Quotes on Rowing

There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain.
-- Aeschylus

The road to hell has six lanes.
-- Anonymous

Rowing reveals character.
-- Anonymous

Real athletes row -- everyone else just plays games.
-- Anonymous

Rowers do more before 8:00am than most people do all day.
-- Anonymous

Crew is life -- everything else is just details.
-- Anonymous

Crew is not a sport -- it's a way of life.
-- Anonymous

Rowing isn't just one damn stroke after another -- it's the same damn stroke over and over again.
-- Anonymous

Port-oars are rowers who know more and more about less and less until they finally know absolutely everything about nothing. On-the-other-hand, Starboard-oars are rowers who know less and less about more and more until they finally know absolutely nothing about everything. Amazingly, Coxswains make them a crew!
-- Anonymous

Rowing is the only sport that originated as a form of capital punishment.
-- Apocryphal

Gentlemen, let's go row!
-- Robert A. (Bob) Blakely, Wisconsin 1971, Navy Plebe Lightweight Crew Coach 1971-1972

We'll row anybody, anywhere, anytime, under any conditions.
-- Russell S. (Rusty) Callow, Head Crew Coach: University of Washington (1922-1927); University of Pennsylvania (1927-1950); United States Naval Academy (1950-1959)

Line us up and start the clock.
-- Russell S. (Rusty) Callow, Head Crew Coach: University of Washington (1922-1927); University of Pennsylvania (1927-1950); United States Naval Academy (1950-1959)

Rowing is more than a fast boat on race day. It's a complementary experience to a young man's intellectual development. Rowing, like success, is a journey, not a destination. I tell my oarsmen to have fun, learn, and most of all grow as individuals. The wins the losses will take care of themselves.
-- Rick Clothier, Head Coach Navy Rowing (1973-present)

Let the boat work -- and not me!
-- Thomas Phillip (Tom) Cook, USNA 1976

During their college years the oarsmen put in terribly long hours often showing up at the boathouse at 6:00am for pre-class practices. Both physically and psychologically, they were separated from their classmates....In many ways they were like combat veterans coming back from a small, bitter, and distant war, able to talk only to other veterans.
-- David Halberstam from "The Amateurs"

No matter what hurts at the beginning, by the end of the race something else will hurt worse.
-- Bob O'Connor

In rowing I found a sport that demanded some skill, granted, but placed a much higher premium on plain hard work and persistence.
-- Harry Parker, Harvard Freshman Crew Coach (1961-1963); Head Coach Harvard Crew (1963-present)

Eight hearts must beat as one in an eight oared shell or you don't have a crew!
-- George Pocock

On race day, there's tremendous anxiety. Leading up to the stake boat, I distinctly remember saying to myself, 'I can't wait till this is over'.
-- Frank Shields, Penn 1963

Think of aerobics plus weight lifting minus the music or camaraderie. Combine unalloyed endurance with straightforward strength and demand poise, timing, and practiced form as well. Think of pure pain: that's the ergometer.
-- Barry Strauss from "Rowing Against the Current"

There is a place where cerebral and corporeal meet -- they call it rowing.
-- Barry Strauss from "Rowing Against the Current"

Anyone who has not rowed in a really close boat race cannot comprehend the level of pain.
-- Dan Topolski from "TRUE BLUE, The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny"

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the Heroic makes Heroes.
-- Christopher L. (Kit) Vallhonrat, USNA 1993, quoting Disreali (emphasis added is Kit's)

Be one with the boat!
-- Jon Eric VanAmringe, Yale 1970, Navy Lightweight Crew Head Coach 1973-1976

Long and strong!
-- Jon Eric VanAmringe, Yale 1970, Navy Lightweight Crew Head Coach 1973-1976

Don't worry guys -- you'll pass out before you die.
-- Jon Eric VanAmringe, Yale 1970, Navy Lightweight Crew Head Coach 1973-1976

Five hundred meters to go!
-- Jon Eric VanAmringe, Yale 1970, Navy Lightweight Crew Head Coach 1973-1976

Pain is weakness leaving your body.
-- A United States Marine