Squaring the Blade. Director s Message. Winter A Newsletter for MIT Crew Alumni. Contents. Director s Message. Jack Frailey.

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1 Winter 2016 Squaring the Blade Director s Message by Tony Kilbridge In this issue we mark the passing of Jack Frailey, who was a central figure in MIT crew for over seventy years, as an athlete, coach, administrator and leader of our alumni group. At Jack s memorial service, several of his former athletes spoke movingly about their time rowing under Jack s critical eye in the late Bill Haines, MIT heavyweight coach, s and early 60s. This issue also features a profile of Bill Stern, who rowed on Tech s heavyweight team during the season. Bill, who is 97 years old and going strong, is a link to a time that is almost gone from living memory. Thinking about these two great gentlemen put me in mind of what MIT crew was like for its athletes and coaches many decades ago. Fortunately, in addition to the memories of alumni like Bill Stern, we have the daily logs of some of Tech s most accomplished coaches. These date back to the time of William Bill Haines, a professional coach from England who led MIT s varsity heavies from 1924 to Coach Haines was succeeded by Cedric Valentine, and then by two athletes from the University of Washington s famous Boys in the Boat crew, who won gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Bobby Moch, that crew s coxswain, coached Tech s heavies from 1940 to He was followed by his freshman coach and Washington crewmate, Jim Stub McMillin, A Newsletter for MIT Crew Alumni Contents Director s Message Jack Frailey Bill Stern Florida Training Spring Previews who held the reins until Two years later, Jack Frailey assumed the job. In the early 1960s, Jack s freshman coach was Dick Erickson, who had also rowed at Washington, and who would go on to a legendary 20-year career as that school s head coach. Reading these logs is an interesting experience. Some things were very different. Until the 1960s, the crew season was four months

2 Director s Message Continued from p. 1 shorter than it is now, running from the beginning of October to the end of November, and then from the end of February to June. The distances seem strange. Before the standardization of the racecourse at 2000 meters, practice times were taken to, among other landmarks, the Henley marker, and the dingy house. Student managers did much of the work that full-time coaches do now. The teams were huge, with coaches leading workouts with five or more 8 s at a time. The log for October 2, 1930, notes that 100 freshmen tried out on the first day of practice. Director s Message On the other hand, many things that these coaches dealt with are familiar to a current coach, and comforting, in a schadenfreude sort of way. Bad weather, athlete misbehavior, strange accidents and the academic grind of MIT have always been with us. Here are some journal entries. (Some made by the coach, and some by the student manager). From the journals of Coach Haines: October 14, 1930 Morning practice after a holiday was as could be expected considerably late. December 3, 1930 The worry over 10 week grades is over we have to take what s coming. A few of the freshmen will get F s March 7, 1936 Draper, stroke of the JVs, got his foot tangled in an elevator may be out for the season. March 31, 1936 The boys are kicking because the cold weather makes them uncomfortable. Bless their dear souls. My favorite entry dates from April 14, 1937, when Coach Haines s JV boat sank in high winds in front of the sailing pavilion. This is illustrated with a crude drawing of the disaster, which leaps off the neat pages like a cave painting in the stock market section of the Wall Street Journal. Coach Bobby Moch also dealt with New England weather: March 8, 1941 Snow storm. Windy. Cold. Stayed inside and did a lot of explaining. Hope I cleared up some things. Stub McMillin was a master of terse entries evoking the miseries of early season rowing: February 24, 1954 confusion. Dark & February 26, 1954 Raining & miserable. Just rowed. March 29, 1954 Lots of room for improvement. March 23, 1955 Just rowed. Too much confusion. Lousy weather. April 14, 1955 Gave squad hell about lousy turnout [practice] yesterday. Sent them out alone. Page from Coach Haines journal, showing the sinking of JV on April 14, 1937 April 30, 1956 Hell. Windy as

3 Director s Message Continued from p. 2 And Coach Erickson experienced the difficulty of keeping a crew healthy and together: April 11, 1964 Trouble: Partridge infected leg, Spusky mono Jack Frailey Chandler quitting. Yet, when I have talked to alumni or old coaches about their time with MIT crew, it is not the discomfort and setbacks that they remember most. Coaches such as Jack Frailey, Gary Zwart and Stu Schmill, and rowers such as Bill Stern and Frailey s men, remembered their time with MIT crew as a high point of their lives. The rain and cold brought them together and made the warm, sunny days of May when the shells are running fast truly earned and wonderful. All of us here at Pierce Boathouse are hoping those days come soon. Go Tech! Now in its sixth year of operation, the MIT Youth Rowing Camp offers a choice of four one-week day camps for high-school-age rowers, emphasizing sculling skills. Teaching methods will include on-the-water coaching, video review, and tank demonstrations, with a high coach-to-athlete ratio to ensure that all campers receive lots of individual attention. Jack Frailey By Jeff Forrester Session One: June 20 - June 24 Session Two: June 27 - July 1 Session Three: July 11 - July 15 Session Four: July 18 - July 22 Anyone interested in the program should visit for more information. Jack Frailey passed away on January 7, 2016 at the age of 90. He was a luminary in the sport of rowing, not just at MIT but also for the US and in international circles as well. He was a contributor to MIT rowing as an athlete for the lightweight squad as an undergraduate as well as a coach for both the heavyweight and lightweight men. His contributions began in 1940 when he enrolled as a freshman studying aeronautical engineering. He rowed all four years, earning the position of captain on the varsity lightweight eight in his senior Jack Frailey s 1963 Varsity Heavyweight Crew

4 Jack Frailey Jack Frailey Continued from p. 3 year. Upon graduation, he went through Officer Candidate School at Cornell in preparation for commanding a PT boat for the Navy. In 1954 he found himself back in Boston working for a corporation that specialized in satellite camera system development. It was at this point that his coaching career got its start. He was asked to be the varsity lightweight coach, a role in which he had immediate success. His crews won the Thames Challenge Cup at Henley that year and defended that title in He went on to have crews that placed in the top three at the Eastern Sprints and the IRA. His success in coaching wasn t only limited to the Engineers. He was also a coach and manager for the US at the 1968 and 1976 Olympic Games. Frailey served on the USRowing Board of Directors from 1963 until 2002 and had a role in the development of the national team camp system, which is still currently in place to help select the big boats for both the World Championships and Olympic Games. Additionally, he was instrumental in pushing forward to get lightweight rowing added to the Olympic program in As a result of all of this hard work and success, Jack was inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame in He was also a recipient of the 1992 USRowing Jack Kelly Award, for superior achievements in rowing, and the 1982 USRowing John J. Carlin Service Award, which honors an individual who has made significant and outstanding contributions and commitments in support of rowing. Jack Frailey s leadership manifested itself in the success of his crews and their ongoing commitment to live up to his lofty expectations. His loss will be felt by the entire rowing community but will particularly hit home to those in MIT rowing circles. He will be missed. Jack Frailey on the MIT dock

5 Bill Stern, MIT 40 Bill Stern by Tony Kilbridge This article is based on a conversation I had with Bill at his retirement home in January Some of the details come from other sources, such as the records of MIT crew. Bill Stern was born on February 27, 1919, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Although World War I had just ended, the world was in the midst the Great Influenza Pandemic, which in two years would kill more people than the Great War. At its height, when Bill was born, more than 600 Clevelanders per week were dying of the flu. Because hospitals were considered unsafe, Bill was born at home. American men born that year had an average life expectancy of 53 years. In that respect, as in many others, Bill Stern beat the odds. Bill describes his childhood in Cleveland Heights as idyllic. He was musical and athletic. When he was in 9th grade, he saw Jesse Owens dominate a local high school track meet. Bill was working as a counselor and bugler at a summer camp when his high school homeroom teacher and his mother conspired to submit his name for a scholarship to MIT. Bill won and accepted the scholarship, despite never having been outside of the Midwest. He saw the Institute for the first time when he arrived for freshman orientation in the fall of decided to try out. At 155 pounds Bill was considered too big for the freshmen 150s, so he became a small heavyweight, eventually making the second freshmen boat. The MIT boathouse at that time was located adjacent to the site of the current BU boathouse. It had been built by the Boston Athletic Association in as part of its mission to encourage all manly sports and promote physical culture. MIT leased the boathouse from the B.A.A. from 1924 until the Pierce Boathouse was completed in Bill and his crewmates reached the boathouse by walking, driving or hitch-hiking. Since Bill lived at the Sigma Chi fraternity house in Boston, he preferred to hitch. Bill s freshmen coach was Pat- Very soon thereafter, while on a freshman orientation camping trip, Bill heard about the crew and Bill Stern s Class of 1940 yearbook photo

6 Bill Stern Continued from p. 5 rick Manning; the head coach was William Haines. Haines was a wellknown professional coach from England, who had been coaching in the U.S. since Bill remembers Coach Haines as an Englishman with a big red mustache, who was fond of saying Rowing is a grand sport! As was the custom of the time, Tech s crew coaches worked in coat and tie. The crew season consisted of two months in the fall and three in the spring. Winter training had yet to be invented. Before races, Bill s coach would paint shellac on the seats, so the rowers would stick and not jump their slides. Although Bill stopped rowing after his freshman year, he remained active in intramurals and Army ROTC. He graduated in 1940, but stayed for one year to earn a master s in chemical engineering. By this time, the University of Washington s Boys in the Boat crew had won Olympic gold, and two of them had come to MIT. Bobby Moch, the coxswain, became head heavyweight coach in 1940, with James Stub McMillin as his assistant. Moch would leave MIT in 1944, but McMillin would remain as head heavyweight coach until Bill Stern, MIT 40 artillery and mines. This latter duty involved handling high-explosive naval mines in high seas, and was extremely dangerous. With German U-Boats sinking merchant ships in sight of the U.S. coast, Bill felt that he had entered a war zone without leaving the country. In 1943 Bill returned to Boston to attend the Army s radar school. He was then posted to the Alaska Defense Command in Sitka, and later in the Aleutian Islands. When the war ended, Bill had had his fill of working for a big organization, and resolved to work in small business. He began his long career as an engineer and businessman at the Brush Development Company in Cleveland, moved to a water purification start-up in South Texas, where he met his wife, Helen, and wound up, many years later, with the Itek Corporation in Boston. Bill and Helen had four children and three grandchildren. When Bill retired in 1986 he began another career, as a serious runner. Before heart surgery stopped him recently, Bill ran in countless road races, including Mount Washington and the Boston Marathon. He competed at four National Senior Games. At his final Games, in 2009, at age 90, Bill won gold in the 1500 meters, silver in the 200-meter dash, and bronze in the 100. When he finally hung up his running shoes, Bill had been running for 50 years. He estimates that he has run far enough to go around the world twice. At 97, Bill is mentally sharp and physically trim. He served as the Grand Marshall of Lexington s Memorial Day parade in 2015, wearing his World War II army uniform, which still fits him. When I asked him his secret, he said use it or lose it! Bill realized that the U.S. could not stay out of World War II, so he entered active service as a second lieutenant in the Army in September Bill was assigned to the harbor defense group at Narragansett Bay, where he worked with Bill Stern next to his Class of 1940 MIT crew shirt

7 Florida Training By Ryan Webb, 16 Make no mistake, this is not a vacation. We are here to work and we are here to work hard. This was the 4th time in my MIT rowing career that I ve heard head coach Tony Kilbridge say this line. Our annual training trips in Cocoa Beach, Florida have been perhaps the most memorable experiences of my undergraduate career. Rowing in Florida, we are able to escape not just the biting cold temperatures and often frozen river, but we are able to escape the distractions of MIT. P-Sets, UROPs, applications, social commitments, and severe lack of hours in a day (particularly when it comes to sleep) are difficult challenges that many of our competitors have a little easier than we do. But in Florida, it s all Florida Training about the rowing. And row we did. This year, our team put in around 24 miles of rowing a day, with a daily 5 mile run for good measure. Between brutal steady state dirges up and down the barge canal, detailed technical skills building drills, and extremely competitive racing between our two 8 s, the team made significant progress towards our self-determined goals for the spring season. With little time to practice on the Charles before our first race, Florida is usually our last chances to really improve as rowers before the season starts. With a very young team, this is especially imperative. But beyond the difficult and exhausting workouts, Florida is essential for us as a team. At MIT, after practice in the Fall, we would often leave the boathouse and part ways to participate in our many activities and commitments. But in Florida, we are together 24/7. Between the shared agony of saltwater in our blisters, the joy of a post-workout Steak N Shake run, and the close heart-to-heart discussions we had throughout the week, we began to change as a team. Rather than 8 busy guys in a boat who are trying to be their very best and push the boat faster through the sum of our improvements, we began to blend into one team, one crew, and one man. This sentiment and firm commitment to ourselves and each other is being carried forward throughout our winter training, and I can t wait to see it displayed on the water this season. Florida is without a doubt a time where we get stronger, row better, and work to pull hard. But for me, Florida will always be most important as the time where we build a team that I want to pull hard for.

8 Spring Preview Light Men by Will Oliver Winter has been good to the lightweight men so far. We ve seen major steps forward in terms of our fitness levels, though we re still striving to catch up to ourselves from the past couple of season. We only have one rower returning from our varsity eight, and our team is young and a bit raw this year. So winter training has been good for us, but the guys, like all rowers, are eager for the ice to melt so that they can get back out onto the water. and Columbia. We ll also have an early season race in Boston against Penn and Delaware. As you know, there are rarely easy races in our league, so we expect tough competition throughout. After our cup races, we have some time off to get ready for Sprints where we ll see Princeton and Navy for the first time. We expect that, however our crews do this season, we ll see a lot of improvement over the course of the spring. It s exciting to work with young athletes and we re looking forward to giving many of them their first taste of EARC racing. Hopefully we ll see many of you out at the races! And we have a solid spring schedule to look forward to. For rowers who are able to make our 1V, we make our biennial trip to the San Diego Crew Classic this spring. We re entered in the Secretary of the Navy Cup alongside many west coast lightweight programs whom we rarely see, and we expect good racing and excellent weather. As we always do, we ll have our usual cup races against Yale, Georgetown, Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell, Lightweight men competing in their annual intrasquad singles regatta, the Solo Cup Light Men Spring Schedule vs Delaware & Penn San Diego Crew Classic Joy Cup vs Yale & Georgetown Biglin Bowl vs Harvard & Dartmouth Geiger Cup vs Cornell & Columbia EARC Sprints IRA Regatta San Diego, CA Hanover, NH Ithaca, NY Worcester, MA West Windsor, NJ March 26 April 2-3 April 9 April 16 April 23 May 15 June 3-5

9 Spring Preview Light Women by Claire Martin-Doyle Our opening spring races take us to Oklahoma for the first time in program history where we line up against Tulsa who edged us by.03 seconds at the IRA last spring. Racing the full slate of IRA events (Eight, Four and Double) will be an exciting way to start the spring. Our second weekend of racing at home, the team lines up against DIII openweights Simmons, Bates (2015 DIII NCAA Champions) and Vermont, who always provide competitive racing. Next, we travel to Mercer Lake for The Knecht Cup, which looks to be a preview of the IRA with many of the top lightweight programs scheduled to compete. The following weekend, back on the Charles, we see visiting crews from Stanford and Wisconsin alongside home rivals Harvard-Radcliffe and Boston University for racing on both Saturday and Sunday. April 23 is a special day for us as we contest the seventh annual Muri Cup in combination with the LW Beanpot against Harvard-Radcliffe and Boston University. The squad will finish out the regular season with a trip to Dad Vail, where the team will seek its third consecutive Varsity Lightweight Eight Championship and look to improve on a bronze-medal performance in the Varsity Lightweight Four. The season with culminate with Championship racing at Mercer Lake for the IRA. It ll be an action-packed spring facing excellent competition! Light Women Spring Schedule vs Tulsa vs Simmons, UVM & Bates Knecht Cup LW Invite Muri Cup/Beanpot vs BU & Radcliffe Dad Vail Regatta IRA Regatta Tulsa, OK West Windsor, NJ Philadelphia, PA West Windsor, NJ March 26 April 2 April 9-10 April April 23 May June 3-5

10 Spring Preview Open Women by Holly Metcalf Along with the coming of spring is the season of final graduate school applications for seniors, job applications, research positions and internships, all of which usually involve me writing recommendations, which I love to do. What does this have to do with our spring racing season? While writing these recommendations I make connections between a student-athlete s rowing and academic lives, her character, and where her passion lies. Spending time thinking about each young woman reminds me of the time-release effect of rowing on all of our lives, how our varied experiences bring us back to certain memories from time to time. There is nothing ordinary about any of our student-athletes, and the level to which rowing teaches and inspires them is no less ordinary. The privilege of coaching them--a certain intimacy shared through hours spent mining the benefits of mastery, competence and the sheer beauty of our sport--is not taken lightly by any of us coaching our men s and women s squads. We are in year 2 of growing our young team: half of the team comprised of freshmen and one-third walk-ons. Challenging this young team our first race, March 26, will be Northeastern, Boston College and Radcliffe for the Beanpot trophy. Heading into week two, the Engineers head south to the George Washington Invite for two days of dual racing, two of the teams Patriot League competitors Navy and Georgetown. The team culture and attitude have grown to yet another level this year, taking on more miles than ever this winter. Almost every weekend we will face a fellow Patriot League opponent making this one of our strongest racing seasons to date. We look forward to the challenges and continued team growth this season. Openweight Women Spring Schedule Beanpot & vs Coast Guard vs Boston College George Washington Invitational Washington, DC vs Holy Cross & Rutgers Worcester, MA Women s Eastern Sprints Cherry Hill, NJ Patriot League Championship Cherry Hill, NJ March 26 April 2 April 8-9 April 24 May 1 May 13

11 Heavy Men by Evan Thews-Wassell The Tech heavyweight men are working hard to build on several years of continued improvement. This fall we added a strong freshman class to a tight-knit group of returning varsity athletes. The team consists of a good mix of talented freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The highlight of the fall racing season was a 4th place finish in the Men s Collegiate 8+ at the Head of the Charles Regatta. Coming away with medals from the prestigious HOCR was a well-deserved treat for the guys, Spring Preview and a great motivator going into winter training. The annual winter training trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida was a constructive and enjoyable one. The weather was cooperative over the nine-day trip, which allowed for all the teams to get plenty of water time in. The heavy men specifically, got a lot of constructive strokes in, while logging over 140 miles. The team is now training hard through the winter months on the rowing machines and in the weight room. Despite a couple of cold snaps, the Boston winter has been generally mild and we expect to be back on the water earlier than we have been in the past couple of years. With the racing season getting closer every day, the team is working hard to gain as much fitness as possible before hitting the water. As always, the races will be challenging, but wins and t-shirts are on the line, and the team knows what needs to be done now in order to come out on top in the spring. The 2016 spring schedule for the heavyweight men will be a competitive mix of both in league and out of league teams. Along with our usual cup races against Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth and Wisconsin, we have added races against some of the top non-earc schools in the country. These races will be against Williams, WPI, Bates, and The Coast Guard Academy. Exact race dates and locations can be found on the MIT Athletics web page. We hope to see you all at the races in the coming months! Heavyweight Men Spring Schedule vs Coast Guard Alumni Cup vs Columbia, Dartmouth & Holy Cross Worcester, MA Donahue Cup vs Williams & WPI Worcester, MA Compton Cup vs Harvard & Princeton vs Bates Cochrane Cup vs Wisconsin EARC Sprints Worcester, MA IRA Regatta West Windsor, NJ March 26 April 2 April 9 April 16 April 23 April 30 May 15 June 3-5

12 Photos by MIT Coaching Staff, Dr. Clifford Thacker Historical photos from MIT Crew archive Coaching Staff Head Coach, Heavyweight Men Assistant Coach, Heavyweight Men Head Coach, Lightweight Men Assistant Coach, Lightweight Men Head Coach, Openweight Women Assistant Coach, Openweight Women Head Coach, Lightweight Women Assistant Coach, Lightweight Women Tony Kilbridge Evan Thews-Wassell Will Oliver Jeff Forrester Holly Metcalf Hank Zimmerman Claire Martin-Doyle Amelia Patton Edited by Will Oliver