Dad Vail ~ Peeling Back the Years

I've been caught in a loop of packing and unpacking so smilla4blogs has been given short shrift in the month of May.

Peter and I were in Philadelphia two weeks ago attending a crew reunion to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Georgetown's victory at the Dad Vail crew races. The foot path and Schuylkill river are unchanged, as is the picturesque boat house row, but the event bears little resemblance to the old days of picnics on a patchwork quilt of blankets spread across the grass. Now there is media coverage from water and air and cheers are interrupted by the drone of helicopters. Large strategically placed screens show details of the rowing participants and an enormous crowd stretches along the river bank.

The Georgetown crew was little more than a club in the late fifties. Years later an extraordinary coach took a group of young men and turned them into winners. He opened a door to their potential and heart and he did it on a shoestring. They raised money to buy better equipment and rowed...and rowed. I imagine stiff frozen hands grasping oars on many a frigid morning with a thin light casting pale reflections on the Potomac. Blades dip in and out of water while Washington sleeps. Perhaps it was those early morning practices that turned the boys into athletes and poets...at least that's the way I thought of them and still do.

The following photos were submitted to the Crew ~ Cadle Era archive for the reunion by various crew members

1962 Georgetown Varsity Crew, number 1 at the Dad Vail finish line.

1962 crew...rough practice on the Potomac.

Coach Don Cadle.

1964 Olympic Trials.

In the photos below, the fellows are honored in a row-by at the 2012 Dad Vail.

My first glimpse. There's a lump in my throat and tears threaten to fog up my camera's eye piece.