It was a golden moment in U.S. and Navy sports history when nine Navy midshipmen in USA uniforms stood on a Helsinki, Finland, boat landing in July 1952 to receive their Olympic Gold medals. It also was the pinnacle of an incredible rags-to-riches season for the 8-oared crew team that had just beaten Russia in the Olympic finals.
The same eight oarsmen went on to row undefeated in 1953 and to win another Intercollegiate Rowing Association title. Both the 1952 and 1953 U.S. Naval Academy teams were enshrined by the Helms Athletic Foundation in its Rowing Hall of Fame, the only team in U.S. rowing history to be so doubly honored. The supremacy of Navy's crew during that period prompted Life magazine in 1953 to label them "The Great Eight," rowing's equivalent to Notre Dame football's "Four Horsemen."
Navy's crew team had not had a winning season in years. In fact, in the 1951 nationals, all three Navy boats (varsity, junior varsity, and freshman) sank. The maladies prompted one reporter to write, "If these are the future Admirals of the U.S. Navy, the country would do well to mothball the entire fleet." The following year, all three Navy boats won the nationals.
The dramatic turnaround started when second-year coach Russell S. "Rusty" Callow replaced all of his varsity rowers at the beginning of the 1952 season. In their place he settled eventually upon six sophomores and two juniors. Only one had rowed before entering the Academy.
Stroke was Ed Stevens, who had rowed in high school in Michigan. Four of the others had been in prior military service--two in the Navy and one each in the Air Force and Marine Corps. In the number seven position was Wayne Frye, a former Marine from Ohio who entered through the Naval Academy Prep School (NAPS). At number six was the biggest member of the crew at 205 pounds, Hank Proctor, an ex-Air Force man from Oregon who also attended NAPS. Bob Detweiler from Illinois was number five. Number four, Dick Murphy, came from New Jersey. At number three was Jim Dunbar from Indiana, and number two was Bill Fields from Georgia, both former Navy men and NAPS graduates. In the bow was Frank Shakespeare from Delaware, and the coxswain was Dave Manring from Ohio, the only senior in the crew.
Spectacular Season
Just four months before the Olympics, this green crew in Navy blue was the underdog in the first race against Yale, the defending Eastern Champion. In that initial test outside intra-squad sprints on the Severn River, the midshipmen crossed the finish line well ahead of their osubheaderents by several boat lengths.
Rowing's long-standing tradition of the losers giving their shirts to the winners left Navy's newly respected crew with an impressive collection of jerseys that year: from Yale, Princeton, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Harvard, MIT, Syracuse, Cornell, Boston, California, Columbia, Washington, and Stanford.
Navy went on to win the 1952 Nationals at Lake Onandaga in Syracuse, New York, by three boat lengths over a three-mile course. In the Olympic trials at Lake Quinsigamond in Massachusetts, they won the final by 2 1/2 lengths over an Olympic distance of 2,000 meters (1 1/4 miles). In breathtaking fashion they were rushed through administrative preparations in New York and four days later were on their way to Finland. It was the first time USA Olympic teams traveled to the games by air.
At the Olympics their performance was overpowering. They won all qualifying races by open water (greater than one boat length) and repeated in the finals over Russia, a team that had been rowing together for two years. In four months, they had rowed from oblivion to international glory and in the process won 14 consecutive races against 39 opponents, breaking the previous collegiate record of 12.
After their final Olympic race, the triumphant USA crew decided to give their USA practice shirts to the Russian team as a gesture of international good will. The recipients responded by inviting them into the Russian training camp, where they were wined, dined, and entertained, including a performance by a segment of the Bolshoi Ballet. The U.S. rowers were the only outsiders so invited.
The Olympic heroes felt honored by the Russian athletes and barely gave a thought about "fraternizing with the enemy." The incident came back to haunt one member of the crew two years later, however. In 1954, at the height of Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunt, Wayne Frye was a candidate for a Rhodes Scholarship. After being nominated by his state and interviewing at the regional level, he was rejected. His state chairman sent a letter, stating that the region took strong exception to his comments about associating with the Russian crew.
A Parade Posterity
In September 1952 Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Admiral C. Turner Joy decided to dedicate the first parade of the new academic year to the Olympic crew. The team took the review and received three cheers from the Brigade of Midshipmen, marking the only Academy parade ever held to honor midshipmen.
During the ensuing 1953 season, the same eight oarsmen, with Bob Jones, a senior, as coxswain, swept to another national championship and another undefeated season. They won 6 races that year against 24 competitors, extending their collegiate record to 20 consecutive wins.
When Stevens, Frye, Proctor, Murphy, Dunbar, and Fields--the "Stalwart Six" from the Class of 1954--returned for their third and final varsity year, the two vacated seats were filled at different times by two members from the class of 1955, Deke Hensley and Roger Scott, and two members from the class of 1956, John Forbrick and Will Rich. Bill Kennington, Class of 1955, coxswained the crew for the entire year. The six original oarsmen extended their winning streak to 29 consecutive races. Saddened at losing his "Stalwart Six," Coach Callow lamented, "There ought to be a law against graduation."
So what had been the secret? What special ingredient made these crews the greatest, not only in Navy history but also in U.S. rowing history? Coach Callow concluded that it wasn't rowing style that was critical, but rather the men in the shell. Bob Detweiler, captain of the 1953 crew, believes they were kept competitively keen by needing to compete on a daily basis with Navy junior varsity rowers who could have beaten most varsities.
Their positions never were secure. "I remember one week when I lost my place as stroke," recalls Ed Stevens. "I had to work doubly hard to reclaim the spot, but I was able to do so before the next regatta." To be sure, before Callow settled upon the eight oarsmen who rowed to Olympic Gold, three other midshipmen rowed in varsity wins in 1952. Ed Worth, Class of 1953, rowed in the first six races, while Al Vallaret, Class of 1953, and Larry Colwell, Class of 1954, each rowed in two. Worth and Bill Thurman, a Class of 1954 stalwart from the junior varsity, traveled to the Helsinki Olympics as alternates.
Other Olympians
Along with the nine Gold Medal winners and two spares, five additional Navy rowers went to the 1952 Olympics. Lou McMillan, Class of 1952, and Dempster Jackson, Jack Davis, and Jim Welsh from the Class of 1953 won the US Olympic trials in the 4-oar without coxswain event and went to Helsinki, along with Charlie White, Class of 1953, an alternate. Navy's pair with coxswain barely missed the Olympics, being edged in the U.S. trials final by 0.2 second.
The USA Navy 4-oared without coxswain crew won its opening race at Helsinki, but Jack Davis developed a sore throat and fever. Once a crew rowed in an Olympic race, no substitution was permitted. With a doctor's permission, he rowed in the semifinals, and the crew finished second. After a night in the hospital, Davis received a reluctant physician's approval to row, but the team did not qualify for the finals. USA Rowing Team Manager Thomas D. Bolles reported, "Davis deserves credit for rowing under great difficulties; it seems to me the rule should be modified so a substitution can be made under similar circumstances."
The 1952 Olympic rowing report written by Bolles, former Harvard rowing coach, proved to be prophetic: "Our eight-oared crew should go down as one of the great crews of modern rowing. Representing the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Naval Academy, this crew won eleven consecutive races in the United States and with one exception defeated all opponents by open water. At Helsinki they continued on their unbeaten way, decisively defeating Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and Portugal in the opening heat and repeating their performance the following day against the USSR and Australia. In the finals they led from the first stroke and won going away."
Ed Stevens, captain of the 1954 team and stroke for all of the "Great Eight" wins, is particularly proud of several aspects of their record. "We rowed anybody, anywhere, at any distance," he said. "Any win by open water means it wasn't close, and nearly all of our wins were by open water."
The 1956 Olympics
The "Great Eight" were reassembled to see if they could recapture their magic for the 1956 Olympics. All were officers on active duty at that point, and most were married and starting families. After three months of training, they won three races but finished a close third in the USA trials final. The first place Yale crew went on to win Olympic gold at Melbourne, Australia, in November. Australia is once more the site for the 2000 Olympics, with rowing scheduled in Sydney, 17-24 September.
What's Become of "The Great Eight?"
Dave Manring became a naval aviator and retired as a captain. He died of a heart ailment in 1991, and his teammates complied with his final request by manning a shell, without coxswain, and spreading his ashes on the Naval Academy's Severn River rowing course.
After serving in submarines, Ed Stevens resigned to get a master's degree in nuclear engineering at MIT and has since worked as a nuclear engineer. He now lives in Kennewick, Washington. He has served many years as a U.S. Rowing Association judge and referee and has officiated across the United States.
Wayne Frye, Hank Proctor, Bob Detweiler, Jim Dunbar, and Dick Murphy entered the Air Force. After completing his service, Murphy set up an international electronics business and now lives in New York State. Frye, Proctor, Detweiler, and Dunbar became pilots and all flew combat missions in Vietnam. Frye is credited with shooting down a North Vietnamese MiG and was awarded two Silver Stars and a Purple Heart. Among them the four earned a total of 4 Legions of Merit, 13 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 2 Bronze Stars, and 33 Air Medals. Frye, Proctor, Detweiler, and Dunbar rowed competitively while they were on active duty, and Detweiler and Dunbar have coached high school rowing crews. Frye lives in Manchester, Ohio; Proctor in Camas, Washington; Detweiler in Orem, Utah; and Dunbar in Arlington, Virginia.
After serving in submarines, Frank Shakespeare went into civilian life and became a high school math teacher. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Bill Fields retired as a Navy commander and returned to Georgia where he served as crew coach for a high school and consulted to the Atlanta Olympics Organizing Committee. He died an accidental death in 1992. Fittingly, the finish line of the 1996 Olympic Rowing races was within feet of the Gainesville home he shared with his wife Kitty.
Frye, Shakespeare, and Stevens have been inducted into the National Rowing Foundation Hall of Fame as individual athletes.
These Olympians now reassemble every few years to rehash their glory days. Coach Callow died in 1965, but in 1982 his wife Dollie was at Annapolis in his stead to christen a new rowing shell, "The Great Eight." At their last reunion they each wore custom-designed jerseys that read, "The older we get, the better we were."
In 1989 a trophy was cast for the national championship races, to be awarded to the team that displayed the most teamwork and courage. It was named "The Great Eight of 1952 Award."