Word: ratzeburg
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Karl Adam, the 216-lb. braunschweiger-built coach of West Germany's Ratzeburg Rowing Club, isn't boasting when he says, "I have shown I can produce champions year after year...
Since 1953, when he became Ratzeburg coach, Adam's piston-smooth crew has won eight German championships, three European titles, one world title (1962), an Olympic gold medal and an Olympic silver medal. Drawing on his experience as a physics teacher, he designed a tulip-shaped oar that gets a better bite on the water, conceived the idea of rigging the No. 4 and 5 oars on the starboard side of the shell to reduce veering. He also became the first coach to put his men on a weight-lifting regimen to build shoulder muscles. The only thing that...
Neither Vesper's Olympic Champion crew, which beat Harvard at Henley a week ago, nor Germany's Ratzeburg boat, which that Vesper in the finals, rowed at Lucerne. But the crews Harvard t were the best of the rest, and included the top boats form four curtain countries...
This wouldn't have been as embarrassing as it was for Harvard-- after all, the Vesper and Ratzeburg crews are older and more experienced than the Crimson--if Harvard officials hadn't acted all spring as if they believed their press clippings. The week before the race coach Harry Parker filled the Boston papers with comments that exuded confidence. "These boys could win pulling an old barge with broomsticks," was Parker's day-of-race bulletin...
...another story in the final, with Ratzeburg beating Vesper in a contest of power rowing. The Germans went off at an incredible 52 strokes per minute and never dropped under 40 before they sank, exhausted at the finish line. It was several minutes before they could row back to the shore...