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Who
Was Charles Courtney?
Charles
E. Courtney was a native of Union Springs, NY and
a carpenter by trade. He spent his spare time building
boats and was considered one of the "best riggers
in the world." He was also an outstanding oarsman,
entering his first race in 1868 in Aurora, NY, and
rowing his first "outside" race in 1873 in Syracuse.
By 1877, Courtney had won 86 amateur races, and
by 1890, he had won a total of 134 amateur and professional
races, losing only seven. He held records for all
distances with single-sculls, and in 1876, the Nation's
Centennial Year, he won the International Amateur
Single-Scull Championship in Philadelphia.
Courtney
first met the Cornell "navy" in a two-mile race
at Union Springs in 1872, which he and three teammates
easily won. The next year, he arranged for the Cornell
freshmen to meet the Harvard four at Ensenore on
Owasco Lake, and in 1881, he spent ten days coaching
the Cornell University four which went on to win
the Lake George Regatta. Three years later, he began
assisting in the training of Cornell's rowing team,
and in 1889, he was selected to be the University's
head rowing coach, organizing Cornell's first eight-man
crew. His teams won every competition through the
1894 season, setting a world record for the mile-and-a-half
race in the process.
In
1895, Cornell sent a team to the Henley Regatta
in England, and the following year, the eight-man
varsity boat set the world record for the four-mile
race at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association's
Regatta at Poughkeepsie. In 25 years of IRA competitions
in Poughkeepsie, Courtney's teams won 14 of 22 varsity
races and 13 of 21 freshman races.
Courtney
was a quiet, mild-mannered man. Those who trained
under him attributed his success to an indomitable
sense of victory which he instilled in his crews,
and his ability to inspire absolute cooperation
and coordination of effort. He insisted that his
training rules be rigorously followed and that his
men act as gentlemen and good students as well as
good oarsmen. For training, the men worked out on
rowing machines at the Cornell boathouse and in
Ithaca's Old Armory. During good weather, they went
out on the lake for eight to ten-mile "conditioning
rows."
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