Memories of Rowing as a Walk-on

In the fall of 1962, most of us who turned up for freshman lightweight crew were new to the sport. Coach Al Povey got us learning to row right away — on the barge with sliding seats. There were no rowing machines or “ergs” for training, just rowing and running. The boathouse only had racks for the boats, showers, and a carpentry shop to repair the continual splits in the thin wooden shells. The klutzes occasionally “caught a crab”; the mighty could break a (probably damaged) oar.