Cooperative Living February 2017 - 18

the Boat. But in 1939, Junior set a new
world record in the 1,500-meter kayak
race. He won three national championship
titles and made the 1940 USA team for the
games in Japan. Unfortunately, World War
II shattered his opportunity. While serving
in the Army Air Corps, the USA team
selected him for the 1944 games in
London, but Havens and the Allies were
too busy fighting the Nazis to play games.
Frank Havens also served in the
Army Air Corps, as a waist gunner in a
B-24. " We flew over the eastern seaboard
and Caribbean searching for enemy subs, "
he explains.
GOING FOR DAD'S GOLD
After the war, Junior Havens urged
his 6-foot-2-inch brother, now a University
of Maryland football player, to try out for
the 1948 Olympics. Both brothers
qualified for the rescheduled games in
war-torn London.
" The U.S. Olympic committee told us to
bring canned food, candy and soap for the
Brits, " Frank Havens says. " Nazi bombs
had destroyed much of the city, and the
people were still hungry after six years of
war. The Brits would ask, 'You have any
gum, chum?' "
According to Olympics 30: Greatest
Olympic Stories, the British housed
athletes in military barracks, German
prison camps, college dormitories and
private houses.
" We stayed in Quonset huts, " Havens
recalls. " Nothing like the fancy Olympic
villages they have today! "
Junior Havens finished fifth in the
1,000-meter canoe race. Frank Havens
won the silver medal in the grueling
10,000-meter solo race.
Following the London games, and
determined to win gold for their father, the
brothers followed an intense training
program for a tandem race in the 1952
games in Helsinki, Finland. Fate destroyed
Junior Havens' chance again when he
severed tendons in his hand while helping
a fellow teacher free her car stuck in snow.
Like his Uncle Bud, Frank Havens sailed
to the Olympics without his brother.
While training in Finland, Havens broke
all three paddles he brought from the U.S.
" I went to Doc Whitall, Canada's coach,
and asked if he had any extra paddles, "
Havens explains. " Doc became a friend at
the London Games. He lent me his own
personal paddle even though I would race
his Canadians. Wasn't that something? "
With Whitall's paddle, the 28-year-old
took off in the solo 10,000-meter race,
high kneeling in his canoe.
Havens' telegram home after the race
said, " Dear Dad, thanks for waiting around
for me to get born in 1924. I'm coming
home with the gold medal you should
have won. Your loving son, Frank. "
Havens' 57:41-minute time set a world
record.
" When I won, a teammate carried
me on his shoulders while I waved the
American flag, " Havens recalls. " On
the medal stand, I cried when I heard
the national anthem. I thought of my
father's sacrifice for me, my brother's
disappointments, and a gold medal
for the U.S. "
When Havens came home, he presented
the medal to his father.
A LIFE DISAPPOINTMENT
BECOMES A BLESSING
Steve Goodier of God's Work Ministry
has shared the Havens' story as an example
of a disappointment becoming a blessing.
He says Frank's father " acted on what he
believed was best. Not everybody has the
strength of character to say no to
something he or she truly wants in order
to say yes to something that truly matters.
... No matter how unfair life may seem
right now, we are to stand strong in our
faith and know that God will work things
out for our benefit in ways that we never
thought possible. "
THE POPE, PRINCESS GRACE, BING
CROSBY AND MUHAMMAD ALI
Frank Havens competed with Team
USA in four Olympics. He fondly
remembers Grace Kelly, the Oscarwinning
actress, whose brother, Jack
Kelly Jr., competed in rowing at the
same four Olympics.
" She came onboard our ships before we
sailed to wish us luck, " Havens recalls
with a smile. When she became Princess
Grace after marrying Prince Rainier of
Monaco in 1956, Havens says she, her
husband and singer Bing Crosby met them
at the 1960 games in Rome. " She cheered
for her brother and each of us on the
water. She was a beautiful, gracious lady. "
Havens also remembers Cassius Clay,
who won a boxing gold medal in 1960
before changing his name to Muhammad
Ali. The boxers roomed next to the
canoeists in the Olympic Village. " Clay
had a motor mouth even then, " Havens
says, laughing.
Historical photo of the Washington Canoe Club at regatta time.
16 | Cooperative Living | February 2017
Present-day Washington Canoe Club.
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Cooperative Living February 2017

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