Men's Rowing | February 12, 2018

Rusty Callow had an idea. The longtime head rowing coach at Penn was looking for a way to grow the sport and knew there were many schools in need of a boost. He needed to find a solution.

And after much deliberation, the answer came in the form of the Dad Vail Regatta, which now stands as the largest intercollegiate rowing event in the United States.

In 1934, with the help of Rutgers' Leverich Brett, a four-team event featuring Penn, Marietta College, Rutgers and Manhattan College was contested.

The following year, Wisconsin and Rollins were added, and by 1939, the official name of the regatta was established in honor of longtime Wisconsin coach Harry Emerson "Dad" Vail.

By 1953, the Schuylkill River in the city of Philadelphia became the annual host of Dad Vails; the holy grail of rowing events for a number of collegiate programs, especially for those located in the City of Brotherly Love.

For the La Salle men's rowing program, Dad Vail success was abundant in the 1950s. Eight different eight-plus boats won titles in the decade, including a string of six over an eight-year span for the heavyweight eight crew.

Heading into the 1977 season, however, the Explorers were in the midst of a drought. No eight-plus boat had won a Dad Vail in nearly 20 years.

But a group of 10 men – eight rowers, a coxswain and a coach – set out to change that and cement their place in La Salle history.

The season began with many hours of grueling preparation. From early mornings on the water to five-mile team runs, the work put in to build a fast boat was endless. And that training nearly resulted in catastrophe.

Class of 1978 rower Bob McNamara was warming up for a land workout and was alarmed by something he had never seen before.

"I noticed little bruises on my legs," McNamara said. "I rolled up the leg of my sweats so [Coach Jim Kiernan] could take a look, and disturbingly, more bruises had appeared from just ascending the stairs."

Coach Kiernan, a 1971 La Salle graduate and first-year head coach, advised McNamara to take the day off and see a doctor. After an initial scare that leukemia would be the prognosis, mononucleosis was diagnosed and a few days of bed rest was prescribed.

"My platelet count turned out to be 4,000, well below the normal 150,000 and dangerously below the count of 20,000 where you can bleed spontaneously," McNamara remarked. "If I had taken the run the day before it would have been my last as my spleen was swollen and would have ruptured."

With McNamara on the mend, the Explorers continued to train and had a feeling they could surprise some teams during the 1977 campaign.

"Throughout the season, we worked out with the Saint Joseph's heavyweights," coxswain Joe Blickley recalled. "They were big, talented, well-coached and very fast."

One of the big names for the Hawks was future Olympic rower Mike Teti, who rowed in the seven position. Teti, who is currently the head men's crew coach at Cal Berkeley, is a 12-time United States National Team member, a three-time Olympian and won the bronze medal as part of the USA eight-plus boat in Seoul, South Korea in 1988.

"Since we traded punches with St. Joe's on a fairly even basis," Blickley continued, "We knew we had a fast crew."

An integral part of success that evened the playing field, so to speak, was the arrival of a new Schoenbrod racing shell. The shell was named after Thomas J. Conville, Jr., the captain of the 1952-53 varsity heavyweight eight which logged a perfect 4-0 record and captured a third straight Dad Vail trophy. Conville was inducted into the La Salle Hall of Athletes in 1973.

"We had been racing in very old and worn La Salle-owned boats," oarsman Don DeGrazia said. "When we received our new eight and could row it continuously to get comfortable with it, we were able to eliminate a significant disadvantage we had compared to other schools and crews. That made us even faster."

Leading up to Dad Vails, the lightweight boat went through the head-to-head portion of its schedule undefeated with a 5-0 record. At the Kerr Cup, hosted by Drexel, a depleted group that was battling injuries and absences due to the Medical College Admission Test being administered on the same day, lost to a strong Dragons unit.

The following week at the Bergen Cup, with their full lineup intact, the Explorers soundly defeated Drexel and put the entire lightweight world on notice.

"We were not afraid of anybody, whether they were heavyweights or lightweights," DeGrazia said.

After the lightweight victory at the Bergen Cup, Coach Kiernan decided to put that theory to the test and entered the group into the heavyweight race that immediately followed.

"We sucked it up, turned around and rowed up stream to race St. Joe's, Drexel and Temple," Blickley said. "We got second, with St. Joe's beating us by three seconds. We were pretty sure we had something for the New England crews at that point."

The confidence built and built and led right into Dad Vails, which began with a quarterfinal race against Williams, Coast Guard and Marist. La Salle was the lone school that entered the quarterfinal unseeded, but a little added motivation came from a competitor.

"Marist had a rower whose younger brother was a freshman on our team," McNamara recalled. "The word was passed on to us that Marist said we would be eliminated in this race. This was a big mistake, giving us an edge in the run up."

Full of "rage", as McNamara put it, the Explorers crushed the Red Foxes and cruised to a 20-second victory over them even though the La Salle boat shut it down with 500 meters to go. A third-place finish behind Williams and Coast Guard was enough to advance to the semis in the afternoon.

After the emotional race earlier in the day, the semifinals started off inauspiciously for the group as they found themselves in fifth place about one-third of the way through the course.

Blickley, the coxswain, called for a "Power 20", which meant for the oarsmen to take 20 strokes at more than full capacity. This shift allowed La Salle to pass three other boats en route to a second-place finish behind Williams and a trip to the finals.

While waiting for their opportunity to stake claim to a Dad Vail championship, the crew had a lot of down time leading into the race. Without the ability to pass the time with Netflix or social media browsing, the group tried to relax and had stroke Fritz Sutter to thank for a line of levity.

"Just think about it, there are hundreds of 'Palookas' all over this city doing nothing worth anything," Sutter is believed to have said. "And here we are getting ready to race for the national championship."

Whatever it was that the group of nine men did to prepare for the race, it undoubtedly worked. Though the boat slogged through the first 500 and were in fifth place with 1500 meters to go, they had confidence they could overcome the slow start. A slight adjustment in racing strategy from Coach Kiernan and coxswain Blickley also played a role.

"Rather than wait until the last 500 meters, they decided to sprint to the finish line from the 1000-meter mark," oarsman Jim Muskett remembered. "Joe called it great."

From the halfway point on, the Explorers had the lead and ultimately won the closely-contested race by edging Coast Guard and Williams in a time of 6:08.3. The time would have also won the heavyweight final at the event.

"When the officials cruised over in their launch after the race to tell us we had won the Vails," DeGrazia recalled, "I immediately remembered a conversation with Mac (Bob McNamara) at the end of our freshman year."

"Our heavyweight varsity had just been eliminated in the first qualifying heat and had a very slow time," DeGrazia continued. "Mac turned to me and said we would win the Vails before we got out of La Salle. Two years later, we did just that."

Not only was McNamara's premonition on point, but the group had accomplished something that had not been done in 19 years and has not been done since. La Salle had won a Dad Vail championship, and the memory remains vivid for all involved over 40 years later.

"Forty years has not diminished the accomplishment," Blickley stated. "In rowing circles, our crew and individual members are still introduced with 'They won the Vails.'"

"This was a special boat," Muskett said. "Anytime you have 10 guys working together, you have so many personalities interacting and at times colliding while straining to the limits of human endurance. It was a lot of work, I was glad it was over, but I would not have traded one second of it for all the money in the world."

"To win like we did was an amazing rush, we drew energy from the crowd," McNamara said. "I rowed all through the summer of 1976 starting right after the Dad Vail event the year prior. A long road with countless hours of rowing, lifting and running."

A long road that has ultimately led to an induction into the prestigious La Salle University Hall of Athletes.
 
The 1977 La Salle lightweight crew of Joe Blickley, Don DeGrazia, Dan Hingley, Bob McNamara, Jim Muskett, Jon Oline, Jim Rogers, Fritz Sutter and Ed Vasko will be inducted into the Hall of Athletes on Saturday, Feb. 17 following the men's basketball game against George Mason. This feature is the first of five that will be posted on GoExplorers.com this week, leading up to the induction ceremony.