Ted Nash
Moderators: lt.wolf, YouGotMobjacked
Re: Ted Nash
A sad day but a life clearly worth celebrating.
"The Myth and the Man"
https://www.rowingnews.com/2021/05/20/t ... d-the-man/
"The Myth and the Man"
https://www.rowingnews.com/2021/05/20/t ... d-the-man/
Re: Ted Nash
It’s been a while since Ted passed and I never took the time to read this wonderful article. For those of you too young to have rowed for Ted, let’s just say it was quite an experience.
I rowed for Ted briefly after being cut from the 4- camp at Vesper. He was generous to our pair, consisting of me in the bow and Bruce ibbetson, future two time Olympic eights stroke, in the stern. Bruce’s partner, the inimitable Sul, had become ill and I was trying my best to stay up with Bruce, who was and is every bit the physiological machine Ted was.
A few anecdotes:
At world trials one year, while rowing for the Irvine summer camp, I pulled a back muscle the Friday before. Ted, who had never met me, dropped into the Princeton fieldhouse where we were staying, and with horse lineament or some darn thing massaged my back for 45 minutes until the spasm passed. I practiced a few hours later and raced the next day.
Ted was generous. He gave Bruce and I Penn’s 2nd best pair to row and told us to grab any oars we liked and if we were able to win trials we were not obligated to select him as coach.
Ted didn’t have a crew to coach at Montreal ‘76, and all the US credentials were taken. Nevertheless, there was Ted in the athlete area with all his pals, rigging and supporting the US team. How he got there was a mystery.
Lunch for Ted was two glasses of water, each with 2 sugar packets mixed in.
It’s true that Ted would drive by in his launch and tell one of us to add two wraps of black tape to our oarlocks to adjust for pitch. By the time we got to trials I was at 5 degrees and Bruce at 2. We reset the pitch to 6 and it got us into the final. I was broke. The Oly committee gave us round trip airfare with which I was able to go watch the rowing in Montreal and get home.
Ernst told the story of how Ted, when frosh Coach at Penn, would have his eights hide in wait behind a bridge pillar for Burke’s varsity and pull off a racing start at 40 and cheer how they had beaten the varsity.
I also know coaches who got the shaft from Ted, whose competitive nature sometimes got the best of him. In one occasion, he took the train from Philly to Boston to convince a double that their coach, who had gotten them the win in a very fast time at trials was too inexperienced to take them to worlds. After days of constant phone calls and pressure from Ted, they finally gave in and chose Ted as coach. They went slower at worlds than they did at trials, not making the final.
Ted remembered me during my college coaching days. He’d been at Stanford and we had mutual friends in that community. I last saw Ted at masters nationals in 2016. He was as enthusiastic as ever, but in poor health. I’m not sure he remembered me, but I sure remembered him.
I rowed for Ted briefly after being cut from the 4- camp at Vesper. He was generous to our pair, consisting of me in the bow and Bruce ibbetson, future two time Olympic eights stroke, in the stern. Bruce’s partner, the inimitable Sul, had become ill and I was trying my best to stay up with Bruce, who was and is every bit the physiological machine Ted was.
A few anecdotes:
At world trials one year, while rowing for the Irvine summer camp, I pulled a back muscle the Friday before. Ted, who had never met me, dropped into the Princeton fieldhouse where we were staying, and with horse lineament or some darn thing massaged my back for 45 minutes until the spasm passed. I practiced a few hours later and raced the next day.
Ted was generous. He gave Bruce and I Penn’s 2nd best pair to row and told us to grab any oars we liked and if we were able to win trials we were not obligated to select him as coach.
Ted didn’t have a crew to coach at Montreal ‘76, and all the US credentials were taken. Nevertheless, there was Ted in the athlete area with all his pals, rigging and supporting the US team. How he got there was a mystery.
Lunch for Ted was two glasses of water, each with 2 sugar packets mixed in.
It’s true that Ted would drive by in his launch and tell one of us to add two wraps of black tape to our oarlocks to adjust for pitch. By the time we got to trials I was at 5 degrees and Bruce at 2. We reset the pitch to 6 and it got us into the final. I was broke. The Oly committee gave us round trip airfare with which I was able to go watch the rowing in Montreal and get home.
Ernst told the story of how Ted, when frosh Coach at Penn, would have his eights hide in wait behind a bridge pillar for Burke’s varsity and pull off a racing start at 40 and cheer how they had beaten the varsity.
I also know coaches who got the shaft from Ted, whose competitive nature sometimes got the best of him. In one occasion, he took the train from Philly to Boston to convince a double that their coach, who had gotten them the win in a very fast time at trials was too inexperienced to take them to worlds. After days of constant phone calls and pressure from Ted, they finally gave in and chose Ted as coach. They went slower at worlds than they did at trials, not making the final.
Ted remembered me during my college coaching days. He’d been at Stanford and we had mutual friends in that community. I last saw Ted at masters nationals in 2016. He was as enthusiastic as ever, but in poor health. I’m not sure he remembered me, but I sure remembered him.
John Davis
What is the first business of the philosopher? To caste away conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to learn
that which he thinks he already knows. -Epictetus
What is the first business of the philosopher? To caste away conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to learn
that which he thinks he already knows. -Epictetus