Chapter One

The Revival of the Georgetown University Crew

The Maletz Years: 1958 – 1959

Maletz posts and Gerber gathers

Since the late 1940’s, Fred had been a regular fixture at Potomac BC and in 1958 was coaching the George Washington University Crew. But his efforts to assemble a consistently reliable GW squad on the dock every afternoon were not always successful, and too often he couldn’t fill his eight(s) for workouts. Obviously, rowing with an odd number of oarsmen was difficult, while leaving the odd man waiting on the dock was bad for morale; so therein lay the problem that gave rise to the Georgetown University Crew.

Fred simply needed more bodies for his boats, and as he looked up at the spires of Healy on the Hilltop he could see where they might be found. GU’s Crew began as the solution to GW’s problem.

With the zeal of an evangelist, Drew enlisted his roommate Jim Fitzgerald, and together they went throughout New North recruiting their fellow freshmen. Drew even went over to third Healy to track down a guy named Al DiFiore as a possible coxswain.

My introduction to crew came in the shower room on 3^rd Healy. After showering one morning, Drew Gerber said to me “How would you like to be a cox?” This bothered me because I had no idea what a cox was and being in a room showering with a bunch of other guys and him asking me that had me concerned. He explained that it was the guy in the back of the shell who was the brains behind a bunch of strong bullheaded guys that would pull oars through the water. I asked him what made him think I could be a cox since I’d never even seen a shell. His answer was “because you are so small,” (I weighed 105) and “don’t worry no one else that has signed up knows anything about crew either.”

It is noteworthy that all this happened spontaneously among a group of freshmen and quite independently of any involvement with the University administration. From the very first the Crew was a student run organization.

The Originals of ‘61

According to Don Whamond, Fred began their conditioning (and winnowing) by having them run the C&O towpath and up and down the famous 74 steps of “the stairway to heaven.” Whether it was the workouts themselves, academic pressure, or simply a loss of interest, the attrition rate was high, but fortunately the enthusiasm among the remainder was even higher.

So high in fact that Fred generously decided to split his schedule and devote his early mornings to coaching his new protégés. And so began the tradition of rowing at dawn.

Al DiFiore sets the scene:

Those early morning rows under Maletz were something to behold. It was fine when we had 4 oarsmen and me, but the fun was mornings when we had 5 oarsmen and a cox. Keeping the boat somewhat on course those mornings was fun. . . .

As for a training regime under Fred, it was to get to Potomac boat house at 6, hope you had a full crew, then go back for a day of school. To put it in perspective and jumping forward [to] 1960-61 the first year of university recognition, I do not remember if we did anything in the fall but do know as soon as we returned in January, workouts started at 6am in the gym.[9] As soon as the ice was gone we were on the river. Life for the crew the entire season as I remember it was morning row, breakfast together, off to class, then dinner and me making bed checks at 10 pm.

After a few weeks the GU squad came down to a hard core of about a twenty guys whose names form our first Honor Roll as the “Originals of ’61,” freshmen who succeeded in juggling the demands of both rowing and academics:

Drew Gerber, “the real ultimate founder” [10] and first President

Jim Fitzgerald, the first Captain of Boats,

Al DiFiore the first coxswain, Treasurer, and eventually the first

Coach of the lightweight crew,

Don Whamond, the “smooth” and powerful port oar in the engine room,

Bill Prest, who always “pulled harder,”

Mike O’Brien, the second (and two-term) President to whom Don Cadle

awarded the oar he broke by pulling even harder than Prest,

Frank Barrett, the irrepressible “pit bull” in bow,[11] and eventual coach; and

Bob “The Goose” Remuzzi, who was there not only to help create, and then

coach, but also to preserve the crew during its darkest and most parlous time,

Mike Lang,

Bill Blanchet,

Joe Masterson,

Bill Connett, and

Frank Kane.

There were other Originals who rowed that Spring but who, for various reasons, did not row all four years; still they merit honorable mention for the sake of auld lang syne :

Paul Coughlin,

Mike McAllister,

Bob O’Brien,

Mike Danna,

Tom Largay, cox,

Chuck Wolfertz.

Taken together these are the men to whom everyone who has ever rowed for Georgetown owes profound gratitude for the legacy they created.[12]

What motivated them to embrace the challenges of mastering a new and relatively esoteric sport in such inauspicious circumstances? Ironically, it may have been this very aspect of rowing crew that appealed to some of the Originals, the fact that it was something unconventional, “countercultural” (in Barrett’s term.) “Messing about in boats” has always been fun, even despite the bitter cold of March mornings; add to that the instant fraternity of an eight, and you begin to understand the attraction, especially for freshmen trying to find their niche at Georgetown. Only Gerber had any idea of how all this should be done; the rest had to take it all on faith that somehow they would eventually come together as a crew worthy of winning. As Don Whamond writes,

Being on Crew is a very different experience than you’ll find in most any other sport. You have to be a little crazy to continue to get up before dawn, row on a freezing river, see the ice build on your sweep as it gets heavier and heavier, and be asked time and again to take it up to 40. . . And [then lifting a water filled eight] “up and over” and into the boat house, wipe it all down, run back to campus . . . shower/change and still make your 9:15 (sometimes an 8:15) class!! [13]

And even beyond the hardships of rowing, there was the complete void of the traditions that sustained those of us who came after them. Those of us who came after joined the “Georgetown University Rowing Association,” a thriving organization with an established identity and a winning record to inspire and to emulate. The “Originals” had none of that, no exemplars, no recognition and certainly no support from their own University.[14]

Still, they were “crazy” enough to row purely for the fun of it, unconscious of the fact that they were laying the foundation of all that came afterward, which says something about them and about the sport we all love. There is something about rowing as a crew that transforms the individual in a way that is almost sacramental. One factor that strengthened their esprit was that they were all freshmen and thus all equals rowing as a de facto “varsity.” It is no wonder that when the time came to name the GU Crew’s first new shells,[15] one of them was christened the “Spirit of ’61,” and the other was named after their founding coach,“The Fred Maletz.”

The Learning Curve

Nevertheless, in terms of morale, this was a major boost for those nine young Hoyas. Together, as a crew, they had tasted the sweet essence of competition and it was enough to whet their appetites. They were hungry, but they still had a long way to go before they’d be prepared to win races.

From that starting point we proceeded to lose every race rowed in ’58 and ’59. We were never close to winning and clearly didn’t take it terribly seriously. We put little in and didn’t deserve to achieve much. We were clueless as to what it took to be good.[16]

But that would change in time.

The Spring ‘58 rowing season came to an end, and with it Fred Maletz’ tenure as coach of George Washington’s crew. He’d been so impressed with the spirit and dedication of the upstart Hoyas (and perhaps with the huge potential of the student body they represented within a stone’s throw of the river,) that he assumed the head coaching position at Georgetown. One of the traditions that has defined the sport of rowing from its earliest days in England is its code of amateurism and tradition of volunteer coaching; and Fred Maletz was our first exemplar of that hollowed tradition at Georgetown, a volunteer who was acting in the best tradition of the Jesuit motto: Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. In keeping with the amateur ideal, Fred was not a tough negotiator: his package of salary, benefits, and perks totaled $0.00.[17]

The Spring of 1959

The Freshmen Win Their First Race

Back on the water, the Georgetown freshmen were paddling down the channel and looking for the starting dock, when they began to hear the unmistakable sounds of gunfire. As they continued on, the firing became louder, and shot-gun pellets began to rain down on them from far back on the shoreline. Accelerating the stroke, they swung into the wider opening at the mouth of the channel and could now see that they were passing down-range under the guns of the NYAC’s trap shooters firing out over the upper reaches of the race course! Brushing pellets from their hair and shoulders, the Hoyas gave the gunners a wide berth and after a few power tens managed to get safely out of range. It wasn't exactly a dangerous situation, but it was disconcerting and downright discourteous not to have been warned about the hazards of the course. The freshman Hoyas were understandably aggrieved and went to the starting line with one advantage of their own: they were now quite pissed off at being made to feel like “ ducks” in Fordham’s shooting gallery.

The Travers Island course is a 2000 meter straight-a-way that runs south-west from the NYAC to the finish line hard by the parking lot for Orchard Beach Park that fronts onto Long Island Sound. The course is bordered on the west by Shore Parkway and on the east by a wooded strip of nature preserve. The first 300 meters is open and exposed to the winds blowing in off the Sound, and can be quite choppy especially for crews on that side of the course. In July 1964 it would be the site for the US Olympic Rowing Trials, but at the time of our story it was a narrow unimproved inlet of brackish water that at low tide was barely deep enough to allow passage for an outboard motor boat.

Whether it was a case of Fordham’s crew being overconfident, or Georgetown being so angered by the shot-gunning, the freshmen had won their first race, and thus made crew history as the first victorious Georgetown eight of the modern era. The as yet winless varsity greeted the freshmen on the dock and joined in the celebratory tossing of the cox, and then on signal, they managed to dunk the rest of the frosh as well. “To the victors go the spoils”? Not this time. Fordham never did pay off with the traditional betting shirts, a fact that Butch Cassidy would remind one of the Fordham guys about years later when they became friends in med school.

The freshmen had won their first race and thereby started the winning tradition of Georgetown Crew that proudly now extends over six decades. “Well rowed, Georgetown!”

Unfortunately the JV “could not cope with the heavier, better conditioned Iona junior varsity;” and the Varsity Hoyas succumbed to Iona’s finishing sprint after leading for the first half of the race. According to the NY Times “All the crews rowed over calm water but against a steady head wind and a slight tide.” No times were available for the JV and Varsity race.

The only success that afternoon came when the Hoya JV, stroked by Frank Kane and coxed by Bob Riley, easily defeated the Colonial second boat by seven lengths; but the significance of this win was diminished by the fact that St. Joe’s did not enter their JV in this race.

And so the Georgetown Crew’s second Spring season came to a close. The HOYA reporter, Joe Lee who covered this last race summed up the situation well: “Considering the problems which confront them, the spirit of the crew must be admired. Saturday’s crowd indicated that their efforts have not been in vain.”

As reported in the HOYA (10/22/59) there were workouts that Fall for the forty-four new guys including thirty-five new freshmen (class of ’63) who came down to the dock to learn to row. So by the Fall of ’59, the GU Crew comprised three classes and was growing into a “club sport” with strong appeal and growing respect on campus.

[1] Georgetown had a nationally competitive varsity crew at the turn of the century from 1900 to 1908, even placing 2^nd behind perennial champ Cornell in the IRA in 1903 under Coach Pat Dempsey. (Wash. Post, 5/9/61)

[2] There are scant details available about Fred Maletz. One early article published under the byline of Henry Frankhauser in the Washington Post (?) in late March or early April of ’59 reports that Maletz was a Yugoslavian (by ancestry) who was working “as a business manager for the Bureau of Standards during the day,” and coaching GW in the afternoon. A year later another article (also in the Post?) reports his impending departure: “The Hoyas will be without a crew coach March 31 when Fred Maletz of the State Department leaves for a new assignment with the American Embassy in Iran.”

[3] Thanks to Don Whamond who contributed this detail about Maletz’s workplace. (7/21/12.)

[4] Quoting a Washington Post article 5/14/58.

[5] This is my own constructive inference, since there is uncertainty about both where the original sign was posted (Tehaan’s or the Old North bulletin board,) and whether it invited the “few fellows” to a meeting on campus or to the Potomac Boat House directly. Peoples’ memories (eg. Mike O’Brien and Don Whamond) conflict on these details, and I have tried to reconcile such differences by postulating two different postings, the first by Maletz in Tehaan’s and the second by the mysterious convener in Old North. Was this person acting at Maletz’ behest?

[6] Mike McAllister writes that “Bill Prest dragooned me onto the boats and rousted me out of my bed in 1^st New North on those early mornings in March.” 10/3/12,

[7] Frank Barrett’s memoir relates that this “upperclassman” was a graduating senior and so could not himself take advantage of Maletz’ offer.

[8] In those first weeks rowing was done with the GW crew in the afternoon. Jim Fitzgerald, phone conversation 10/2/12.

[9] These workouts in the gym during January and February were initiated by Don Cadle in 1961.

[10] Frank Barrett, 7/13/12. Regrettably for the Crew that he founded, Drew left Georgetown after his sophomore year in July of 1959 to enlist in the US Marine Corps. He remained incommunicado for fifty-three years until contacted by your historian on 7/21/12. That was a memorable phone call, like awakening Rip Van Winkle.

[11] Don Whamond 7/22/12. Mike McAllister provides a side-light on the personality of guys who row bow:

My clearest memory is when “Coach” (Maletz) had me row bow in the second boat because that’s where the “crazy” guy in the boat went. I felt comfortable with that diagnosis because it was not meant in a derogatory way, but as an accolade.

Maybe you don’t have to be “crazy” to row bow, but it seems to help.

[12] Let’s also pay our respects to their host at PBC, Charlie Butts, Sr. who epitomized the best of what the sport of rowing seeks to build in its devotees. His example as coach, mentor, and friend to generations of young oarsmen at W&L and Potomac BC, and his gracious generosity in sharing space and equipment with the novice Hoyas should never be forgotten. His friendship toward Georgetown’s crew played an important role in recruiting one of his protégés, Olympian and US Pairs Champion, Tony Johnson as GU coach in 1966.

[13] Don Whamond, 7/22/12

[14] The Crew’s relationship with the University in these early years is a subject we will take up in a later chapter, but here we can simply quote Frank Barrett:

“We rowed because it was a fun thing to do. . . We probably enjoyed the ‘them vs. us’ that went with a sport the administration was afraid of, didn’t want, and hoped would go away.” 9/21/12

[15] The GU crew took delivery of these shells March 31, 1961; their names were an improvement on

“The Shrimp Boat,” the name of one of the shells they were borrowing from Potomac BC. (Jim Fitzgerald, 8/15/12)

[16] Frank Barrett, “GU ’61 Varsity Row.”

[17] In fact, “Every person who coached before Tony [Johnson] and probably also Tony ended up paying for the privilege of coaching.” Frank Barrett, 8/10/12

[18] Indeed, they not only had Maletz, but in his absence a substitute in Steve Benedict, GU’s assistant Track coach. As Jim Fitzgerald recalls, “Maletz had to go on a business trip so during the two week prep for the first race against the Naval Academy, Steve sat in for Fred. Steve was a Hungarian refugee who had rowed in Hungary and represented them in equestrian events in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. He loved what the crew was doing.” (8/15/12)

[19] Let it be noted that Butch had his name a long time before Paul Newman took on the movie character !

[20] Tim Toomey’s letter home sets this date.

[21] This list of the varsity comes from a contemporary photo and article in the 4/16/59 issue of The Foreign Service Courier, a student publication of the School of Foreign Service.

[22] This reported “win” in ‘59 is dubious. The source is a HOYA article from the Spring of ’61, but the “Originals” are unanimous in asserting that the true “first win” came on April 15^th, 1961 against St. Joe’s on the Potomac. This may have been merely another joint workout rather than an actual race.

[23] Per Jim Fitzgerald phone conversation 9/29/12

[24] As reported in the Hoya the Varsity boat for this race was: Frank Barrett (bow) Bob O’Brien, Mike Dana, Don Whamond, Mike O’Brien, Jim Fitzgerald, Drew Gerber, Bill Prest stroke, and Al DiFiore in the coxswain’s seat.

[25] The JV boat was: Mike McAllister, Tom Cardella, Tim Toomey, Henry Snyder, Robert Daly, Bill Blanchet, Mike Lang, Frank Kane stroke, and Bob Riley at cox.

[26] The Fordham Varsity placed second to LaSalle in The Dad Vail in ’58.

[27] John J. Sulger was a major power in the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen, as well as serving as the coach for NYAC and Fordham University.