Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-16
COURTNEY. DIsCIPLINAR1AN.
Stern Methods Of the Cornell Rowing
Coach Prove Successful. -

The iron discipline demanded by
Charles E. Courtney of the Cornell oars
men. whose coach he is. has caused VIC
lent outbreaks before this. says the New
York Sun The recent trouble with four
oarsmen. Gavett. Holt. Bromley and
Weed, has had parallels. but perhaps
never in such great proportion.
The incident of John Francis. the single
sculler, a bout seven years ago was one of
these. An intercollegiate Sculling race
was proposed and Francis. the son of
noted Cornell oar. Charles Francis. was
to have rowed for the lthacanS. But
Courtney said he didn't have the time to
coach Francis and to get the sweep oars
men in trim at the same time. Charles
Francis wanted to get James a. Ten
Eyck ST. the present Syracuse coach. for
his son. Courtney didn't want that and
there was first-class row. which ended
in the withdrawal Of Francis from the
race.
In 1903 Pete Frenzel captain of the
Cornell varsity eight. was not training in
a way satisfactory to Courtney. 1t is
not usual to interfere with a crew cap
tain. but it always has been Courtneys
dictum Make man captain and you
spoil a good oar FrenZel. captain
though he was. did not row In the var
sity race. 1t was very likely due In great
part to Courtney's influence that in 1909
and afterward there ceased to be Cornell
crew captains. There is commodore of
the Cornell navy. in effect the same thing
as far as the honor goes. But there is no
captain and consequently no divided au-
thority.
However. there are other items in the
rowing situation at Cornell. Although
some Comedians don't like to admit IT.
fraternities do amount to something at
Cornell in some branches of athletics.
Coach Courtney said in far from yelled
terms last June that such was the case
and directly afterward he told of his in
tention Of removing Piollet and Seymour
from the varsity boat He said the boat
had been ever SO much slower than 1t
should have been because of certain feel
ing between men In the boat.
Some of them wanted for stroke the
man who eventually did get the Job and
others favored for the place another oars
man. veteran of two previous boats.
who did not make the crew at all. The
men did not get together In unanimity of
stroke any more than In purpose until
Coach Courtney shook up the boat He
put in Bromley and Gavett to replace
Piollet and Seymour. Curiously enough.
these are two of the four whom Courtney
barred in his recent edict.
Whatever the result of Courtney's &C
ton as far as results of races are CON-
cerned, there can be no question that the
coach will be upheld in anything he does.
He always has been. at times because he
has threatened to resign his place as
eodcn. mat threat always ndS hight
ened the Comedians because they are in
tensely afraid of losing Courtney. In the
years that he has been coach he has man
aged to get firm hold on the place. The
many victories Cornell crews have won
have strengthened him.
Few coaches have had the power Court
ney has and for years the old man has
been famous for his big stick methods.
The case isn't one of his bark worse
than his bite. either. because Courtney
has held strictly to all his threats Of dis
ciplining offending men.
Possibly some memories go farther back
to earlier instances of violent actions by
Coach Courtney. But II is certain that in
the last ten years Courtney has grown
more and more severe.