A Collection of Rowing Quotes

Daniel Noah Richman

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Oct 9, 1994, 12:38:35 AM10/9/94

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Since everyone seems to be so excited about the recent display of rowing
quotes, I have taken this opportunity to post a list of quotes a friend sent
me last year. If you know of any other rowing quotes or interesting rowing
related words of wisdom (even if they are your own!), please forward them to
me and I will compile an updated list for a repost. Please include the author
of the quotes when you can.

-Dan Richman
dn...@columbia.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Collection of Rowing Quotes

Weightless in water, swift as the wind,
Subtle of purpose - a feather blown -
I go with my oarsmen where they will,
My beautiful body and theirs all one.
- Mark Van Doren

To follow the drops
sliding from a lifting oar,
Head up, while the rower
breathes, and the small
boat drifts
quietly shoreward...
- Theodore Roethke ( The Shape of the Fire )

"Pull thy oar, all hands, pull thy oar,
till thou be stiff and red and sore..."
- Dr. Sydney Dangell

"You linger to see his back, and the back of his neck and shoulder-side...
The Bending forward and backward of the rowers..."
- Walt Whitman "I Sing the Body Electric"

I met a solid rowing friend and asked about the Race. "How fared it
with the wind," I said, "When stroke increased the pace?
You swung it forward mightily, you heaved it greatly back. "Your
muscles rose in knotted lumps, I almost heard the crack. "And
while we roared and rattled too, your eyes were fixed like glue.
"What thoughtwent flying through your mind, how fared it, Five, with
you?" But Five made answer solemnly, "I heard them fire a gun, "No
other mortal thing I heard until the Race was done." -R.C. Lehman

Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time. -Thomas Moore

Rowing: a competitive sport of boats that are narrow.
(Great Soviet Encyclopaedia)

And all the way, to guide their chime,
With falling oars they kept their time. -Andrew Marvell

So we beat on, boats against the current,
borne back ceaselessly into the past. -F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)

"Internally, you experience rowing as a graphic microcosm of life -
solitude, learning, work, rest, nourishment, sharing and ultimately
challenge." -Allen Rosenberg

"Rowing is more than a fast boat on race day. It's a complementary
experience to a young man's intellectual development..
Rowing, like success, is a journey, not a destination. I tell my
oarsmen to have fun, learn and, most of all, grow as individuals. The
wins the losses will take care of themselves."
-Rick Clother, Rowing Coach USNA

"Rowing is not like baseball, where you can arrive late, grab your
glove and run onto the field. For me, it was the discipline of having
to be at a given place at a given time, sometimes seven days week.
As time went on, that very discipline influenced other dimensions of
my life." -Frank Shields, Penn. '63

"On race day, there's tremendous anxiety. Leading up to the stake
boat, I distinctly remember saying to myself, `I can't wait 'till this
is over'." -Frank Shields

"In rowing as in life, there are competitors and there are racers. The
competitor works hard and rows to his limit. The racer does not
think of limits, only the race." -Jim Dietz, Rowing Coach, USCGA

"The most significant message I can convey to the rowing athlete
is: Just row the race. Think, about the process. Don't dwell on the
result until it's history." -Larry Gluckman, Varsity Heavyweight
Coach, Princeton University

"Rowing is a sport for dreamers. As long as you put in the work, you
can own the dream. When the work stops, the dream disappears."
-Jim Dietz, Rowing Coach, USCGA

"As a coxswain, I concentrated most on knowing the people in my
boat - why they were rowing, why they came down to the boathouse,
what made them tick. You have to know whether someone's rowing
because they love their mother and hate their father. They're not
sure they are proud of themselves; they want to be proud.
Determine some of that and you can tap the strongest parts of those
individuals. Being able to inspire someone, unexpected and in a way
new and fresh to them, is what made coxswaining special for me."
-Devin Mahoney, Coxswain, Varsity Heavyweight Eight, Harvard '86

Not everybody wins, and certainly not everybody wins all the time.
But once you get into your boat and push off, tie into your shoes and
bootstretchers, then "lean on the oars," you have indeed won far
more than those who have never tried. (Unknown)

Flatter me, and I may not believe you
Criticize me, and I may not like you
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you
Encourage me, and I may not forget you. -William Arthur Ward

"When one rows it is not the rowing which moves the ship:
rowing is only a magical ceremony by means of which one
compels a demon to move the ship." -Nietzsche

"When we gather for the happiest week in all the year, it is the brotherhood
of rowing, the comradeship of the oar that we recall, when eight men who have
trained until they have become a single drive, a single thrust of
forward-flashing wrists, face suddenly the crisis towards which that selfless
toil has led them, and know that every link in all that pulsing chain of flesh
and blood rings true. For us, there are no centuries or duck's eggs, no goals
or gallery kicks, no individual distinctions where the crew are all in all.
The rattle of the riggers of the finish, the music of the tide beneath her
body as she shot between the strokes, the grim yet heartening sound of
splendid and unbroken strength when all eight blades crashed in together
- these are the things that no one who has heard and felt them will ever
forget. Some delirium. Some tremens. Some kaleidoscope." -Sir Theodore Cook

Edward Hewitt

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Oct 9, 1994, 1:34:54 PM10/9/94

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Finnegans Wake has a boat race, though decorum prevents me from posting
the whole thing here.
Find it on page 482, Finnegans Wake, James Joyce, Penguin edition.
Mentions the town where I learned to row and the rowing race in the same
paragraph--

The Phoenician wakes

Christopher Russo

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Oct 10, 1994, 11:38:17 PM10/10/94

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Edward Hewitt (ehe...@netaxs.com) wrote:

: Finnegans Wake has a boat race, though decorum prevents me from posting

: The Phoenician wakes

Not quite as elequent nor as nice as the quotes that Mr. Richman
posted, but I've always kind of liked the opening scene of the movie
_Ben Hur_ ( a great movie in its own right ) where the roman centurion
tells the galley slaves "Row well and you shall live..."

Christopher Russo
cru...@tufts.edu
cru...@mit.edu

Mike McCrohan

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Oct 12, 1994, 11:26:21 AM10/12/94

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In article <377s4b$i...@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu>,

dn...@bonjour.cc.columbia.edu (Daniel Noah Richman) wrote:
> Since everyone seems to be so excited about the recent display of rowing
> quotes, I have taken this opportunity to post a list of quotes a friend sent
> me last year. If you know of any other rowing quotes or interesting rowing
> related words of wisdom (even if they are your own!), please forward them to
> me and I will compile an updated list for a repost. Please include the author
> of the quotes when you can.
>
> -Dan Richman

After a particularly tough series of one-minute pieces many years ago,
or five-man:
"Coach, why don't you just take out a whip and beat us -
wouldn't it be a lot easier all 'round?"

Jacob Langelaan

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Oct 12, 1994, 4:38:36 PM10/12/94

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This was told to me by a buddy who used to row at Upper Canada
College: during a workout one of the guys in the boat said something to
the effect of "Coach, this isn't fun anymore."
The coach replied "Fun? Fun?!! Rowing isn't fun. If you want fun, go
play a game, like soccer."

Jack Langelaan.

Hamilton Richards Jr.

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Oct 11, 1994, 8:33:17 PM10/11/94

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There's a fine boat race in the Aeneid (Virgil)--
on the Nile, if I recall correctly (perhaps an Oxbridge
classicist can confirm or refute). The only quote I
(think I) remember is

Nunc! Nunc! Insurgite remis!

(Now! Now! Bend to your oars!)

It's on the wall of a boathouse named for my grandfather.

--Ham Richards

Robert Kenneth Wright, III

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Oct 17, 1994, 4:29:45 AM10/17/94

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Just the other week, our coach stopped us after a long series
of skill-and-drill pieces. "I just want all of you to take a
good look around you. You have the natural quiet all around,
the sun rising through the trees and mist. This is one of the
reasons I love this sport. You guys get to see things that
most people will never see in their lives. The water, the
trees, the mountains in the background... you this is all just
so beautiful... OK, now with that being said, I'm gonna bust
your balls. Cox'ns, sit ready..."

-Rob Wright

pol...@eagle.wesleyan.edu

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Oct 14, 1994, 9:55:14 PM10/14/94

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There's also a few lines in the "Washers at the Ford" section at the end of
Book I, Chapter 8:
"Or where Neptune Sculled and Tritonville rowed . . ."
I don't rember the exact page.

Jeffrey Jason Woodard

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Oct 21, 1994, 8:26:48 AM10/21/94

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>> In article <Cxt69...@virginia.edu>,
>Speaking of Mr. Korzenowski, when he was on his little coaching
>tour with the Vespoli company, he made a stop by our little
>stream. One of our rowers broke his foot stretchers when he
>added in. Kris looked up at him and said, "I bet zat iz ze
>first hard ztroke you ever pulled in your life, you
>marshmallow."
>
>Needless to say, you learn to pull hard when an ex-National
>Team coach calls you a "marshmallow." Boy, we still have fun
>with that rower when this story comes up.
>
>-Rob Wright
>

When he was here at Georgia Tech, we got the marshmallow too. He also
went up and down the river yelling "stroke man, get on it" "bow man
you are scratching" (blade not deep enough). It was a real learning
experience, and went against alot of the things that we had been taught
before. It did make us faster. As much as people give him a bad wrap
for being abrasive (and much worse), I like his up-front coaching style.

Jeff Woodard O O O O
Georgia Tech Crew /=== /=== /=== /=== O
gt0...@acme.gatech.edu //\/ //\/ //\/ //\/ \
------------------/-----------/----------------
If there's another boat on / /
the water, it's a race! ---- ----

Charles E Ehrlich

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Oct 19, 1994, 5:17:59 PM10/19/94

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In article <Cxt69...@virginia.edu>,

Charlie Butt used to do this sort of thing on the Charles (stop to admire the
Fall foliage, sunsets, etc.). Then back to the work at hand. It was good
for keeping us relaxed. Charlie comes from Virginia, and his father (also
Charlie Butt) coached many many people at TCWilliams HS who themselves went
on to be coaches. Where did your coach learn to row? Is this a Virginia
thing?

That said, we could start an entire new section with just Kris Korzenowski
quotes. I'm surprised we haven't seen any yet. Two of my favorites come
from one outing on the Charles about five years ago. It was a technique
outing which Kris K was filming in order to make an instructional video.
Most people fixed their problems as the outing went on, but Kris K was
getting frustrated with one member of the crew who will remain nameless.
Finally, Kris shouted at him in his think Polish accent: "If you do not
fix zis, I kill you!" It worked.
Kris had spent the outing paying attention to everyone's faults except the
three-man's. Needless to say, the three-man was feeling pretty good about
himself. Then, after the day's work, we headed back to Newell. About a
mile from home, Kris stopped us and talked to three-man for the first
time: "In ze zree seat, I don't want you to change anyzing. Just keep
rowing ze way you've been rowing all day - like shee-it." Kris spent
the entire last mile reworking this guy's stroke (again, he'll remain
nameless). Someone once told me that you knew you'd reached the higher
level when Kris K. told you that you rowed "like shee-it."

Charles Ehrlich
Wolfson College (Oxford)

Andrew Jenho Yee

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Oct 19, 1994, 8:02:39 PM10/19/94

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In article <1994Oct19.2...@inca.comlab.ox.ac.uk> ehr...@sable.ox.ac.uk (Charles E Ehrlich) writes:
>In article <Cxt69...@virginia.edu>,
>Robert Kenneth Wright, III <rk...@Virginia.EDU> wrote:
>>Just the other week, our coach stopped us after a long series
>>of skill-and-drill pieces. "I just want all of you to take a
>>good look around you. You have the natural quiet all around,
>>the sun rising through the trees and mist. This is one of the
>>reasons I love this sport. You guys get to see things that
>>most people will never see in their lives. The water, the
>>trees, the mountains in the background... you this is all just
>>so beautiful... OK, now with that being said, I'm gonna bust
>>your balls. Cox'ns, sit ready..."
>>
>>-Rob Wright
>
>
>Charlie Butt used to do this sort of thing on the Charles (stop to admire the
>Fall foliage, sunsets, etc.). Then back to the work at hand. It was good
>for keeping us relaxed. Charlie comes from Virginia, and his father (also
>Charlie Butt) coached many many people at TCWilliams HS who themselves went
>on to be coaches. Where did your coach learn to row? Is this a Virginia

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>thing?
^^^^^>

It's kind of ironic you mentioned this because our coach for the
Princeton lightweights rowed at U. Virginia, and I think he
might have done some coaching there as well too.

Andrew Yee

Robert Kenneth Wright, III

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Oct 21, 1994, 2:53:51 AM10/21/94

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Speaking of Mr. Korzenowski, when he was on his little coaching

Jjlucier

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Oct 20, 1994, 8:40:01 PM10/20/94

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In article <1994Oct19.2...@inca.comlab.ox.ac.uk>,

ehr...@sable.ox.ac.uk (Charles E Ehrlich) writes:

I am merely getting the information correct on the legendary Charlie Butt,
Sr. He was the founder and head coach for Washington-Lee High School,
Arlington, Virgina, for 42 years. T.C. Williams was our biggest rival in
the Northern Virginia area. I don't think that the many W-L rowing
graduates would appreciate the mistake.

You are very much true. He would stop us down in front of the Kennedy
Center and tell us to check out all of the monuments that Washington, D.C.
is so well known for. Then he would quickly get our minds off of the
scenery with some hard work in the shells. Charlie was a lively
individual. Many times did I get yelled at simply because I was one of his
varsity coxswains. I could tell you many stories about Charlie. I was
there during his last glory years (89 heavy 8 national champs, 90 light 8
Stotesbury champs. I can only imagine the stories from the 60's when W-L
dominated high school rowing (65 & 69 Royal Henley champs).

I hope you do not think am pissed at you. I am actually glad to have my
former coach mentioned on internet. He was a true mover in the sport and
very dedicated to his charges.

Jeff Lucier
Washington-Lee class of '90
George Mason University varsity cox