Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-06-22
-IUNIOR COR FTOURNAMENT- ALL-FOR-GLOR
JUGGLING OF QUAKER
CREWS CREATES BIG
REGATTA SURPRISE
Penn Rooters Believe That
Coach Nickalls Is Max
ing Last Desperate Eff
for to Form Winning
Combination.

Lured on by feeling of uncertainty in
the outcome entirely unprecedented In
| the history OF the Poughkeepsie regatta,
a big delegation Of University Of Penn
sylvana graduates. undergraduates and
followers Of the Quaker crew will go to
poughkeepsie next Monday morning in q
special train to cheer for the Red and
Blue Although Pennsylvania men are
upset by the many radical changes Coach
Vivian Nickalls has made within the last
week, they are not willing to count their
crew out of the running. Many think
that the defeats suffered by the varsity
crew mean that both crews are strong
and evenly matched rather than that the
varsity Its weak.
The almost daily wholesale shifting
which Coach Nickalls has been making
has astonshed not only Pennsylvania
men, but rowing men in general. 1t is
rare indeed that any coach makes changes
Involving more tnan one or two men
after his crews arrive at Poughkeepsie.
But Nlckalls apparently has thrown cau-
ton to the winds and resolved to take
desperate chances to turn out winning
combination.
1t Is almost certain that Nickalls will
not make any more changes this week
and that Herbert Shoemaker will be the
stroke, with Marcy as paCemaker for the
Junior crew. Niokalls undoubtedly will
stand on the final shift he has made be
cause to make more now would be pad
thing for the morale of the oarsmen.
Among college men in this city the
opinion prevails that Cornell has the best
chance to win unless they have been
mlsled as to Pennsylvanla's strength by
the daily changes. 1t is pointed out that
the Quakers this year have more
physical strength and experience in the
men at the disposal of Nickalls than
was the case last year, and that, there
fore. they should row better race.
1t is fact that all year the varsity
and Junior crews have been so evenly
matched that Coach Nickalls himself was
never sure which would win at two
miles, but he did believe that the varsity
would be stronger for the four-mlle dis
tance. The fundamental difficulty the
crew has experienced in getting together
is that so many changes have been neces-
sary in the stroke oars.
The season started with Harry Marcy,
last years pacemaker. He was incapaci-
teted by severe cold which seized him
in tho race with Yale. which was rowed
in blizzard. Then Herbert Shoemaker
who was the stroke last year until laid
low with typhoid fever had his chance.
He did not make good due, as Coach
Nlckalls explained. to a fear of the
effects of his 1914 illness. That was the
reason for trying Chiokering, 155-pound
man, at stroke, Chickerlng did not show
enough ability for a four-miIe race and
Nickalls had to begin all over again,
experimenting first with Shoemaker and
then with Marcy.
Shoemaker is known as a fighter and
his friends say that he feels keenly his
recent displacement and now is deter
mined to show that he can pilot the
crew to victory. Those who have been
watching the progress of the eight feel
that if Shoemaker can set the proper
pace and bring out the full strength of
the crew the Quakers will stand fair
chance to win.