Men's Crew: First Northeastern crew coach made history

Jewel Della Valle

Issue date: 4/11/07 Section: Sports

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Media Credit: Photo Courtesy/NU SID

Ernie Arlett, pictured here at the Eastern Sprint Championship more than 40 years ago, became Northeastern's first crew coach in 1964.

The skies were overcast and gray that Saturday morning in June 1965, and the 10,000 fans who lined the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia were completely unaware of the rowing history they were about to witness.

In 27 years, no school had ever swept the Dad Vail Regatta, the small college rowing championship of the nation, which means winning the varsity, junior varsity and freshman races.

But that was all about to change as the Northeastern varsity crew positioned its shell with the other boats at the starting line.

A few days earlier, Husky varsity coxswain Frank Baker became sick and Northeastern got approval from Dad Vail officials to let JV coxswain Dave Hingston steer and command both the boats. Before the qualifying races began, head coach Ernie Arlett gave his crew a pep talk.

"Boys, in England we have a saying, 'move or bust,'" he said. "Do not waste strokes in the trials. Save them for the finals. Row to place, not to win."

After zipping through the qualifying meets, the freshman boat won its championship race first, then the junior varsity won a half- hour later.

In the varsity race, Northeastern and the other four squads, Rollins, Georgetown, St. Joseph's and Amherst, fell behind the first-place boat, Marietta, early. With five-sixths of a mile left to go, the other boats had fallen back, but Marietta still led Northeastern by a length and a half.

At 200 yards, the Huskies picked up the pace but trailed by a length. Then 'move-or-bust' rang out in their minds, and they pulled even with 20 meters left, and jetted forward to win the race and sweep the Dad Vail Regatta.

"To be honest, it's sort of a blur to what happened there," said Roger Borggaard, who rowed in the varsity boat. "It was just pull and watch the guys alongside and slowly, slowly, slowly you started moving on them. I think it went down to the last stroke, it was that close, but Ernie trained us pretty hard; we were in shape to do what we did. Other than that it's just sort of a blur."

Sounds like a feat only a crew with years of rowing experience could pull off. But that was not the case with these Huskies.

Continued...

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