History of Rowing at Sydney Boys High School, 1947-1960

A quick glance at the principal coaches and officials after WW2

Frank Nichols, an Old Boy from the pre-rowing years at High, but who had had lengthy experience after leaving school in the senior lightweight ranks at the Drummoyne Club, took over the school eight in the late ’thirties. Like his predecessor, Frank’s rare ability to adapt and apply Club training methods to schoolboy rowing, had produced a hat-trick of close seconds at Penrith in 1938/9/40 before the Head of the River was officially suspended following the outbreak of WW2. Under Frank, High eights were both stylish and fast - very much in the lightweight rowing mould he knew well. A senior bank official, Frank was beyond enlistment age, and thereby able to remain a pivotal force keeping High rowing alive during the war years. 

Des Duffy, an army major (later Colonel), had rowed in the successful High eights of the late ’twenties. Des had spent three years of the war in Changi, a notorious Japanese POW camp in Singapore. Restored to health after his release, Des stood 6 feet 4 inches high and weighed about 250 pounds when he took over the firsts and seconds in 1947. Those who rowed for him can attest that when he sat in the stern of a four, stroke and three were at times barely able to clear choppy water with their oars. Others well remember being on the receiving end of his genial (usually) criticism delivered, military-fashion, from the pontoon for all to hear per medium of a very large blue megaphone. Clearly not a man to be trifled with, neither were his well-conditioned and frequently successful crews, albeit coached as they were in the old fashioned ’straight-back’ style of the ‘twenties. 

Alan Callaway had rowed in the 1934 and 1935 eights. A chartered engineer, he was one of three brothers to have seen active wartime naval service. With his qualifications he was amongst the first specialist officers to operate the new-fangled radar installed in Australian light cruisers soon to be severely tested in the Pacific by Japanese kamikaze planes. Still in his twenties after the war, Alan took on the thirds and fourths in 1947. Bringing with him a well-developed ability to remain calm in almost any crisis, Alan also had an exceptional knack of achieving much from others with minimal direction. In his usually quiet and understated way he had an uncanny ability, regardless of the age of his audience, to inspire a high degree of control, cooperation, teamwork and, inevitably, results. It was really no great surprise to those who had rowed for him when, years later, he became the Australian Olympic coach. 

Officials: In the late ‘forties, other returning servicemen joined the group. Stan Wick had been a French teacher at SHS before the war. Now Modern Languages Master, Stan, who had briefly coached the thirds and fourths before joining up in 1940, agreed to become rowing master. He took his role very seriously indeed becoming in effect a one-man press gang for rowing (as the writer can attest). Eventually, Stan became headmaster of Katoomba High. Fortunately, he was succeeded by Ivan (Sam) Cracknell, an ex-Joeys rower and a very active and involved PE professional who first began to introduce out-of-the-boat training including weight training and, of course, the dreaded rowing machines.  

Sam was later to become Director of Sport and Recreation at the Uni of NSW - but not before he had helped convince two young products of the early post-war period, Graham Pilger and Dick White, to take up coaching. Not that either needed much convincing having been well imbued by that time with the spirit of competition that tended then to set High crews apart. In January 1953, after Des Duffy left to follow a career move, Graham took over the third four and Dick the fourths while Alan Callaway moved up to the first and seconds. In 1956 Frank Nichols retired and Alan took over the eight with Graham and Dick then having responsibility for the firsts and seconds. The final few years of this period saw other Old Boy rowers such as Merv Wood, Doug Donoghue, Alan May, Neil Smith and Ernie Tucker becoming involved in coaching. However, by the time that Alan May achieved success with the seconds in 1963, the original coaches had all departed and only the racing records of those earlier, reputedly golden years remained in mute evidence of such a claim.