Late-lingering winter in upstate New York kept Cornell's thin-sided racing shells in the boathouse longer than Coach Harrison Sanford would have liked; it takes a long and tedious spring to work a crew into shape for the long and tedious sweep-swinging season. So the Big Red got off to a slow start. On the Severn in April, they lost to Navy; on the Potomac in May, and even on the home waters of Lake Cayuga four weeks later, Cornell's varsity eight came home second, behind the powerful Quakers from the University of Pennsylvania.
Sanford bided his time. He switched and changed his...