Gene Berkenkamp

Gene Berkenkamp was California's big stroke oar and the crew's principal pace-setter. In the race against Washington, his opening power put California ahead; later, his crew's effort to answer Washington with bursts of harder rowing could not stop the Husky Clipper from edging forward. The episode presents him as both a formidable competitor and the focus of a tactical contest over whether to match power with power or hold a steadier pace.

Reputation and Role

Before the race, Berkenkamp's standing was already a source of unease for Washington coach Al Ulbrickson. Word circulating in the Poughkeepsie cigar shops described the big stroke as easily the equal of Peter Donlon, who had stroked California to Olympic gold in 1928 and to the fastest time ever on the Poughkeepsie course. The comparison was reported talk rather than a measured verdict, but it made clear how high expectations for Berkenkamp had become.

His reputation also rested on recent results: the account identifies him as the stroke who had powered California past Washington at Poughkeepsie and Long Beach the year before. When the two crews met again, he was not simply one of California's rowers; he occupied the seat from which the crew's pace and its challenge to Washington were most visible.

The Opening Lead

At the start, both crews charged away at a rate of thirty-five or thirty-six strokes per minute. Berkenkamp quickly drove California into a short lead. For three-quarters of a mile the boats fought through choppy water in near lockstep, with Washington's Don Hume matching Berkenkamp's rate but unable to draw level. Berkenkamp's opening pace therefore did what California needed: it kept the Huskies from immediately gaining ground.

The contest shifted when Washington coxswain Bobby Moch called for a lower rate rather than trying to out-sprint the leader. Hume dropped to twenty-nine, and Washington found its swing. As Hume took long, smooth pulls and the rest of the crew followed, the Husky Clipper began to recover water. By the one-mile mark the boats were even, and Washington had begun to edge ahead. Berkenkamp's early advantage had been met not by a harder response but by a change of rhythm.

California's Attempts to Respond

When Tommy Maxwell saw Washington coming level, he called, "Give me ten big ones!" Berkenkamp and the California crew leaned into their oars for the ten extra-hard strokes. Moch declined to take the bait: he kept Washington at twenty-nine, and California's burst did not appreciably narrow the small lead.

As the crews continued down the course into the wind, Maxwell called for another big ten. California had reduced its rate to thirty-two and then thirty-one after the first burst, while Washington remained at twenty-nine and continued inching ahead. Moch again held his crew to its chosen pace rather than answer the challenge with a burst of its own. By this point, the Husky Clipper's bow was perhaps eight feet in front of California's. The account leaves Berkenkamp's race at this developing contest: his crew had shown force and urgency, but its repeated surges had not reversed Washington's advance.