Friends of UCI Rowing - UCI Olympians 198440 years later - Sul's recollections
Friends of UCI Rowing
UCI Olympians 1984Â Â Â
Bob Ernst, Curt Fleming, Bruce Ibbetson, Brad Lewis, Greg SpringerÂ
UCI's Olympic Rowers
With the Olympics in full swing, Â I'm sure we're watching rowing with great interest.
The pursuit of an Olympic dream is a uniquely individual task.  Unless you are a supreme talent, nobody will come around trying to recruit you to train for several years to make a national rowing team, or the glory be Olympic games.
There are universities in the country that gather the top rowing athletes in the country, and it's assumed the best will be Olympians
These have been major collegiate rowing powers, Washington, Â Harvard, Â Penn, Â Cal. Â
Freshmen would walk into the boathouse and see a long legacy of former Olympians that encourage them,  "if I make the varsity,  if I beat the other college crews, I can be an Olympian too".
There was a cluster of Olympians from a college that was not a major powerhouse, At best there was excellence in long period waves. Â
This was UCI.  Maybe because the program founder, Duvall Hecht, had been an Olympic champion a couple decades before, or perhaps it was the amazing waters to train on,  or an accidental confluence of guys that dreamt big, but trained big as well. Â
In 1971 when I was recruited,  we had what had to be the worst rowing team on the planet as far as our rowing speed and results.  There was nothing wrong with the spirit and willingness of the guys that showed up that year, but we didn't beat anybody until the varsity broke into a four to race at Western Sprints.
Duvall Hecht was not coaching, so there were no Olympians in the boathouse.  However,  every morning when we freshmen launched two eager eights of abysmal rowing, there was a solitary athlete that put his single on the water and put in miles.  Paul 'Spyder' Ryan typically wore a Vesper shirt and the buzz was
that he was hoping to make the 1972 Olympic team.Â
He was my hero instantly,  and I started to train extra sessions every day, 3 days a week I went to boathouse to scull in a pocock trainer.  I couldn't lift it over my head initially,  and it hurt like hell to put on my head to carry down.  I tried to find a t-shirt somewhere that was as cool as Spyder's Vesper shirt.
That summer, Spyder made the national team, Â spare on the Pan Am team. Â He returned with USA gear. Â
Impressed.Â
For every Olympian,  their trail to the goal is littered with a dozen of us who didn't make it.  I don't mean the rank and file of us college rowers, but those of us who didn't just daydream about being on a podium, but went to the boathouse in the afternoons to stick a beater of a single on the water and do some extra Lidos, ratcheted up training in the summer and scrimped to save to race back east in late July. Â
UCI had 5 Olympians in the 1984 Olympic games, two golds and two silver medals.  In the time period from 1970 to 1984 where athletes from UCI ultimately made it to the games, there were 15 who tried and didn't make it, and mixed in another 12 or more who trained and raced in summer regattas but never attended national team trials or selection camps.  Â
The difference between making it and making it is not an easy answer.  Most who made the attempt had enough talent to get there if they either trained harder, or persisted with that training longer.  Most of this was a matter of positive choices, a few guys who had enough talent and were tough enough made the life choice of going to med school. In some cases not enough confidence in themselves to persist. Â
Coach Ernst had a great insight into separating us chaff from the wheat.  Through UCI, or UW, or National team camps when he was approached by an athlete having a particularly tough time in rowing and was considering quitting, Ernst encouraged them to quit.  "Sullivan, you don't want to do this BS anymore, go get a great programming job and go on a surf trip around the world."  He understood at our core the impetus and motivation to achieve this has to come from within.Â
Sully
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Bob Ernst
Ernie started rowing in the 1967 rowing season, and rowed about a year and a half. Â He'd been on UCI's first water polo team and a national champion JC football team.Â
Ernie soon started coaching when Duvall's professional career schedule became very crowded and couldn't make the coaching commitment at the time.  He had good success with a JV boat by training them at a different level than they had done.  Ernie's road to the Olympics started with a trip to St Catherines in 1970 with Stu Gibson to watch the World Championships.  At the time,  the Ratzeburg crew from West Germany was the popular rage,  and American crews had been converting to the "modern" style of rowing, training, and equipment since the mid sixties.  New Zealand raced in that style and rowed to impressive gold in the worlds.Â
Ernie and Stu came back to Newport with a plan.  Copying equipment, style, training methods, and even uniforms from the Germans and Kiwis, UCI was going to be champions.  Out the gate in 70-71,  the experiment seemed to bean immediate failure.  We had a good group of athletes, good numbers, spirited and hard working, and we were the worst rowing crew on the planet.  But Ernie and Stu disposed of the elements of our rowing that wasn't working, worked on the elements that were useful and we improved. Â
There were two innovations that Ernie brought to UCI that worked. Â One was small boats, Â singles and pairs. From summer '72 through summer of '74, Â we had a small cadre of athletes who trained extra sessions in singles,and a growing team of athletes that trained and raced in the summer. Â
Transitioning after Sprints and boat maintenance the training volume went UP.  We trained twice a day 6 days a week in the summer.  Took a group of five to US Nationals in '72, then groups of 9 and 12 in successive summers to Canadian Henley in '73 and world championship trials and US Nationals in 74. Â
The extra training and small boat expertise developed the UCI varsity eight into the fastest eight in the country as far as pure boat speed.  That Washington beat UCI by a second does not fall on Ernie's lap but squarely on we men in the boat, and the men who didn't make the boat.
Yet, the success garnered the attention of the Washington program, and Ernie moved where he could be at a major rowing center with a career job.  Success with the men's freshmen led to him moving to the women's team to make them National Champions.  This success led to selections as a national coach in the early 80s, and the first Olympic gold medal in the US women's eight in 1984.Â
The disciplines he learned and taught at UCI, hard miles in small boats, he brought to Washington. Â Along with his college crews, Â there was always a fleet of singles and pairs, Â post grads from various places who trained with Olympic dreams, just as had happened at UCI.Â
Bob Ernst, Kent Fleming, and Duvall Hecht
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Bruce Ibbetson
Bruce started rowing in 71-72 as a 6'2 155 water polo player that wouldn't make the UCI team.  Bruce's start was unremarkable, they had a good freshman boat but not champions,  and a excellent JV boat his sophomore year that beat OCC and finished with a Sprints medal.  During his first couple years,  Paul Ryan was in the boathouse training in his singles for a series of national team attempts,  Sullivan and Peterson hadbeen logging extra miles in singles outside of regular team practices.  Sullivan and Davis paired up to race at Nationals that summer, as well as Peterson and Dovey,training twice a day in pairs and a four.
Bruce put a Pocock trainer on the water and started rowing miles. The summer after his sophomore year, '73, Sullivan/Davis, Peterson/Sutton, Pearson/Butler, and Ibbetson/Dovey trained in pairs and fours and broughtÂ
the fleet to Canadian Henley.  Ibbetson/Dovey won the junior pair, were seeded into the senior pair in a 7th lane where Sullivan/Davis and Peterson/Sutton had made the final.  Upstart Ibbetson upset the other Irvine pairs who had beaten him all summer until then, winning silver to Sullivan/Davis' bronze. Ernst informed Sullivan that he just lost his seat race for stroke of next year's UCI eight, he might want to switch to starboard. Â
The following season had a fast UCI crew with a disappointed narrow loss to Washington, yet defeats of Cal, IRA champ Wisconsin and Navy.  Ibbetson/Sullivan had dedicated that season with year round extra work in the pair with an eye on winning the pair trials to attend the world championships. Â
A dozen guys from UCI but also USC and Harvard teamed up to race every sweep event at trials,  and stormed to a good team finsh and many medals at US Nationals. Ibbetson/Sullivan finished 2nd at the world trials and 2nd atÂ
US Nationals.  Spyder was at trials in the pair, making the final along with Peterson/Davis.  Also racing in the trials were Petersen, Butler, Pearson from UCI. Â
In '74-75 Ernie went to Washington, Â Davis coached the varsity at UCI when Duvall returned as head coach. Ibbetson stroked the eight which didn't quite have the horsepower from the previous year with 3 guys graduating out of the eight and two graduated that had been in the eight at some point in 74 but not at Sprints.
Sullivan logged double day practices in a single in Newport that year pointing toward being the US single sculler or making a team sculling boat. Â
Post season, Ibbetson and Brad Lewis went to a development camp, Sullivan to the crucible at Philadelphia getting the opportunity to train every day with two world champion single scullers.  Sullivan finished fourth in elite singles at nationals,  was selected to a fast quad for trials,  but club politics broke that quad up, Sullivan not making the team.Â
75-76, Ibbetson, Sullivan, and Davis went to Conibear shellhouse to train for the '76 Oly trials.  Ibbetson and Sullivan committed to the pair,  Davis trained with a partner in the winter, then moved to Vesper to get into the fours camps.  Just weeks before trials,  Sullivan was struck with afib at a time when very little was known.  Before this struck, the pair had been very fast winning most pieces with the National Team camp that trained in Seattle for six weeks,  they declined an invite to try out for the eight. Â
Ibbetson paired up with Davis for the trials race, but couldn't make the Olympic team. Â
Ibbetson headed back to Seattle to train in a single with Ernie's mosquito fleet,  then traveled to Penn AC where he teamed up with Tim Watenpaugh to win the pair at nationals.  Tim had started rowing at UCI Bruce's senior year, then transfered to San Diego St where he raced small boats at the IRA.  Bruce stroked the US eight that summer making his first national team.  Watenpaugh didn't make that team,  but eventually made the Pan Am team in '79.Â
In '78, Bruce trained through the fall and winter in Newport, now with it's own mosquito fleet of scullers including Brad Lewis, recent grad Curt Fleming, and John Walker.  Bruce and Brad went back east in the spring to trials and to make up team boats at Penn AC and Vesper,  Bruce won the pair with trials with Penn AC, then combined with other small boats to race the US eight at worlds. Â
In '79 and '80 Bruce trained with the mosquito fleet in newport in the winter before joining the national camp where he stroked the US eight for the worlds, and making his first Olympic team in 80.  The teams Bruce raced on didn't medal, but the 1980 eight was clearly a medal contender beating the eventual medalists at Lucerne during the boycott year.Â
In '81 and '82, Â Bruce took time off from National team racing but trained in a single with the Newport fleet that included some upcoming undergrads in the UCI program as well as Fleming and Lewis, and did some racing in small boats.Â
In '83 and '84,  the National Camp went back into his program,  making the team in '83, then stroking the eight to a silver medal in '84.  That eight set a world record at Lucerne that lasted 30 years.Â
Bruce never had a top erg score or massive energy system, but was superbly efficient aerobically like a pro cyclist,  long, precise, and consistent with his blade, and was the most competitive person to come out of UCI's boathouse.  It took two years after his graduation year to make a national team,  but with some better luck could have made it sooner.  From the time from his first strokes to Oly team was 8 years with a couple dozen UCI rowers in that time period who tried at some level of trials races or camps, and failed.Â
UCI four w/o in a training session in '74,  L to R, Bruce Ibbetson, Brad Lewis, John Walker, Phil Pearson.
Brad Lewis
Brad started rowing in HS out of UCI's boathouse in '72.  He came to UCI and rowed his freshman and sophomore year rowing in the 2v or V4.  He rowed with the trials group in 74 in a pair with with Sean McCracken from USC in the
trials. Â His junior year he rowed in the varsity with Ibbetson, Peterson, Pearson, Sutton, and Petersen, then went east to a US development camp with Ibbetson the summer of '75. Â He did not choose to row for UCI in '76.Â
In '77, Brad asked assistant coach Sullivan if he could scull and be coached out of UCI's boathouse.  Because Lewis had bailed on the team the previous year, head coach Newman was hesitant,  but having trained and raced for national teams himself,  he understood the commitment it took.  Lewis trained hard that year with massive mileage, largely on his own with Sul's help.  In the spring he went back to Vesper, made their quad, and won the trials making theÂ
Worlds. In '78 and '79, Brad trained in Newport, raced in world championship trials but didn't make any team.Â
In 1980, Â he rowed in the national camp for the quad and made the team, Â which didn't race in Moscow. Â
From '81-82, Brad trained in Newport in his single in the fall and winter, then moved to the east or to europe toÂ
train and race in clubs putting together team sculling boats for trials. Â
In '83/84 Brad was back in Newport in the winter training with a large contingent of scullers out of UCI's boathouse, Ibbetson, Fleming, Lebel, Springer, Cathy Thaxton, Fiege-Kollman and Jolene Ezparza from Stanford, there to improve their sculling and aim for '84.  Typically there would be a fleet head out every morning of every day to do hard mileage on the incredible newport waters, then they scattered to the east for
camps or trials in the late spring.
Brad won the double at trials in '83 with Paul Enquist going to the worlds, he was second in the singles trials. In '84, Paul and Brad were cut from the national camp for the quad, Â teamed up again in the double, won the trials and a gold in LA Olympics.Â
Brad was very disciplined and focused in his training.  In 1980 Sullivan took the guys who were national team possibles to a USOC camp in Tahoe, where we cross country skiied for a week and did physio testing. Brad scored highest easily in Max Vo2 indicating a world class aerobic engine.  When you apply
that engine to the vast miles Brad rowed and the focus he applied, it can add to success. Â
To put the Olympic gold in perspective.  UCI has had many Olympian.  Only one other UCI athlete won a gold medal as an athlete, that was Greg Louganis, the all time diver.  Greg attended two Olympic games before he went to UCI. Brad was homegrown and self-made. .
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Curtis Fleming
Curt started his rowing in '75 at OCC. Â He transferred to UCI and rowed in Bob Newman's varsity through '77.
After graduating, Curt obtained a single and went to Sullivan for sculling instruction.  He joined Lewis in the fall/winter training.  His first year sculling he went with a large UCI contingent to nationals in Camden, while Brad went to Vesper.Â
Over the next few years,  Curt trained in Newport and raced at nationals and some trials. He was part of later groups of UCI athletes going to nationals and National Sports festivals that included Walker, Collins, Lebel, Bradburne, and Hedayat, along with OCC, Long Beach, and Cal rowers. Â
Fleming and Walker raced in the '79 trials with the group,  and were joined by recent grads Mike Gilb and John Augustine in a pair with at trials after racing in the Henley eight. Â
In '80-through '82 it was more of the same,  lots of training miles,  racing back east to steady improvement but not a big win.  In '83, Curt raced back east in national camp, with Lewis, and upon being cut teamed up with the all time sculling great,  Jim Dietz, to race in the Pan Am games in Caracas, his first national team.
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Also attending the games was Greg Springer in a four with from out of the national camp.
In '84, after winter training in Newport, was back in Harry Parker's sculling camp.  The camp boat was selected leaving both Lewis and Fleming out.  However,  the camp boat had to race trials to go to the Olympics.Â
Brad teamed up with Enquist to win the trials in the double. Curtis was invited to join 3 others in a challenge quad which defeated the selected boat in the race, becoming the Olympic crew.. Â
Curt was not a dominant sculler,  but in team boats he was universally valued for his combination of toughness, competitiveness, yet with a breezy positive attitude.  Everyone at OCC, UCI and in national camps loved rowing with Fleming, they just felt they went faster with him in it. Â
Curtis Fleming, 4th from the right with the 1977 Cal Cup champion UCI varsity. Â
Greg Springer
Greg started rowing at UCI in 1980. Â At the time, we had a Gamut ergometer placed in a open room in the handball courts by the pool. Â The scullers who were training used that erg freely, and had group weight training sessions twice a week in Crawford Hall with the freshman team circuit.
The freshmen/novice team had a 500 meter erg test after the first month of rowing. Â Springer sat in and "pegged" it. Â What this was on these machines that you pull so hard the drag weight bounces on the floor and you get extra high score. Â Nobody in our boathouse could do that including all of the
elite national team candidates. It was rare around the nation.Â
Greg moved right into the varsity boat his sophomore year in '81, and with his varsity erg test was invited to attend the very first Pre-Elite national camp, a selection camp of the best collegiate freshmen and sophomores in the country.  They went through boat selection and raced at Henley and in Amsterdam in the Senior B championships.  At the same time, a large contingent of small boats out of UCI went to US Nationals in Oak Ridge and were selected to attend the National Sports Festival in Syracuse. Â
In 1982, Bradburne, Lebel, Valenti, and Fiege-Kollman were all invited to the US national camp in Wisconsin. They were among the last cut from the team. Â Fiege and Lebel went to Penn AC and raced a pair at Nationals finishing a hairline second to Jay Collins and his Oregon St partner Mark Hanley.
Walker and Fleming raced singles and a double.Â
In 1983, Springer was selected to the National camp and raced a four at Pan Ams,  then next year Springer made the Olympic four with,  finishing with a silver medal behind Britain.
Springer was a great example how many of the Olympians made their way, Â enormous talent in prestigious schools,
and some old fashioned hard work and competitiveness.Â
Talent is recognized, but a lot of rowing talent walks away from the challenge, expecially after a couple setbacks.Â
Greg incorporated a key aspect of rowing success that results in an Olympic blazer. In the US, you have to largely coach yourself after leaving college. Unlike other nations which have coherent national programs that run for an Olympic cycle and athletes are coached and developed along the way. Americans will pop through a number of coaches in a year, often telling them conflicting things. You have to sort through and figure out what works.  Greg was independent that way, as were the rest of the UCI Olympians. Â
He made two more Olympic teams in his career, and post '84 was the only UCI athlete to represent the US in World competition in the single sculls.  This was a tremendous and unique accomplishment. Â
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Greg Springer in the 5 seat of the 1983 WIRA championship 8. Â
UCI Rowing Summer of 2024
There is a dedicated group of men and women from the team coming down and sculling. They aren't racing this summer, but putting in the sculling miles.
UCI grads Cole Villa and Lucas Woodruff teamed up with two athletes from Columbia and Washington to train together in Newport June and July and are attending the Canadian Henley. Cole became Ill, so they found a substitute to race in the four final Friday.  Results will follow.
I feel great that there are still UCI athletes pursuing the dream after decades. Cole is moving to NorCal to train with the Cal Rowing club athletes where most of the success in the current Oly games trained the last few years. Lucas has one more year rowing at Washington finishing his graduate engineering degree. Â
The women's team leadership is busy in the process of hiring a new head coach following the departure of Mike Homes.  Mike did a tremendous job in the two years he was here and was a fantastic teammate to coach with. He left the place much better off than when he arrived, did a super job growing the team, making them faster, maintaining and improving our equipment, and a superb job running the Challenge Cup regatta.  Thanks Mike
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UCI Leadership Academy
The UCI Leadership Academy is an ongoing effort to connect current students with alums and friends who can mentor and advise in their professions and/or avocations. Â
Students have shadowed alums in their jobs, been offered opportunities at internships and gotten help with networking and job applications.Â
It is a unique and special program.Â
I've set up a google form to see if it'll help connect alums with students.  It's a simple form that populates a spreadsheet. Student and alum/friend fill out the same form, the results will populate in a spreadsheet that form users will have access to peruse.Â
We've collected a good number of participants who'll be receiving a list of candidate contacts via email.
