College Rowing's GOAT: Navy's Great Eight

When floating debris claims all three of Navy's shells at the 1951 IRA Championships, the program looked to be in the hurt locker for a very long time. But the fact was that it marked the beginning of the most dominant run in the history of college rowing. 

In today's episode of Forged At Annapolis, we tell the story of the Great Eight. This Navy Men’s Varsity 8 crew was formed following a humiliating day at the 1951 IRA Championships and went on to turn in one of the most dominant stretches in college rowing history, guided by coach Rusty Callow.

With their complete destruction of Yale in the season's first dual,  the Mids send an early message that put the rest of the college rowing world on notice.  After that, the wins continued to pile up. One by one, every elite program in the country found themselves in the same place, behind the Navy crew with a decent amount of open water between them. 

The story continues through to the 1952 IRA Championships, the Olympic Trials, and the Helsinki Olympics. If you are a Navy Sports fan, or just happen to like hearing about sports history, please join us!

 Be sure to share this episode with any other sports fans you know, and  remember to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

Related Links: Navy Great Eight YouTube Documentary

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Transcript

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Lead In: Disaster Strikes at the IRAs

Karl 0:12

It is June 15th, 1951, in Marietta, Ohio. You are the rowing coach at the United States Naval Academy. It's the end of your first season, and Navy is here to compete in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships. To be honest, your first year leading the midshipman hasn't been very good. After winning a national championship just four years ago, the Navy rowing program has fallen on some tough times. After last year's IRA championships, the administration at the Academy convinced you to leave your position as a head coach at Penn in order to get things turned around at Annapolis. It was a very rough start. The varsity, JV, and freshman boats continued to take a beating all season long. There didn't seem to be an end in sight. But change takes time, and you have a track record of building championship teams. Before coaching at Penn, you led the program at the University of Washington from 1922 to 1927, winning three national championships in six years. Those came in 1923, 24, and 26. In fact, the 23 team was the first Western crew to ever win an IRA championship. So now you're here again with a new team, one that has struggled to find its rhythm all season long. If nothing else, the IRA regatta will give you a chance to evaluate the potential of the Oarsman who will be returning next year. Unfortunately, that chance never came. Because as tough a year as a midshipman had to endure, nothing could have prepared you for what was about to happen.

Show Introduction

Karl 1:47

From Navy Sports Nation, I'm Karl Darden, and this is Forged at Annapolis, the stories behind Navy's greatest athletes. The Naval Academy is a place that develops leaders. A select few of these leaders have also gone on

Speaker 2:07

to make their mark athletically, both on the national and world stage. On this podcast, I will share the stories of some of the best Navy athletes to ever come through Annapolis, many of whom were not household names. And today, we'll be talking about a men's varsity 8 crew that is considered by most to be the best in the history of college rowing. This is the story of the Great 8.

Three Boats Lost

Speaker 2:32

When Rusty Callow took over the Navy rowing program in 1950, it wasn't going anywhere. And during that first year, nothing really happened to change the opinion of the rowing community around the country. So as the Navy JV boat got ready for their race at the 1951 IRA Championships, it's fair to say that the expectations weren't all that high. The weather conditions were fine, but the course was an absolute mess. Severe weather in recent days had caused a lot of property damage, and the Ohio River had actually flooded at one point. That turned it into one big floating pile of debris. There were huge tree limbs, telephone poles, dead livestock, and even an outhouse or two moving down the river with the current. Nevertheless, the officials decided that the races would go on. The Navy JV boat took its place at the line, and when the starter gave the command, all the boats surged forward trying to gain an advantage. The MIT's boat was just beginning its fourth stroke and was picking up speed when suddenly it smashed into something submerged in the water. Nobody knew what it was, but it didn't really matter. The shell was absolutely destroyed. It ended up sinking while the crew had to be fished out of the water. But that wasn't the worst part. The varsity and freshman boats had also sank after hitting something. Altogether, the Ohio River claimed a total of 17 shells from the 12 teams that competed. And the sports riders wasted no time bringing the knives out in their criticism of the Navy program. One went so far as to say it would be better to mothball the fleet than to put it in the hands of these future officers.

Coach Callow Hits the Reset Button

Speaker 4:04

Following that disastrous showing at the IRA Championships, Rusty Kallow was at the end of his rope. It was time to start with a clean slate. The returning members from the previous year's varsity boat were not invited back. Instead, Callow saw something in the ones who rode in the JV boat that sank in the Ohio River just a couple months before. Last season, they hadn't won a single race. That was due mostly to their inexperience. But in the fall of 1951, under Coach Callow's guidance, the returning six sophomores and two juniors were about to shock the entire college rowing world. The crew that Callow began to mold was made up of former football and basketball players as well as farmers from different parts of the country. Only one of them had ever held an ore in his hands prior to arriving at Annapolis. So who were these young men? In the bow seat was Frank Shakespeare. He was a basketball player from Dover, Delaware who decided to try rowing after being cut from the Navy basketball team. By the time he graduated, Calla was calling him the best bow man he had ever coached. Right in front of Shakespeare in the second position was Willie Fields, a native of Forsyth, Georgia. The oarsman in this seat had to be light enough so as not to allow the bow to sit too low in the water, but he also had to be strong enough to balance out the bowman's stroke. Fields punched both of these tickets. In fact, Callow referred to him as the toughest member of the crew both mentally and physically. The next guy in the number three seat was Jim Dunbar, a former football player from Indiana. At six feet 175 pounds, he was the lightest one in the boat next to the coxswain. Dick Murphy occupied the fourth seat. He also used to be a football player before a knee injury put an end to that. But Coach Callow saw some potential, and the next thing you know, Murphy had an oar in his hands. The number five position in the boat was held down by Bob Detweiler. He played both football and basketball in Illinois before coming to Navy. He had never even heard of the sport before he got to Annapolis. Next to Detweiler in the number six seat was Henry Proctor, a Kansas native who grew up on a farm. Proctor was the biggest guy on the team at 6'6. Not only that, he was the most technically sound oarsman in the crew according to Callow, which is a nice bonus in the part of the boat known as the engine room. Wayne Fry was another dual sport athlete. He grew up in Maysville, Kentucky, playing football and basketball, but he traded both of those sports in for a spot in Coach Callow's varsity boat in the number seven seat. He was recognized as the strongest member in the crew. In the all-important stroke seat was Ed Stevens. He was the only one of the eight who had any rowing experience. Stevens had the rare ability to achieve an exceptionally high stroke rate very quickly. He was one of the two team members who played a critical role in executing the race strategy. The other one was the coxswain, and that was Dave Manring's job. Manring was the only senior. He was all business and did an excellent job getting every ounce of effort out of his crew. That was important because their first race of the season was against Yale. They were the Eastern League champions the previous year, and they didn't have a whole lot of respect for the Navy crew. When the Mids walked into the Bulldogs boathouse to prepare for the race, the entire Yale team began to laugh at them, recalling what had happened the previous spring at the IRAs. It was a feeling that no one in the crew forgot. But by the time the day was over, Navy was the only team doing the laughing.

Message Sent

Speaker 7:31

It's the afternoon of April 19th, 1952. You've brought your team together for one last talk before they take on Yale in the varsity race that will conclude this dual meet. So far, the day has exceeded expectations. Both the freshmen and JV boats won their races handily, but this is the one you really want. When you led your team into Yale's boathouse, your opponents began laughing hysterically. They were recalling the last time they saw you floating down the Ohio River holding onto your shell, which had been totally destroyed. Your message to your team was simple. The Bulldogs were the defending Eastern League champions, and you told your crew they were going to have to row their tails off if they had any expectation of winning. With that, you sent them off and found a spot near the finish line to watch the two mile race. It wasn't even close. From the very start, Stevens and Mandring got the crew on a stroke rate high enough to establish a lead before settling into a nice long rhythm. It didn't take them long to grow their advantage into more than a boat length, and with each quarter mile, the lead grew larger. You watched the Mids as they approached the finish line. By your estimation, there were six and a half lengths of open water between them and the Yale crew. Then you saw that your guys may have misjudged the finish line because they all stopped rowing with close to a boat length left, and the shell just glided across with a time of 10 minutes 21 seconds. The Yale crowd didn't appreciate that too much, but that wasn't your concern. You were too busy enjoying the pasting your crew had just put on the defending Eastern League champions, and the margin of victory was a jaw-dropping 19 seconds. But this was only the beginning. There are a lot of great rowing programs all over the country, and you know that one race doesn't make a season. You continued to demand the best out of your team, making it clear that they had to earn their right to row in the varsity shell every week. All of them were up to the challenge. The Mids continued to stack up wins, defeating one great program after another. In the East, they took down Princeton, Harvard, Syracuse, Cornell, Penn, and MIT. It was more of the same for teams out west like Washington, Stanford, and California. And these were dominant wins. Each time the Navy shell crossed the finish line an average of two boat lengths ahead of everyone else. After taking the Eastern Sprints title, you spent a month preparing your crews for the IRA Championships, which would take place in Syracuse, New York. It's funny how things worked out. A year ago at the IRAs, not a single Navy shell completed the race. And now, you're headed to upstate New York, with an undefeated crew on the verge of winning a national championship.

Why This Podcast Exists

Speaker 10:09

Hi everyone, this is Carl Darden. I hope you are enjoying this episode of Forged at Annapolis. And before we dive back into today's story, I wanted to take a quick minute to share why this podcast even exists. When most people think of Navy athletics, their minds automatically go to football, and that makes total sense. Football is clearly the program's centerpiece. But the competitive spirit of the Naval Academy runs much deeper. Besides football, there are 35 other men's and women's varsity sports, and Navy also has several nationally recognized club teams. All of these athletes put in the same hard work and effort, and I want to do my level best to tell you about their experiences. Here's where you can help. First, please be sure to follow Forged atAnapolis wherever you get your podcasts. And remember to get the word out to all the other Navy sports fans out there. Secondly, if you have an athlete in mind that you would like me to feature, let me know by clicking on the Send Us a Fan mail link at the top of the show notes. I am constantly researching athletes as I continue gathering content for the podcast. I've had the pleasure of speaking with many Navy Athletics Hall of Famers, and nothing would be better for me than working with them to bring their stories to you. Now, let's get back to our episode.

Sacrifice, Academics, And Pressure

Speaker 11:37

They understood the role of athletics when it came to supporting the Academy's physical mission, but they were beginning to think Callow's priorities were all mixed up. He routinely kept his boats out on the water well past evening formation. That was bad enough, but getting back to Bancroft Hall at a later hour also began to cut into the mid-study time. So in addition to being completely worn out after practice, the entire team had to keep up with their academics. Otherwise, they could lose their position on the team and wind up in front of an academic review board. No matter what major these athletes were pursuing, the academic demands were no joke. And being able to handle those demands while trying to compete for a national title takes a special kind of perseverance and sacrifice. Coach Calla knew they all had what it took. Otherwise, they wouldn't be sitting in that varsity shell.

Walking Away From the Field at the IRAs

Speaker 12:22

By the time the IRA championships came around in June of 1952, Navy was the talk of the rowing world. No crew had come close to beating them. But none of that mattered now. This was a winner-take-all race, and the Mids would not be satisfied with anything less than their first place finish. The varsity race was three miles long. There were ten other boats in the field, and the Mids' biggest threats were Washington, California, and Princeton. Most experts agreed that given the course setup and the racing conditions on Lake Onondaga, a crew would do well to finish in 16 minutes. That was seen as a competitive and potentially winning time. The uh the experts were off by a considerable margin. When the race started, the Mids got off the mark quickly with their signature high stroke rate, and when Dave Manring made the call, Stevens transitioned the crew to the long, powerful strokes that began to open up Navy's lead. By the halfway point, they led by one and a half boat lengths. And when the horn sounded as their bow crossed the finish line, they were a full three lengths in front of second place Princeton. The time? 15 minutes eight seconds. Ordinarily, it would have been a perfect way to cap off the season, but Navy had one more mission to accomplish. And for that, they would need to face their rivals one more time for the right to represent their country in the 1952 Olympics.

Olympic Trials Lesson: Leave Nothing in the Tank

Speaker 13:38

Less than three weeks after their dominating win at the IRAs, Coach Callow and his Navy crew traveled to Worcester, Massachusetts to compete in the Olympic trials. It was early July, and it was hot, and even more humid. The trials consisted of two heats. The top two boats in each heat advanced to the finals. The team had a discussion before the race and agreed to row as hard as they needed to in order to win, but the idea was not to expend too much energy where they might not have enough left for the final the next day. The meds drew lane six in their heat. It was more exposed to the wind. In fact, they ended up rowing through whitecaps the entire race. California had a lane closer to the shore, which was protected by the nearby bluffs next to the lake. Their water was much smoother, almost like glass. The Navy crew got off to their usual start and appeared to be cruising to a comfortable wind. Meantime, California and Wisconsin were battling for that all-important second place finish to secure a spot in the final. Suddenly, the Golden Bears began seriously closing the gap on the Mids because of the advantage they had of rowing in smoother water. Over the last 15 to 20 strokes, Dave Manring screamed at the Mids to give it everything they had. They did, and just barely managed to hold off California by a couple of feet. After getting together and discussing their result, the entire team agreed that it would be the last time they would ever consider trying to row just hard enough to win. From then on, no matter what the racing conditions were, they would go at 100% effort and live with the outcome. The other three crews in the finals besides Navy were California, Washington, and Princeton. From the very start, the Mids got their bow out in front and never let up. They built a solid lead over the first half of the 2,000 meter course, and it continued to increase over the third 500. And when the horn sounded, they had set a new Olympic trials record with a time of 5 minutes 57.7 seconds. Princeton finished in second place, two and a half boat lengths behind. Navy had done it, and now they're off to Helsinki, Finland, to take part in the 15th Olympiad and a chance to compete against the best oarsmen in the world.

Helsinki Final Against The Russians

Speaker 15:37

It's the morning of July 23rd, 1952, the day of the men's eighth final at the Helsinki Olympics. This is what you and your team have been waiting for. They won both of their heats leading up to the final by more than a boat length, so everyone looked to be completely dialed in. In the metal race, the main competition will be coming from the Russians. This was a team of very big oarsmen. Even their coxswain, who was also their coach, weighed 160 pounds. They'd been rowing together for years. This team also had a unique way of rowing. They did not feather their blades at the completion of a stroke. When an oar blade is feathered, it is rotated so that it's in a horizontal position just inches above the water as it's brought back for the next stroke. The Russians just left their blades at 90 degrees as they brought them back, and none of the blades were at the same height when preparing for the stroke that followed. It was a really strange sight. You'd think that the Russians' goal was to win the race by beating the water into submission. Unorthodox as it was, your opponent's rowing technique was good enough to get them into the final. Besides, none of that mattered. You were focused on getting your team ready so they could row the race of their lives and bring home the gold medal for the United States. It's just about time for the race to start. You have taken up a position near the finish line with Harrison Sanford, who is the head coach at Cornell. When the teams are sent off, Navy executes their normal start that has typically put their opponents at a big disadvantage after 40 or 50 strokes. Through the first 250 meters, they've usually built up a decent lead. But this time the Russians were right there with the Mids, just flailing away. It was the same story approaching the halfway point. The Navy crew just could not shake them. You continue to watch the striking difference in technique. The Mids were gliding through the water with long, powerful strokes. The Russian oars looked like they were all over the place, but they were still right there fighting for the lead. In the third 500 meters, things started to change. You could tell that Navy's stroke rate had increased because you saw the shell surge forward. Almost immediately after that, Manring must have called for another hard 10 because the mids started to get some separation. A three-seat advantage quickly became a boat length. The Russians tried to make another run, but they had nothing left. Navy came across the finish line with a time of 6 minutes 25.9 seconds, winning by just over 5 seconds and half a boat length of open water. You have a very satisfied smile on your face. A margin of victory that big just didn't happen in Olympic competition. The Mids had taken on the very best oarsmen in the world and beat them all in convincing fashion.

The Great Eight's Legacy

Speaker 18:05

With the gold medal secure, you now have a chance to reflect back on everything that's happened in the last 13 months. In that short period of time, you took a Navy team that had been literally sunk in the Ohio River and turned them into National and Olympic champions. And you did it without losing a single race. The Eight Oarsmen that Coach Rusty Callow had assembled prior to the 1952 season became known as the Great Eight. Over the next three years, this group of athletes achieved a level of excellence never seen before in collegiate rowing. The core of the team followed up their 1952 IRA championship with two more in 1953 and 1954. They also won three Eastern Sprints titles over that same span. Most impressively, the Grade 8 won 29 consecutive races, a record that still stands today. There are 36 varsity sports at the United States Naval Academy, but none have been around longer than Rowan. Having been introduced at Annapolis over 150 years ago, it has a rich tradition. And during that time, no group of athletes has done more to live up to that tradition than Frank Shakespeare, Willie Fields, Jim Dunbar, Dick Murphy, Bob Detweiler, Henry Proctor, Wayne Fry, and Ed Stevens. Those were the young men who came together in 1952 along with the coxswain Dave Manring and rode their way into immortality as the Great Eight.

Show Credits

Speaker 19:40

This has been the first episode of Forged at Annapolis. Thank you for listening. If you'd like to learn more about the Great Eight, you can check out the documentary on YouTube called The Great Eight, U.S. Naval Academy Crew, 1952 Helsinki Olympics Gold Medalist. It served as one of the primary sources for this episode, along with some other research. I'll put a link to the video in the show notes. This episode contains dramatized details. In most cases, though it's not certain exactly what was said, all dramatizations are based on extensive research. Forged at Annapolis is hosted, recorded, and edited by me, Karl Darden. The music is provided by Nathaniel Wolkstein in Audio Jungle. If you like what you've heard today, be sure to tell all the other Navy fans you know out there, and remember to follow us wherever you get your podcast.