The Wanganui Rowing Club's winning Maiden Eight in 1971.
The Wanganui Rowing Club's winning Maiden Eight in 1971.
As the Paris Olympics approach, the Whanganui and New Zealand rowing fraternity can look back proudly some 52 years to the Munich Olympics, when the Mens Eight rowing crew won gold.
In an era dominated by East Germany, a nation that paid little heed to the amateur requirements of the day, combined with the usage of dubious performance-enhancing substances, this first-ever Kiwi gold-winning rowing eights at the time was a significant triumph.
Whanganui raised rower; Trevor Coker, featured in the two seat of the gold medalling Eight, the crew being the same as the previous year, when they rose to prominence at Copenhagen, winning at the European Championships, a forerunner of the World Rowing Championships.
In 1971, racing in the heats, the Kiwi crew recorded the world’s fastest eight 2000-metre time to that point. It was usurped about 10 minutes later when the East Germans won the second heat.
Wybo Veldman with the Whanganui Rowing Association's Trevor Coker Memorial Oar - currently awarded to Kerri Williams (nee Gowler).
After winning in 1971, the Italian wooden-built shell was brought back to New Zealand and put up for tender by the NZ Rowing Association. The tender by the Aramoho Boating Club was successful and it was a very competitive skiff for many years for the Club before being “honourably retired” and moved to the Cooks Gardens Events Venue where it resides in the eaves of the building.
Born on October 1, 1949, Trevor was the son of Fred and Ella Coker, and the third of their six children. Fred lived in Taranaki as a young man and rowed at the Waitara-based Clifton Rowing Club before moving to Whanganui. He was a member of the Aramoho Boating Club until his death.
Trevor’s early schooling was at Hunterville and Tawhero Primary Schools, before joining Whanganui High School and becoming involved in rowing at the Wanganui Rowing Club, which was flourishing at the time given the affiliation with the school.
His abilities were noted by the national selectors at the time, with Trevor and his good friend, the late John Knofflock, being selected as non-travelling reserves for the NZ Rowing Colts Team in 1970.
By this time, Trevor was studying in Christchurch. But he travelled back to Whanganui for the summer months and was a member of the Wanganui Rowing Club’s winning Maiden Eight, which was stroked by Warwick (Flounder) Floyd, who allegedly suggested to national coach/selector Rusty Robertson, “that it was time the selectors had a close look at his crews’ six-man”.
Whether his audacity had any impact on selection is now part of folklore, but at the senior trials following the NZ Championships, Trevor was selected to be part of the NZ Eight Oared crew.
The following year, Trevor became NZ Olympian 266 when the crew was announced. Also of interest from a Wanganui perspective, was the selection of Richard Tonks from the Union Boat Club as NZ Olympian 319, as the stroke of a Mens Coxless Four which won a Silver Medal on the Munich Rowing Course.
Trevor Coker with the Halberg Trophy.
Training at Kerrs Reach under Coach Rusty Robertson, and in the 7 seat of the eight was Wybo Veldman, who recalled when the stern four of the eight competed against the bow section, which resulted in some great contests.
Now a Ruapehu-based farmer, Wybo remembers Trevor as “a fantastic rower, a softly spoken real gentleman. It was a real tragedy he passed away so young”.
While there may have been some trepidation from some armchair critics that the 1971 Copenhagen crew could have been enhanced in 1972, these concerns were quickly allayed when the crew, with former Waverly resident and Wanganui Collegiate School student, Simon Dickie, as coxswain, took control of the race from the outset in the final.
Winning in a time of 6:08.94, comfortably from the United States and a fast-finishing East German Eight, the crew were emotional at the medal presentation ceremony, no doubt reflecting on the significant personal commitments they had all made as “God Defend New Zealand” was heard at an Olympic event for the first time. (“God Save The Queen” having been previously played at prior ceremonies for Kiwi victors at Olympiads).
Three man of the crew, Athol Earl, recalled the crew was able to celebrate deep into the night at a function of previous Olympic medallists. Their revelries were shattered three nights later when they arrived back at the Olympic Village just as the Black September Terrorists broke into the Israeli athletes’ quarters, close to the Kiwi area. They sobered quickly when they looked out their windows to see the terrorists, wearing socks on their heads and brandishing firearms. The rowers were quickly evacuated to Lengries, some 60km away, but did return later in the second week after the games resumed following the massacre.
Trevor’s international rowing career continued in the NZ Eights Boat in 1974 at Lucerne (Bronze Medal), in 1975 at Nottingham (Bronze), and the Montreal Olympics in 1976 (Bronze Medal).
He had transferred from Wanganui to the Avon Rowing Club in 1971 and quickly became a highly respected member of that club, winning his first Red Coat (NZ Rowing Championship Title) in 1973 with Athol Earl in the Coxed Pair. (Athol was also in the Gold Medal Eight and at 19 years of age, the youngest member of the crew.)
Athol formed a strong friendship with Trevor. “As a rower, he had an amazing strength and control. As a person he was a wonderful human being, he didn’t have a bad bone in his body and with his placid nature he was a natural peacemaker in a sport which can have its fair share of fractious personalities!”
Further NZ Championship successes at the Avon Club were in the Men’s Coxed Four in 1974, 1975 and 1976, and in the Champion Eight in 1976, a notable occasion in Kiwi rowing history when they became the first South Island crew ever to win this title.
In 1971, Trevor married Sue (nee Palamountain), also from Whanganui. Apparently, the wedding was planned for May of that year, which Trevor pointed out to the Convenor of Selectors, Fred Strachan, at the trials in Wanganui, and asked if that would compromise his selection. Fred Strachan, noted for his dry humour, allegedly responded, ”Bring the marriage forward and we will give you a day off when your wife has the baby.” Their son, Matthew, was born a couple of years later.
With no live telecasts in 1972, Olympics followers were obliged to listen to late-night radio broadcasts of the games. Sue Coker had visited Wanganui for the school holidays and was travelling on the ferry to Lyttelton when the Eights race was scheduled. She was escorted to the officers’ mess on the ‘Maori’ to listen to the race on the radio. Along with the officers she was no doubt suitably jubilant when her husband was a member of the triumphant eight.
On returning from the Montreal Olympics, Trevor became unwell with what was eventually diagnosed as a brain tumour. He died on August 23, 1981, at the age of 31.
The New Zealand Rowing Eight secured the Supreme Halberg Sports Award in both 1971 and 1972.
Trevor himself was inducted posthumously into the NZ Hall of Fame in 1990 and patrons at the Whanganui Cooks Gardens complex can see his photograph on the wall as he was recognised in the Whanganui Hall of Fame in 2009.
