Show C Retirement i Blow I to to College Sport No Coach Ever ver Achieved Greater Fame Fam in Chosen Line Than This S Cornell Veteran I NEW YORK June 14 The The he retirement of Charles E. E Courtney for many years years crew coach at Cornell university marks an epoch in American intercollegiate intercol intercol- rowing and the first break in the trio of coaches who have made Cornell victorious in recent years on water track and gridiron No coach over ever achieved greater fame in in his chosen line of athletic instruction or developed winning combinations with greater frequency and consistency than Courtney While he will still be ba available in an advisory capacity and has a worthy successor in in John Hoyle should the Cornell authorities decide I to continue the latter in his present capacity the dean of all crew mentors I has hung up his coaching megaphone for the last time Courtneys Courtney's retirement was not entirely unexpected for the Old Man as he ha has been affectionately termed at Ithaca for some years has been in poor health since he sustained a fractured skull on June 12 1915 The acci acci- i I cent occurred while he was en route to Poughkeepsie with the Cornell crews and was caused by Courtney being thrown violently against a ber berth h following fol fol- lowing a lurch of the fast traveling train The Cornell coach has been I under the care of physicians ever since and while his condition has improved to some extent the word has gone forth that he must give up further coaching an and spend th the rest st of his lif life quietly I Born in 1848 1548 Courney is in his sixty sixty- eighth year and after his many seasons I of competition as an amateur and professional pro oarsman and his later reign as coach at Cornell his friends and medical advisors feel that he has richly rich ly Iy earned the quiet and retirement which he requires Thanks Thanks' to the generosity of the Cornell alumni and undergraduates Courtney is removed from any financial worries or cares He owns outright a handsome home I and grounds at Ithaca overlooking Cayuga lake the gift of Cornell men I in addition to a comfortable compe compe- tency There he will be found in fu future future future fu- fu i I ture ready to advise and assist from his great store of rowing knowledge and experience those who will take up I the burden he has laid down C Cornell rnell Puzzled Cornell rowing authorities are aie at the Ute present time uncertain as to the exact coaching system and methods that will He tie adopted for the crews of coming years but whatever the system or 01 the coa coaches hes it will be hard for Courtneys Courtney's successors to improve or 01 even even- duplicate his record The career of Courtney as a a. acoach acoach coach and Cornell as premier rowing I university of America are so Interwoven I that it is difficult to one without without without with with- I out the other or to apportion credit I Since the formation of ot the Intercollegiate InterI Inter- Inter I j I collegiate Rowing association in 1895 I II I j Cornell has baa competed in every everyone one of the I twenty one mile four-mile championship races i winning thirteen finishing second four I times and third four times In the twenty I ty years of freshman n races Cornell has won twelve twelve- firsts five seconds two thirds and one fifth firth During the fifteen I I years rears of varsity fours tours racing the Ithaca combinations won ten firsts three seconds sec I ne third and one fourth Since the Introduction of the Junior eights race In 1914 the Cornell second crews have captured both events I In addition to this remark remarkable ble list of victories Courtney coached crews hold all records for the four foul races on the I Hudson course as well as an Imposing number o of or wins In dual and triangular I regattas with crews which h do not com corn 5 i J pete at Poughkeepsie Including Harvard Yale Princeton and oth other r colleges Was Great Judge Courtney has always been a wonderful Judge of rowing material even in the rough and although strict and severe at atall atall atall all times would spend hours with embryo embryo em em- oarsmen who showed promise and anda a a. desire to learn the art of ot sweep swing swing- ing lb Ho lIe would never brook interference from any quarter during the rowing season season season sea sea- son and never forga forgave forgae e those candidates candidate who broke training Time and again Courtney has thrown a man or a whole crew out of the shell because they via vio his rules and they never came back In rowing he was an autocrat and martinet but he produced results i had the support of the faculty alumni and student body at Cornell and It will be hard to replace the old old mar mary In the affections of those connected with the Ithaca university or In his role as as a coaching wizard Courtneys Courtney's standing and effectiveness as asa asa asa a coach were not the only claims he had for prominence In the rowing world In early life as an amateur he won eighty eighty- eight events without suffering a single defeat Later on as a professional he hewon hewon won thirty-nine thirty contests and lost only seven truly seven truly a wonderful record Before he be was out of his teens Courtney had successfully competed In rowing regattas but It was vas at Saratoga Springs in 1873 that he won his first great victory That was on September 11 11 when he captured the senior sculls event In 1415 Two years later he duplicated this victory at Troy N. N Y and the year following at Philadelphia he be and his club mate RobInson Rob Rob- inson of the Union Springs Boat club won the national double sculls repeating their winning of the same event at Troy N. N Y the previous year I In the professional ranks ronks Courtney waa was very successful In rowing competitions but but- butan an attack of sunstroke in 1878 marked I the beginning of his his- decline and In May 1879 1379 while rowing against Hanlan and Riley KIley at Washington COurtney was taken ill III before he had gone yards yard t Pays Him Compliment j 1 jOne One of Courtneys Courtney's former pupils at Continued on page 3 3 i r COURTNEYS COURTNEY'S I Continued from page 2 E who WIIO developed into an oarsman ability described the owing mentors mentor's stroke as folD folK fol- fol K D ney's neey's stroke is sort of medium simplest you can get He does ad long reach only about thirty either a big Just about I but but he lays Jays great stress on a ah and h-and h and strong pull at the middle I On the catch the oar is din ln the water then the strong I ns pal Also Atso at the finish Courtney soar par lifted JIlted perpendicularly and not blending both move- move tone ilone He makes mattes much of the tawny of the hands and body at ata a I of the stroke This is sort of lation of aU types of strokes describing In the deit delt de- de it lt of the Cornell stroke wrote I ago that it was a worked r out beI be be- I i Cornell ft e eight went to E d-E England il d having had its inception in the ilin 1894 where it was perfected they and Thomas Hall Hail captain ke of the crew in that year wrote suspected for along a long time that not getting all tho the power out of ofte te se e that we ought to One day I Hall Hail about it and asked there wasn't some machine in that could be used to show power was being applied In of the oar He said there was and he borrowed it edit it on one side of the rowing I in the It had a re- re pen which marked a curve on a paper as the power it measured I It ip or fell felt off oft there I learned more In fifteen i i about rowing than I had in fit fit- rs re before We found that there reak In the middle of the pull yv y ya a pause in the body swing at lent cent the slide was started We the leg drive after bethe bethe be- be the pull with the arms The Theado ade ado by the recording pen went then down and then up again clearly a loss of power just be be- middle of the stroke and found that we wein in the leg drive and the body gether at the very catch of the carry them through together In liwe we got a single regular curve apex aper like a wide letter U upside lowing towing that we were getting the then n nS n power In tn the middle of the here There it ought to be fl |