A fitting tribute for rower Mickelson
They were young men in a boat all those decades ago, training in an environment one of them so eloquently described as “a very intense cauldron where we were all boiled day after day in the fires of competition.”
Out of it came the U.S. men’s eight rowing teams that won silver at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and historic gold at the 1974 World Championships in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The bonds they formed would never be broken. They would go on to have successful careers and raise families but reunited annually to row in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston. They held their own for 20 years against the kids, too, but at some point it became less about the competition and more an about an excuse to see each
other and swap stories.
One of them is gravely ill now. Tim Mickelson, 68, a native of Deerfield who rowed at the University of Wisconsin and later helped energize the Milwaukee Rowing Club, was diagnosed in January with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).
Mickelson, whose toughness and capacity for training once left his teammates awestruck, is in hospice in Seattle.
“It’s tragic, and it’s a reminder of the things we take for granted,” said Mike Livingston, one of Mickelson’s teammates in the ’72 boat. “Every breath is a gift, and to see Tim struggling to breathe is heartwrenching. He was such a consummate athlete in his prime and he continued to stay fit and active.
“To be losing your ability to breathe and to move, it’s got to be unimaginably difficult.”
With the 2017 World Rowing Championships scheduled for Sept. 24-Oct. 1 in Sarasota, Fla., Mickelson’s teammates in the ’74 boat have figured out the perfect way to honor him.
They will participate in a commemorative row honoring 19 U.S. gold medal-winning “crews of distinction” on Sept. 30. Todd Mickelson, one of Tim’s three sons and a former competitive rower, will take his father’s bow seat in the boat.
“If we can’t have Tim, we’ll have the next-best thing and have his son, Todd,” said Mike Vespoli, a teammate in ’74. “Tim won’t be there, but I think the event will be live-streamed. He’ll want to see us rowing.”
Also, the shell used by the U.S. men’s eight in the World Championships has been christened the “Tim Mickelson” by the National Rowing Foundation.
“It’s a well-deserved honor,” said Vespoli, a manufacturer of racing shells. “He was a phenomenon in the rowing world.”
In the 1960s, state-sponsored teams from East Germany and the Soviet Union and rowing powers such as New Zealand and Great Britain were routinely hammering the U.S., which was represented by college and club teams.
For the ’72 Olympics, the U.S. finally changed to a team selection process. The 6-foot-3 Mickelson, who had played football one year at Wisconsin before switching to rowing, was among dozens invited to a training camp in Hanover, N.H. He quickly made an impression on the others competing for coveted spots in the eight boat.
“I wouldn’t call myself lazy but when the workout was designated I wanted to do the workout and no more than that,” Vespoli said. “Tim always wanted to push for more. He was never afraid of the work and that was motivating because you didn’t want anyone setting a standard you couldn’t match.”
Mickelson was selected for the eight, along with six rowers from Harvard, one from Princeton and one from Penn.
“Whenever Tim was in the boat, you had this confidence that his oar was always going to be bent,” Vespoli said, referring to maximum effort. “Going into races there was always going to be self-doubt. Can I go that hard, that long? Tim gave us confidence we could do that. He was there, and he was ready.”
After his competitive career ended, Mickelson settled in the Milwaukee area and built an equally impressive résumé in the business world. In his spare time, he was instrumental in turning the Milwaukee Rowing Club into one of the most respected clubs in the Midwest.
“Tim took all of us ham-andeggers under his wing,” said Gary Ahrens, a former club secretary. “He taught us how to train and then he taught us how to row. He gave so generously of his time, and he had an enormous amount of knowledge and contacts.”
Mickelson bounced back from several health setbacks in recent years, but ALS leaves no prospect for a happy ending.
“He’s in very rapid progression,” said his wife, Beth. “Life has taken a huge turn for a man who was on the other end of the scale.”
Mickelson won’t be able to attend the World Championships but he’ll be there, with his old teammates, in spirit.
“It’s crushing in a lot of ways,” Livingston said. “But he has his mental faculty and he can think back to what he did. There are very few people in the world who accomplished what he did. That’s not comforting to his family and friends right now, but it’s something he will take to his grave.
“He is respected by us and loved by us, and he will be missed by us.”