"There Ought to Be a Law"

Every coach at the 52nd annual Intercollegiate Rowing Regatta agreed: Navy had the best crew around. Even Navy's professionally pessimistic Coach Rusty Callow admitted he expected to win. Not since their plebe regatta on Lake Marietta, Ohio, in 1951. had his boys been beaten; as a varsity crew they had won 28 straight races. Said Callow: "They have an 'engine room' [Stroke Oar Ed Stevens and No. 7, Wayne Frye] that is one of the greatest that has ever rowed in a shell." As far as Callow was concerned, his boatload of oarsmen had only one flaw, and that was beyond repair: for six members of the Navy varsity (the "Sing Sing Six of the Severn") last week's race at Lake Onondaga, N.Y. was their last. Five already had their commissions (two Navy, three Air Force).

Right from the start the Navy crew lived up to Coach Callow's confidence. It jumped to a quick lead, moved past the mile pole stroking a smooth and powerful 30, a long boatlength ahead of Cornell. Pulling hard to hold second place, ahead of the Washington Huskies, Cornell moved up in the last 100 yards, but Navy was home free, winner by a length and a half.

"This is the greatest crew I ever coached," said Callow. Then he shook his head in frustration: "There ought to be a law against graduation."

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