..history..

an example of the rower-coxswain relationship
by Charles Reed

One time we went to Eat's after practice in Spring '97, and on the way out to the car, Cliff Cantrell and Gary (David Jimenez) were fighting over who got to ride shotgun.  Since they would be riding in my stylish blue Volvo 240, shotgun was quite an honor.  Given the attitudes involved, it was no surprise they were arguing. So Gary pushes Cliff back from the door and heavyweight Cliff (190lb.) picks up coxswain Gary (buck+change when soaking wet), walks around to the back of the car, and says to me, "Open the trunk." 

So I thought it would be funny to pretend that we would put Gary in the trunk, and I opened it up.Then Cliff put him in the trunk and Gary looked at us like "this is funny, but you don't have the guts."  So Cliff said, "Close it!" and I did, thinking it would be funny to make Gary believe we would leave him in there.  Then Cliff said, "let's go".

At first I hesitated, but I went along with it and we drove off with Gary in the trunk.  While we were driving back, Bobby O'Keefe opened the ski hole between the back seat and the trunk and said, "Gary, you alright?"  Gary threw a flashlight at Bobby, to which Bobby said, "okay, talk to you later" before closing the ski hole back.

We got back to campus, dropped Bobby off at his dorm, and parked in the deck on West Campus.  Now I was getting into the prank, and I suggested that Cliff and I go get a book he wanted to borrow, leaving Gary to wait it out.  After leaving Gary in the parked car for about 15 minutes, Cliff and I decided to come back and open the trunk.

When I raised the trunk, Gary was crouched with the tire iron in his hand.  He chased Cliff a full 2 laps around the parking deck before watching Cliff get away and making his peace with me.  While he had been waiting in the deck, he used my trunk tools and started taking apart the trunk lock, which we then put back together.

Later that night, Gary avenged his incarceration.  He got into Eighth St. Apt.'s and while Cliff was sleeping, he snuck up on him and dumped a trash can full of ice on his bed. A year or so later, Gary's parents surprised him with a car at Christmas.  He got the key and went outside - only to see a blue Volvo 240 in the driveway that looked exactly like mine.  The trunk looked especially familiar to him.