The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-13

New York, June 1S-The retire
 nent of Charles E. Courtney. for University, marks an epoch in Amer ican Intercollegiate rowing and the
 first break in the trio of coaches who have made Cornell victorious in re- cent years on water, track and grid iron. No coach ever achieved greater fame in his chosen line of athletic in Struction or developed winning com
 binations with great frequency and consistency than Courtney. While he will still be available in an advisory capacity and has a worthy successor in John Hoyle, should the Cornell au- thorities deide to ccntinua the latter in his present capacity, the dean of all crew mentors has hung up his coach ing megapIione for the last time. Courtney's retirement was not en- tireIy unexpected for the "Old Man.
 as he has been affecti ionately termed at Ithaca for some years, has been in poor health since he sustained a frac- tured skull on June 12, 1915. The ac- cident occurred while he was en route I to Poughkeepsie with < the Cornell
 crews and was caused by Courtney
 being tarwn violently against a berth following a 1urch of the fast travel
 ing train The Cornell coach has been under the care of physicians ever
 since and while his condition has inn i proved to some extent the word has gone forth that he must give up fur
 ther coaching and spend the rest of his life quietly.
 Born in 1s4s, Courtney is in his
 sixty-eighth year and after his many ;seasons of competition as an amateur tfand professional oarsman and his later reign as coach at Cornell, his friends
 and medical advisors feel that he has | richly earned the quiet and retire
 ment which he requires. Thanks to | the generosity of the Cornell alumni and undergraduates, Courtney is re- | moved from any financial worries or
 cares. He owns outright a handsome home and grounds at Ithaca, over- ] looking Cayuga Lake, the gift of Cor
 nell men, in addition to comfortable l competency. There he will be found
 in future ready to advise and- assist
 from his great store of rowing know1- ledge and experience, those who will I take up the burden he has laid down. I Cornell rowing authorities at | the present time uncertain as to the
 exact coaching system and methods tthat will be adopted for the crews of coming years but whatever the system or the coaches, it will be hard for iCourtney's successors to improve or even duplicate his record The ca
 reer of Courtney as 9 coach and Cor
 nell as premier rowing university of I America are so interwoven that it is
 difficult to consider one without the other or to apportion credit.
 Since the formation of the Inter
 collegiate Rowing association in 1895,. | Cornell has competed in every one of 1 the twenty-one four-mi1e champion
 ship races. winning thirteen, finishing l second four times and third four | times. In the twenty years of fresh
 man races Cornell has won twelve firsts; five seconds; two thirds and one fifth. During the fifteen years of varsity fours racing the Ithaca Icombinations won ten firsts; three sec onds; one third and one fourth. Since the introduction of the junior eights Trace in 1914 the Cornell second crews have captured both events.
 In addition to this remarkable list of victories,N Courtney-co crews hold all records for the four races on
 the Hudson course as well as an inn posing number of wins in dual and tri- angular regattas with crews which do
 not compete at Poughkeepsie, fncIud- ing Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other colleges.
 Courtney has always been a won tderful judge of rowing material even in the rough and although strict and severe at all times, would spend hours
 with embryo oarsmen who showed
 promise and a desire to learn the art
 of sweep swinging. He would never
 brook interference from any quarter
 during the rowing season and never
 forgave those candidates who broke training. Time and again. Courtney has thrown a man or a whole crew out
 of the shell because they violated his rules and they never came back. In rowing he was an autocrat and marti- net but he produced results; and had the support of the faculty, alumni and student body at Cornell and it will be
 card to replace the s'OId Man" in the
 affections of those connected with the 1 Ithaca university or in his role as a coaching wizard.
 Courtney's standing and effective ness as a coach were not the only : claims he had for prominence in the . rowing world. In early life as an amateur he won eighty-eight events without suffering single defeat. : Later on as a professi onaI he, won thirty-nine contests and lost only sev-
 en, truly a wonderful record. Be-
 fore he was out of his teens, Court
 ney had successfully competed in row.
 ing regattas, but it was at. Saratoga
 Spring in 1873 that he won his first , great victory. That was on September II, when he captured the Senior
 ScuFls event in 14:15. Two years lat l CT he duplicated this victory at Troy l N. Y. and the year following at Phil ade1Dhia, he and his club-mate Rob- 3 inson of. the Union Springs Boat club won the National Double Souls repeat
 ling their winning of the same event r at Troy, N. Y., the previous year.
 Il In the professional ranks Courtney 8 was very successful in rowing com
 petitions but attack of sunstroke ] in 1878 marked the beginning of his I decline and in May 1879 while row ing against Hanlan and Riley at Wash
 ington, Courtney was taken i'll be- : fore he had gone 500 yards.
 One of Courtney's former pupils al Cornell who developed into an oars.
 man of exceptional ability, described
 the Ithaca rowing mentors stroke as
 fo3Iows:
 a "Courtney's stroke is sort of medi. nm and the simplest you can get. He
 does not use a long reach, about thir- ty inches. neither a big 1ayback, just
 about medium, but he lays great stress on a hard catch and strong pull at the middle of the stroke. On the catch is anchored in the water, ther 4