The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-12
COACH c. E. JOURNEYS RECORD IS UNEOUALLED
 IN ROWING HISTORY

Next Saturday, the thirteenth of Noyembers will be the sixty-sixth an- n1Versary of the mundane debut of tho. greatest coach of oaFsmen in rowing supreme genius Of oarsn anship Many have accomplished wonders in this line, but when the greatest is men Goned but one. name springs to the lips Courtney, Water is the element on which he gained his glory, but his fame is not written in water-ft is nperishab1e- s.ss
 Looking at man of New York State you will see, in, the central part
 long thin line of blue which stands for Cayuga Lake. Down at the south end of this body of water is Ithaca. the home of Cornell, where. Charles E. Courtney 'tthe Old Man of ithaca, ,' made his reputation Up toward the northern end of the lake fs--Union Springs, a village which boasts the possessio on of some renarkab1e springs but boasts most and l0udest of be- ing the birthplace of Courtney.
 The old timers of Union Springs fairly bubble over with "reminiscences of their towns greatest sun The if1isz tory of his rowing prowesss as set forth by his companions of boyhood days
 goes back to 1868. From his childhood Courtney was interested in rowing but it was not until he was in his nine teenth year that he became the hero of his native village In the summer Of 1868 tile people of Aurora. a Vi1- 1age south of Union Springs, adver- t1sed a celebration at which a single Neu1l race wassto be a feature. Young Courtney had never seen a racing shell, but he had what he considered a good racing craft, and he decided to compete inl thesrace. Courrheyss boat was one that 1he had built with his own hands, and to him it seemed a triumph of the boatb bui1ding art
 Arriving at the scene of the contest the country boy was greeted with re- bald laughter, by the oarsrnen who were to be his competitors Their sfrail
 light craft weighed only a little over thirty pounds, while Courtney's boat was at least fifty pounds heavier
 When the crowd caught sight of the hor1e-made boat, Courtney was cov- cred with confusion by the chorus of jeers. His first impulse he after wards confessed, was tokjump into the, Water and end it all. He had never dreamed that such boats existed as these entered by the boys who haoiIed from New York, Buffalo and other big cities. Young Courtney soon re- covered his nerve, however and he grfrn1y deterfnined to see the thing through. He. was there for the pur-s pose of entering the race, and enter it he wouIds although his rivals had crafts as light as 8 feather. E
 s In URfoQ Springs you can hear dozen versions of Courtney-s first tr1- umph. Suffice it to say from the crack of the pistol he took the lead. and nsintained it over the entire course of three miles, outdistancfng his nearest rival at the finish by near 'ly a, half of mile! A little silver cup, en1be1matie of that victory, became the most highly prized possession. of Coach Courtney of the Cornell navy.
 As an amatuer Courtney won more than eighty races. In 1873 he was victorious in the international regat- ta at Saratoga Springs, defeating some of the best oarsTnen of the United States and Canada In 1875 he es- tablished a new worlds record at two miles in the race for the Empire souls While he was an iamatuer Courtney worked as a carpenter. Later he be- came a professional oarsman, but it is is-record work as a coach which gives him the supreme place in the affections of reWers. Every one of the long list of victories achieved by Cor nell has been a victory for Courtney.