The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-31
Yale Stroke Who Collapsed in Race Last June Victim of Nerves Alone, Says Ad-
 visory Coach.
WAS PHYSICALLY PERFECT
Ovcrzcalousncss for Victory of Yale Crew Caused Collapse--Death
 Cannot Be Laid to Race.

New York, Dec. 30.--The death yes- terday in San Francisco hospital of Dwight T. Griswold, the Yale oars- man who collapsed while stroking his eight against Harvard at New Lon- don last June, has furnished rowing men with topic which bids fair to be much discussed Griswold's case, 1t Is generally admitted, Is one of Inc most remarkable instances of athlete nerves ever recorded.
 Griswold, 1t will be remembered, was chosen as Blue stroke after much hesitation. The year before he had stroked the four which had won by ten lengths At the time he entered. the race last June he was twenty- three years of age, weighed only 157 pounds. and stood six feet one .nch. As oarsmen go, he was not considered typical Yet there had been other strokes at Yale and elsewhere wac were not unlike Griswold In general makeup. They had stroked their crews to victory on more than one oc- casion.
 Grswold's collapse came at the two -mile-and-a-half mark, when the race was little more than half over. There had been delays In starting the shells: the crews had scarcely been sent away for the first time when a mIshap, due to the snapping of lace of Captain Ide's shoe, halted both eights. and made second start nec- essary. This occurrence. 1t Is believed, had not a little to do with the events which followed.
 How the race was rowed. how the Yale shell stayed beside the red-tip- ped oars for the first half-distancc: how Griswold, limp and llfeless Was lifted out leaving the remaining sev- en to finish out the race, hopelessly beaten--all these facts are, perhaps, 1 too well known to need repeating. It will never be decided just what real effect that race had upon Griswold. Some reports have 1t that he never was & we'll man after the unfortunate occurrence. Others say he recovered almost immediately.
 According to Julian W Curtiss, Yale's graduate advisory coach, there 1 ia no connection whatever between Grlswolds collapse six months ago, and his death from typhoid and pneu- monia yesterday. MT. Curtiss, who, next to Coach Kennedy knows most about rowing affairs at New Haven, said this afternoon that the public had never really understood the Griswold incident.
 q wish it would be made plain" he remarked, that Griswold's collapse was not in any sense due to physical exhaustion or poor physical condition.
 "T am positively convinced that such was not the case. knew Griswold-- knew him throughout his career on the Yale squad. ana when iie -ntrivu the race he was In the very best con dition physically. My own opinion. and that of physicians who attended him after he was taken from the boat, was. and is, that the young man sur fered a nervous collapse due to over conscientiousnes and too great zeal to do his utmost for the crew and for Yale.
 "Griswold was not overtrained. Hs was over jealous. There Is such thing as being too conscientious, too eager to make good, and Grlswold had that characteristic above all others.
 "As a man, he represented the high est possible type. He always wanted to do his best He never thought or himself. but always kept in mind the idea of serving Yale.
 Around the boathouse, he was in- variably silent I used to go up ana slap him on the back, and say, Brace up. old man; there's nothing to be gloomy about. We saw him stroke that great fouroared race in 1907, ana we watched him in tbe%regattas at New Haven, and he never showed any signs of collapse. I don't think there was any way of foretellng what would happen at New London last June. AS say. Grlswold was In the pink or nhvsical condition What was going on in his mind all that time was pe- yond our knowledge. He told me afterward that his first : sensation was of pail gradually sink ing upon him It kept getting worse, he said. and he felt he was losing con- 3 trol of himself. He was choking when we took him out of the boat ana breathing very hard. The doctors said these were symptoms of nervous, nol physical, exhaustion
 Now. you cannot make me believe that all this must pc attributed to boat-racng. Such things occur m ai- most every branch of activity. Tn GrIswold's case it might, presumably have come from business worry or anxiety. as well as from rowing. But this much I know. His death yesterday cannot justly be traced to New Lon don Griswod went away to tne country immediately after the race !
 was in constant communication with
 his brother at the time, and through
 him learned that Dwight was recov-
 erinp rapidly. He soon regained hls
 health, so I was told. "It Is absurd for these peaple .o '.'n
 about three-mle race lnsteau v ;. mile. The distance has nothine tn ' do with 1t. In Griswold's case, T
 un,ld have been the same at eitnor | distance, In a three-mie pull, the men
 woud only row little harder for less Il tin,e Griswold collapsed at the tWo-
 and a half mile mark Tn 1our-Hii'e
 race; he probably would have done tllt
 sarne thine at the two-nile mark nae
 inc race been for three miles.
 q never placed very much stock I
 the three.mile idea, and certainly theg'
 ia nothing in the Griswold affair y
 strengthen the argument 4,
 Mr. Curtiss was asked whether IN
 thought the death of the Yale oarsmai
 voo,d he likely to injure rowing as
 sport, in the general estimation ol tii