics.

He became the first rowing coach at Ridley College in St.
Catharines in 1966. He soon made his alma mater a force on
the international rowing scene. He coached Ridley crews to
five Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cups, and to two Thames
Challenge Cups at the Henley Royal Regatta in England. He
was later hired by Cambridge University for its famous
varsity boat races against Oxford.

A long-time resident of Vineland Station, Ont., where he
owned a service station, Mr. Campbell was named a member of
the Order of Canada in 1981. He leaves Mary, his wife of 50
years, and three daughters.