“The ability to yield, to bend, to give way, to accommodate, he said, was sometimes a source of strength in men as well as in wood, so long as it was helmed by inner resolve and by principle.” — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“In a sport like this—hard work, not much glory, but still popular in every century—well, there must be some beauty which ordinary men can’t see, but extraordinary men do. —George Yeoman Pocock” — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“The trick would be to find which few of them had the potential for raw power, the nearly superhuman stamina, the indomitable willpower, and… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“But the heat and the drought were in some ways the least of it. On May 9 a colossal dust storm had swung out… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“Rowing is perhaps the toughest of sports. Once the race starts, there are no time-outs, no substitutions. It calls upon the limits of human… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“The wood, Pocock murmured, taught us about survival, about overcoming difficulty, about prevailing over adversity, but it also taught us something about the underlying… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“All were merged into one smoothly working machine; they were, in fact, a poem of motion, a symphony of swinging blades.” — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“A good shell has to have life and resiliency to get in harmony with the swing of the crew.” — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“was a shared experience—a singular thing that had unfolded in a golden sliver of time long gone, when nine good-hearted young men strove together,… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“It is a small but noteworthy irony that among the first Allied troops who crossed the Elbe River and met up with Russian troops… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“The revelation that one could find free food just sitting on a stump in the woods landed on Joe like a thunderbolt. That night… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“for him the craft of building a boat was like religion. It wasn’t enough to master the technical details of it. You had to… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“It was when he tried to talk about 'the boat' that his words began to falter and tears welled up in his eyes...Finally, watching… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“And capitalizing on diversity is perhaps even more important when it comes to the characters of the oarsmen. A crew composed entirely of eight… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“Just as a skilled rider is said to become part of his horse, the skilled oarsman must become part of his boat. —George Yeoman… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
“I lingered a bit longer. The tug of kinship held me there, bound me to the place and to a man I had never… — Daniel James Brown Copy Share Image
