Evening star., 1960-07-18
SPOTLIGHT
SPORTS
There's No Sport Like Crew
By BILL FUCHS

A SNIPERS BULLET ended World War II for Can't
Lou Lindsey Of the Third Army Corps s5th Infantry
Division, on cold December day in 1914 On December
16, the day the Germans launched the
that led to the Battle of the Bulge bullet struck Lind
sey IN the spine and life in wheelchar was the best
doctors could see for the energetic little guy from San
Francisco.
They told I'd never walk again." says Navys crew
COACH newest e-hour in the IT wing set They
told me to get resigned to it."
Six months later, movement return I'd to the para
yzed Lindsey who was bedridden in California hospital
BY August he getting around with a couple of canes
Il went on leave" he recalls Naturally went on leave
as fast as could-and while leave got rid of the
canes"
Two years later Lindsey was back in the hospital
Bone infection had set in he underwent three more
operations. That was 13 years ago." he says "and
haven't been bothered since"
OVER THESE PAST 10 years Lindsey has gotten his
masters degree in business administration his certificate
qualifying him as high school physics teacher, has
worked as a manager of chldren's shoe department
transferred to ladies' handbags and umbrellas and has
had fling at investment counseling laugh physics
in San Francisco high school and wrote book
manual for buyers on ways to obtain better purchase
markups.
But this is what really want" he says 1t figures
He getting paid good salary for the job he
did for nothing at various times at Stanford which still
uses voluntary, meaning unpaid, crew coaches.
Lindsey, who will take his Navy to the Olympics
in Rome next month"; says there is to the sport
than meets the of those watching from the banks
There's the matter of timing for example.
IN DELIBERATE, scientific manner Lindsey ex-
plains TITS not only the catching releasing of water
together but also the quick application of power on en-
trance of the blade into water the power applied be-
fore the blade is anchored in the water it will kick YOUR
boat backward or check the of the boat say
really fine gets this timing accurate to one or two
hundreths of second This is shown by slow nation pic
lures.
I'm 1947 took movies of Harvards National sprint
championship crew in Seattle looked at those films
"a frames second And you could the corners of all
eight blades touching water the frame The next
frame all blades were one-haf buried. The following
frame all disappeared completely"
When Navys crew powered its way to the victory in
the Olympic Trials July at Syracuse members were
welding wider blades than those normally used These
were the middle men-the strong among Navy's
comparatively lightweight Gayle Thompson,
1876 pounds Joe Baldwin at 2O2 pounds, the Academy's
heavyweight boxing champion Peter BoS 90 and Howard
Winfree, 1877
WE WON'T GO INTO the technical explanation here
but Lindsey responsible for those four blades that were
10 per cent wider than those by the other oarsen IN
offset their additional power a" ordered them last fall
Lindsey but if had given them out early it would
have fouled up the timing completely waited until the
timing was sharp and gave them out just before the IRA
regatta June 49,"
The other members of the Navy crew are Mark Moore
l67 pounds Warren SweeSer ILL., 49, Bob Wilson ITS and
Lyman Perry, ITO The coxSwan Bill Long weighs WHOM
ping l2s pounds but coxswainS always small and at
that he l8 pounds heavier than Caornas coxswan of
1940 one Lou Lindsey
Ihere Is no sport like says the who succeeded
Rusty Caow and brought Navy its third Olympic trials vic
tory You can be dead tired but you'll work because YOU
trust the others too You keep at it even thouoh Won
wonder if you take another stroke"
Wnen Navy won the Olympic trials by open water
margin accomplished only by the other two winning Navy
crews OF 1870 and 1852 there observer getting big
Of Tho oIi,oor
he is a longtime friend of Lndseys
AND HE CAN TELL you about the thrill YOU get In
See SPOTLIGHT ON SPORTS Page A-1s